Anyone using / used an Olympus Sp-350 and willing to share their experiences?

My SLR has finally died and I'm looking to replace it with something digital and a little smaller. At first sight this looks like a reasonable option.

Hi

I looked at this last week, it has a number of cool features.

I liked the hot shoe, rare on a digicam, and general "feel" was good. I liked having a viewfinder and beng able to take disposable batteries as well as rechargeables - good for camping & expeditions.

In the end I decided I'd never take it down a cave because I'd break it and then I'd cry

In the end I bought an Acer 6 mega pixel for £120 from Comet. Cheap enough that I will take it underground. You can turn off pre-flash and fire slaves etc...

If I was in that budget though, it would probably be my choice...

Blimey, now the price has come down I see on my shortcut..

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/158851/art/olympus/sp-350.html?srcid=198&mctag=uk_96562

http://www.c**tplaces.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4308&highlight=
An ongoing discussion on this very topic...

Brains said:

http://www.c**tplaces.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4308&highlight=
An ongoing discussion on this very topic...

Click to expand...

Personally I don't inhabit the same photographic universe as people who reckon 450 quid for a lens is "not too expensive" for underground work. Taking over a grands worth of camera and lens underground would scare hell out of me. I managed to totally jam the lens on my old Olympus with just the dry mud floating around in a tackle bag.

just an quick observation - in my job i deal with camera repairs and more olympus come in than anything else - not that a sp350 has come in yet........

traff said:

just an quick observation - in my job i deal with camera repairs and more olympus come in than anything else - not that a sp350 has come in yet........

Click to expand...

So you're presumably also aware that the name on the case has very little to do with who actually made the guts of a modern digital camera. Presumably there's a web site somewhere that tells you who actually made what. Anyone know a url?