Camera Oasis

Olympus is selling its camera business to a Japan investment company. The Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm lens may be a reason why. The lens came with a second-hand Olympus E-PL1 camera, as its standard kit lens. It’s a very sharp, fast-focusing lens. Until you zoom out to 25mm. Then, the lens refuses to focus. At all. It took less than 60 seconds to find multiple threads on DPReview.com that confirmed how widespread this issue has become. Judging from a few posts describing owners’ conversations with Olympus technical support, the company knows about the problem. And hasn’t acknowledgeD the lens’ circuitry issue. The troubled lens is easy to replace. But that’s not the point.  I treasured several Olympus film cameras, and owned a Tough series compact digital. But a company needs to stand behind its products. Or lose its customers. Sigma — a lens manufacturer of fine pedigree — updated the firmware in one of my lenses when it no longer functioned with a new camera body. At no charge. Which len

Point-and-shoot digital cameras -- even good ones -- have become semi-relics in the iPhone era . But compact digital cameras aren't pricey paperweights. They can do the job. And on the used market, good P/S cameras can be had for $5-$25 dollars.  Really.  After a downpour.    A local thrift store last week sold me a tiny  Fujifilm Finepix Z90 camera for $3.99. That's no misprint. A 12-megapixel, 5X zoom camera smaller than any smartphone. Under $5.  It's no Leica , of course. In default "SR auto mode," the camera chooses high ISO settings for daylight photos. (Tip: use Program mode, set ISO yourself.) But with a wide-angle to zoom 28-140mm lens (in 35mm terms) and HD video, a nine-year-old camera that outperforms most phones is a fair deal. You can skip eBay, and still land great deals. You get a couple of extra benefits: In this case, the camera came with a case, SD card, and battery. This isn't always so with thrift-store cameras. You need to check the came