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Olympus VG-130 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £80
inc VAT

Looks great for the price on paper, but automatic exposures leave a lot to be desired

Specifications

1/2.3in 14.0-megapixel sensor, 5.0x zoom (26-130mm equivalent), 125g

http://www.amazon.co.uk

We hate stickers on cameras that advertise their features – if you’ve already bought it, you don’t need to see an advert for it. Even worse are stickers that leave a residue to spoil your nice new purchase. Sadly, this tainted an otherwise positive first impression of the VG-130, with its slim metal body, 3in screen, 5x zoom lens, 720p video mode and £80 price.

Olympus VG-130

Operation is straightforward, with key settings appearing as a strip of icons down the right of the screen that are quick to access using the navigation pad. There’s a dedicated record button for the video mode, but while the 720p resolution is great at this price, there’s little else that’s positive about the VG-130’s videos. There was quite a bit of noise in both its picture and soundtrack, the zoom and autofocus were fixed for the duration of clips and the microphone sounded tinny.

Olympus VG-130 back

When there’s limited light in a scene, cameras’ automatic modes must strike a balance between blur and noise. A faster shutter speed minimises the chance of blur, but the camera then needs a fast ISO speed to boost the brightness of the image, which also boosts noise. Sadly, the VG-130 did a terrible job of this balancing act, resorting to shutter speeds as slow as half a second before it raised the ISO speed beyond 125. The result was blurry results in nearly all of our indoor shots without the flash. We’d normally moan about this camera’s insistence on reactivating the flash each time it’s powered up, but in this case it’s unwise to suppress the flash.

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Basic Specifications

Rating **
CCD effective megapixels 14.0 megapixels
CCD size 1/2.3in
Viewfinder none
Viewfinder magnification, coverage N/A
LCD screen size 3.0in
LCD screen resolution 230,400 pixels
Articulated screen No
Live view Yes
Optical zoom 5.0x
Zoom 35mm equivalent 26-130mm
Image stabilisation none
Maximum image resolution 4,288×3,216
Maximum movie resolution 1280×720
Movie frame rate at max quality 30fps
File formats JPEG; AVI (M-JPEG)

Physical

Memory slot SDHC
Mermory supplied 49MB internal
Battery type Li-ion
Battery Life (tested) 160 shots
Connectivity USB, AV
HDMI output resolution N/A
Body material aluminium
Lens mount N/A
Focal length multiplier N/A
Kit lens model name N/A
Accessories USB and AV cables
Weight 125g
Size 57x96x20mm

Buying Information

Warranty one-year RTB
Price £80
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.olympus.co.uk

Camera Controls

Exposure modes auto
Shutter speed auto
Aperture range f/2.8 (wide), f/6.5 (tele)
ISO range (at full resolution) 80 to 1600
Exposure compensation +/-2 EV
White balance auto, 4 presets
Additional image controls none
Manual focus No
Closest macro focus 7cm
Auto-focus modes multi/face detect, spot, tracking
Metering modes multi, face detect
Flash auto, forced, suppressed, red-eye reduction
Drive modes single, continuous, self-timer