This Olympus VR-310 came out in 2011. I was attracted to its 10x Wide zoom (24-240 mm 35 mm equivalent), the fact it came with a battery and a 4 G SD card and the HD movie mode. On the other hand the front lens cover was not closed when I bought it.
Looking into the camera on internet review sites it was mentioned by 2011 the only way to sell a point-and-shoot digital camera—because the rise of camera phones was making small point-and-shoot cameras redundant—was to have at least a 10x zoom. The Olympus VR-310 model was one of several identical 14 M sensor cameras that differed only in the range of the zoom (the other models had even greater zoom ranges). All models had spiffy software features. I will return to this in a moment.
This camera was supposedly developed to cost less than 100 pounds (it was a British review site). It didn’t come with a separate charger. Instead it used an included USB cable to tap into your computer’s power supply.
Above is a comparison between the 24 mm wide view and the 240 mm + digital enlargement
The twin shutters that weren’t closing when the camera lens retracted straightened out with a little gentle prying of the surrounding bezel. There are marks on the lens from the shutters being punched into the surface while the camera was shut down. Other signs of passive abuse might be implied by scratches on the back screen and partially missing lettering. There were 560 images on the SD-card, dating back to when the camera was purchased.
I decided to try to wear the freshly charged battery down by shooting a pile of images quickly, and then placing the camera on slideshow playback. The camera has special “Magic” effects. Since I was just trying to get shots quickly I tried all seven.
Above is the straight view of the following Magic versions.
Then here are the Magic shots—
Pop Art
Pinhole
Fisheye
Drawing (Line Art)
Soft Focus
Punk
Sparkle
Just a note, all the Magic series had the flash firing.
Here is another example of the flash in use. The “Tree of Life” (by the St. Albert artist Victoria Armstrong—www.victoriaarmstrong.com) is less than 4 inches square (on the front of a birthday card) yet there is no sign the camera’s flash fired! To say I am dumbfounded by the results is an understatement!
I was very pleased with the effortless capturing of pretty well anything I shot. There are the normal rumblings about noise when the ISO gets high, poor night shots, etc. You have to take these standard grumblings for what they are. Technology improvements, price point and operator skill influence results a lot.
I accidentally left the camera’s battery charging overnight and when I put the battery in the camera and tried to turn the camera on I had a real battle with getting the brute to fire up. Every time the camera has its battery removed, you have to reset the date/time/location settings. I was used to that, but the lens’s erection tubes seem confused about their position. Multiple starts and stops with some gentle tugging and pushing on the tubes got everything working again. The lens covers had also started to not fully close again. Again I pulled the bezel out slightly and got the lens covers working, as are the erection tubes. For how long is anyone’s guess, but generally using the camera regularly is way better than simply leaving it to run down and die.
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