i can honestly say, Olympus cameras are great. i own the C-700 Ultra Zoom. It has 10x optical and 2.7x digital zoom. it makes movies with sound. has USB cable and an A/V cable too! i have a 128 meg Smartmedia card. roughly in standard quality mode(640x480) it will hold over 1000 pictures using the 128 meg card. it can hold about 250 pics in Super High Quality mode of 1600x1200. it has and LCD viewfinder AND a 1.5" LCD screen so you can review your pics and movies. all i can tell you it is awesome. here are some of the specs:
C700
82GT, when shopping for a digital camera, the first thing you look for is zoom. there is digital and optical. ALWAYS look for the higher number in OPTICAL! Digital means crap! you can have a 4x digital and still wont be as good as a 4x Optical.
See what kind of memory it takes. Smartmedia, Compact Flash and Memory Sticks(Sony is the one that only uses them that i am aware of). Smartmedia gets pricey and Compact seems a little cheaper.
See what megapixels it is rated at and how they rate it. go here
Counting Megapixels . Finally, take time to use the camera in the store or buy it and if your not satisfied with it in so many days, try another one(some stores do this). i did alot of research before i bought my camera. Dollar for dollar to this day, i cant find nothing that beats the C700 in its price range of $500 retail.
good luck!