I too, paid full blown retail at BB. I knew the price would drop soon, but I wanted the camera at the time. No regrets.
This camera is actually a darker shade of (cobalt)blue than the photo shows. IMHO it is a much nicer shade. I get a lot of comments on it's good looks.
BTW, this camera DOES take SD memory, the Micro kind. I returned the weird Olympus memory once I found out the camera takes a MicroSD chip. I bought a 2GIG for 15 dollars. The nice thing about the MicroSD is that you do not need to tote your camera to an internet cafe to DL pictures when you are on vacation.
Just slap the chip (with the supplied adapter)into a Kingston Data Traveler Reader (20 dollars, and it is a stand alone 2GIG thumb as well!). No need for anysoftware. Just use Windows. Microsoft has a cool free (and small)utility called Power Toys Image Resizer that installs on any PC with XP. Just right click on any image (or hold shift key and click for a series) and "Bob's Your Uncle", all your pix are resized to email to friends or blogs.
I love the camera and the extra optical zoom available. The Super Macro mode is incredible for a compact camera. Extremely close and sharp images that can be made even much closer digitally on a computer. You can zoom in a shot after it is taken on the camera to see just how well the image holds up. Amazing. Note:Beware of camera shake for macro work. The image stabilizer does not help much here.
The camera is advertised a "splash proof". This may be so for the controls, but the battery compartment has no rubber seals. Still, it was a consideration for me purchasing this camera. I vacation in Thailand where it can be wet at times. Olympus does makes a water proof/shock proof (resistant, really) camera for much more money with out all the 840's features.
The controls are intuitive for anyone in the digital age. I have not even cracked the manual open yet. I expect to read it sometime to explore all the features. But so far I have been able to access so much just on my own with the easy to navigate menu. I have not yet bothered to load the software on my PC yet. So far all my needs are being met by Windows. I'll get around to it eventually. The point I am trying to make is that you can pretty much charge the battery, take some pictures, DL them to your PC,and email them with out having to read the manual or mess with Olympus software. I like that. The camera syncs right up with windows using the supplied USB cord.
The Olympus charger takes 5 hours which is dismal. But not to worry,do a search here on Amazon and you can find DIRT cheap spare batteries and 1 hour quick chargers (even with a cigarette lighter adapter).
EDIT: They lied. The charger takes the same amount of time, but it is more compact, so not a total loss. Spare battery seems fine.
I highly recommend the type of soft case I bought. A Lowepro Rezo 20 soft case with a pocket for spare battery. It has a snap and Velcro belt loop that can be attached to any back pack strap or fanny pack as well as your belt. Very handy and inexpensive. Make sure you get the newer, improved model with the extra security of a snap as well as Velcro on the belt loop.
For the money I believe you may find a better camera image wise, but only if you intend to make huge prints. And the other cameras don't come in cool blue either! Nor do they have the combination of the Super Macro mode, 5X optical zoom, and splash resistance.
Coming out right about now, is Olympus's other Stylus cameras with 7X optical zoom. More money, slightly bigger and heavier. But worth a look.
Even though I paid about 30 dollars too much I am very happy with this camera and expect to be for some time.
This is my first review on Amazon. i hope you found it helpful.
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I use this camera at sea (caribbean). Yesterday it survived four hours in very rough water when hurricane was a few hundred miles north, through crashing waves and the like while I mostly tread water and watched to keep from being carried out to sea. However, there are three things which are troublesome. First, when you click to take the picture, there's a delay in its taking the picture so if you want to get something that's gone quickly, you can't judge things too well. Secondly, the digital display is hard to aim with a moving target, and it can't be seen in heavy sunlight. Third, movies seem to be limited to about ten seconds, and there is popping noise in the video at somewhat regular intervals.
