Olympus VR-320 Pro Reviews

We can't shake the impression that the VR-320 is a modest camera at a modest price, and, apart from the fact that it's cheap and offers a decent focal range to boot (in theory, if not always in practice when it comes to some distinctly shaky imagery at the telephoto end), there is little beyond that to get overly excited about. Value for money is only just that if the actual goods live up to their promise, but we got distinctly soft shots shooting at the extremities of the VR-320's optical zoom range in broad daylight. Yes, we were mostly shooting handheld, but still, which member of the VR-320's beginners market is going to be carrying a tripod around with them for added, blur-reducing support? Blown highlights and visible pixel fringing compound the problem - not always, but a significant proportion of the time.

We weren’t expecting a great deal from a camera priced at just over the £100 mark, and we were right to have modest expectations. Yes, Olympus might have been generous in providing a 12.5x wide angle optical zoom and metal-bodied model for this price, but when results are distinctly average and not a great deal better than those to be had from a modern smartphone, the initial good impression is rather undermined. If you’re not too fussy about the odd duff image and want a cheap camera that goes further than average, in terms of focal range, then you might find the VR-320 adequate, but unfortunately ‘adequate’ is about all the praise we can muster on this occasion.