Olympus's 8MP FE-series budget compact of 2008 — 5x 36-180mm zoom, 2.7in LCD, xD card, also X-845/C-550
The Olympus FE-330 was a budget compact announced in 2008 as part of Olympus's entry-level FE series, which emphasised simple automated shooting. The same camera was sold in other regions as the X-845 and C-550, and its 5x zoom gave it more reach than most cameras in its price class at the time.
It combines an 8-megapixel CCD with a 5x optical zoom covering a 36-180mm equivalent range at f/3.5-5.6, plus 4x digital zoom. Composition is on a 2.7-inch LCD with no optical finder, shutter speeds run from 4 seconds to 1/2000, storage is xD-Picture Card and power comes from a rechargeable LI-42B lithium-ion battery in a body weighing roughly 122g without battery and card.
The FE-330 suits buyers after an inexpensive, pocketable late-2000s CCD compact with a usefully long zoom for travel and everyday snaps. Controls are deliberately minimal, so there is little scope for manual intervention — it is a point-and-shoot in the strictest sense, with scene modes doing the heavy lifting.
On the used market the LI-42B battery is easy to replace with third-party cells, but xD-Picture Cards are discontinued and add cost if not included. Test that the telescoping 5x lens extends and retracts without grinding or error messages, and check the large LCD, the camera's only viewfinder, for scratches and dead pixels.