
The C-60 Zoom, Olympus' first 6 megapixel camera, is a case study in digicam obsolescence. The C-60 Zoom or C-60Z (known as the X-3 in Japan) was introduced March 18, 2004. Though it contains 6 megapixels, one reviewer characterized the images it produces as "noisy:"
Overall image quality was good, but not great. My main beef with the C-60's photos is noise. There's too much of it, and frankly I'm not surprised -- the more pixels you stuff into a tiny sensor, the worse the noise is going to be. Noise doesn't just add "grain" to your images, it eats away at details too. The C-60Z's photos have what call a "video capture look", a kind of fuzziness. (from DCRP Review: Olympus C-60 Zoom; see the review for image samples)
This is a perfect illustration of Bob Atkins' point that
sensor size limits pixel count.
Further, the camera's value has dropped over 50 percent in just 19 months.
At its introduction, the C-60 Zoom cost $449. Now it is being sold for
as little as $215.

Why? Probably because, since the introduction of the C-60 19 months ago, Olympus has introduced no fewer than
19 similar models (to see this first hand, visit
Olympus Digital Cameras at
dpreview.com). This is not even counting the four noncompact digital cameras Olympus introduced during the same period. This underscores
the alarming rate at which digicams depreciate, as described elsewhere in this weblog by
Dante Stella,
Ken Rockwell, and
KB Camera. In contrast, the latest Olympus Stylus Epic compact film camera is still basically the same model Olympus introduced in 1996.
Currently selling for $90, the Stylus Epic captures about
10 megapixels of information per 35mm film frame.