Agreed, Vaughn. In the owner's manual, "manual" focus can be 'forced.' Also agree I may never try it.
Bill, there are
three sites I looked at. The problem for me was to know what to look for and then what the manufacturer called what I was looking for. No conformity here, either between brands or with common sense. (mini rant.)
Ultimately, I put "digital camera with manual focus control" in Mr.Google. This feature was the most difficult to find. Several showed up, so I compared them. I started with the least expensive, and then went looking for reviews of it.
dpreview and
cnet review were my go-to's. But not every camera gets reviewed by either of them. dpreview even had this camera listed as discontinued. It was - for them!
Sellers also offer reviews. This camera was offered by
Amazon through JR Cameras out of New York. It was there (JR) I found a big list of reviews. More importantly - to me - was the reviewer was rated amateur to professional. Too many reviews start off with, "Gee, I just got this yesterday and..."
In this review I learned that what amateurs disliked and what the pro's disliked were quite different except for one thing - recovery time between pictures. The more the camera had to do (automatic stuff) to get ready for the next picture, the batteries, and the CCD dictated that. It has a burst function, so that really renders that immaterial for me. The old Olympus was real slow, 5 seconds or more.
The other things the amateurs disliked fell into two groups - stuff the camera could do if only they had read the owner's manual (one pro pointed that out) and the amount of plastic in it's construction. Well, but they also said the camera was a good value for the money!
So then I downloaded the manual and went through it for language I could actually understand and looked at the layout. For this camera I found the index really, really, helpful. I felt that if I had a problem this manual could actually help me out! They Olympus manual needed a translator, not into English, but into common sense.
Then finally, when was this camera born and were accessories still available? This one uses AA batteries, so that wouldn't become an issue. An AC adapter with its required DC thingy was the other accessory and it was still available and a requirement for me.
This camera then became the benchmark for the others. The same process for each of 4 others revealed what compromises I needed to decide on. Did I really "need" this function? What about this camera made the price so much more? What features did they all have in common and which were different.
Would proprietary batteries, even if they were better, become unavailable or so expensive that I would be required to buy a new camera before I wanted to. This is a throw-away society we live in. I hate planned obsolescence!
The battery issue was not on my original list but the Olympus used them. I have a couple of chargers and spares.
After I made the decision I ran it by my two friends. They agreed is was good bang for the buck, but what has replaced this model. Back to Mr.Google. This turned out to be more automatic features and almost no manual control. Deal breaker for me. I'll take the older one.
So now you know more than you wanted to about how I came to this decision.
I do have two pro's who helped me with my list of features.
So make a list of the features you want and use Mr. Google to help winnow the choices down. Good luck. Takes time and persistence.