It was first announced on the opening day of the 2004 Photo Marketing Association Annual Convention and Trade Show.

At the time, the C-8080 was set to be Olympus’ first eight-megapixel digital camera for the high-end consumer market.

Most compact "zoom" cameras of the era were marketed for telephoto photography, providing high magnification of a distant subject.

The lens of this camera includes a wide angle range suitable for group or landscape photography.

The camera accepts xD-Picture Cards (necessary for panorama shooting), CompactFlash type I and II and IBM microdrives with two slots.