Olympus Stylus 1000 Easy Camera Review

The current top of the line digital camera in the Stylus series, the Olympus Stylus 1000 boasts an impressive 10-megapixel image sensor, a 3x zoom lens and an unusually wide ISO range of 64 to 6400. The impressive specs don’t necessarily match the image quality of the resulting photos though. The Stylus 1000, which sells for about $315 online, has some positive aspects but some major limitations too.

The expansive ISO range of the Stylus 1000 is just one of many unusual characteristics; it also sports a curious wedge-like design where the right side of the camera (looking from the back) is much deeper than the left. Although the lens on the right side balances it out somewhat, the right side of the camera is much heavier than the left. While this is comfortable when held in the hand, it’s a pain to use on a tripod. The tripod socket is placed on the left side which is lighter and this causes the camera to tip when on a tripod. It will be difficult to level and balance properly. 

The controls are well placed: the zoom is under the thumb and the shutter is under the index finger. Like most cameras, you need two hands to use the numerous controls on the back of the Olympus Stylus 1000, including the mode dial just below the zoom control. The on-screen menus are rather poorly designed, with the options randomly placed in the menu. The 2.5-inch LCD screen has 230k pixels, and its images look clean and sharp. The monitor has Olympus’ Bright Capture technology, which brightens the LCD screen to give a better indication of what the image will look like. It works surprisingly well.

The Stylus 1000’s images are disappointing, though, with inaccurate colors and obvious noise in many of them. Although the colors were loosely related to the originals, they didn’t bear a close resemblance, with blues and greens differing drastically from the original subject. We also noticed some noise problems. With longer shutter speeds and at ISO settings above 200, noise became a severe problem. This digital camera has an incredibly expansive ISO range, but its upper offerings are either riddled with noise or only available with greatly reduced resolution.

20 shooting modes are on offer, with the usual suspects (portrait, fireworks, etc) and a few more unusual ones. The Portrait & Landscape mode is interesting. It attempts to combine the two modes so you can shoot a portrait against a craggy landscape, for instance. There are also two modes called Shoot & Select, which take a sequence of pictures and then allows you to select the ones you want to retain without entering the playback mode. The Olympus 1000’s burst mode, while promising, is disappointingly slow. At lower resolution, it managed 3.6 frames a second but shooting in full resolution slowed the pace considerably.

Olympus also touts the digital image stabilization feature, which boosts the shutter speed and ISO setting. Although it does succeed in freezing action without the flash, it leads to increased noise and is nowhere near as effective as the optical stabilization that other similarly priced models offer.

Once you’ve shot your image, the Olympus Stylus 1000 offers several features for tweaking them, including resizing and rotating. The playback mode is also equipped with a Perfect Fix function that brightens shadows, removes red eye and tries to deal with blur. It won’t replace Photoshop, but it is a nice feature to have on board.

The movie mode of the Stylus 1000 captures QuickTime movies at up to 640 by 480 pixel resolution, with mono sound. You can set the white balance for the movie mode, but there’s no access to the optical zoom and the camera doesn’t refocus while recording.

The Stylus 1000 has some nice features, such as the 10-megapixel image sensor, that will attract many consumers. But there are a significant number of caveats that make it less attractive such as the disappointing image quality and the various limitations on the resolution (many scene modes, ISO settings, and burst modes limit the resolution to 3 or 5 megapixels). It’s an interesting overall package, but these caveats are too much of a drawback to make it a true contender.

Olympus Stylus 1000 - THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating: 326.83

Likes

- Sharp and clear LCD screen with Bright Capture Technology - All-weather case for shooting in the rain - On-screen help function explains complex features

Dislikes

- Not all modes shoot at the full 10 megapixels - Inaccurate colors - Lengthy processing time - Confusing on-screen menus

Olympus Stylus 800 Rating: 310.27	Canon PowerShot SD900 Rating: N/A	Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 Rating: 323.30	HP Photosmart R927 Rating: 330.94	Pentax Optio W10 Rating: 302.94
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
- Lower cost: available for under $300	- Face detection technology - Optical viewfinder - Images are taken at full resolution in all modes - slightly longer zoom (110mm, longer than the 105mm of the Stylus 1000) - Captures 1024 x 768 movies at 15 fps	- 2.8-inch LCD screen - Wider selection of scene modes - More organized menus	- Cheaper; available for $210 - 3-inch LCD screen	- Can be used underwater - Smaller and lighter - Cheaper; available for under $300 - Wide angle setting less broad
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
- Includes the same Bright Capture 2.5-inch LCD screen - 3x optical zoom - Similar wedge-like design - Fastest burst mode limits resolution - 32MB internal memory	- 10 megapixels - 3x optical zoom lens - 2.5-inch LCD screen with 230k pixels	- 10 megapixels - 3x optical zoom lens	- 3x optical zoom lens - Similar flash range - 32MB internal memory	- 3x optical zoom lens - 2.5-inch LCD screen - Sturdy housings
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
- 8.2 megapixels - No image stabilization - Lacks Perfect Fix image correction - Maximum ISO setting of 1600	- Maximum ISO setting of 3200 (in special shooting mode) - Smaller wide angle (37mm against 35mm for the Stylus 1000) - No image stabilization	- Movie mode shoots at 25 fps, not 30. - Maximum ISO setting of 400 - Shorter flash range	- 8.2 megapixels - Maximum ISO setting of 400 - Movie mode records at 24 fps - Maximum ISO setting of 400	- 6 megapixels - Maximum ISO setting of 400, 800 in candle mode - Shorter flash range - LCD screen is very low resolution