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Olympus Stylus 800- Easy Camera Review
by Richard Baguley
If you live in a balmy environment or get caught in the rain on a regular basis, the Olympus Stylus 800 may be the camera for you: this 8-megapixel digital camera is weatherproofed, so you can keep shooting in the rain and snow without worrying about damaging the camera. And this $300 camera has other attractive features, too, including a 3x optical zoom lens and Bright Capture technology to boost image brightness on its 2.5-inch LCD screen.
The Stylus 800 looks rather like a bar of soap, but without the bubbles and floral fragrance. Unfortunately, it handles a bit like one, too; this small camera won’t fit comfortably into the hands of those with bigger hands. It feels unbalanced with the weight being concentrated towards the back of the camera, making one-handed use a little awkward. The controls on the back of the camera are small; again, those with bigger fingers are going to have difficulty finding the right button to press. The zoom control on the back of the camera is well placed, though, and the mode dial is right below this.
Four buttons on the left side of the back of the camera provide access to the playback mode, the built-in help guide for the camera, the display settings and the self-timer mode. Other controls are accessed through the on-screen menus, which are overly complex and poorly laid out. The small controls don’t help here, either; navigating through the menus is a frustrating exercise in struggling to hit the button and trying to work out where the option you are looking for is. The on-screen help guide does provide some assistance: it shows how to use some of the basic controls. But it’s no substitute for a better menu design.
The images taken by the Olympus Stylus 800 were lackluster; we saw inaccurate colors and a lack of detail. Colors in our test shots were very inaccurate: yellows were exaggerated, while the blues were overly cold. Basically, the camera did a poor job with colors; the exaggerated yellow would make Aunt Flossie’s teeth look even worse than they already do, for instance. One upside is that we didn’t see much evidence of noise; even at the maximum ISO setting of 400 or with longer shutter speed times, the images had very little noise in them. Olympus seems to have nailed the noise problem, but at the price of detail in the image.
19 scene modes provide a good selection of shooting options. One unusual feature is the presence of both an aperture and shutter priority mode, although there is no full manual mode. This lets you begin with the automated modes and develop your photography skills until you’re ready for the priority modes.
The Stylus 800 could shoot several images at the impressive speed of around 4 frames per second, albeit at the cost of a reduced resolution to 3 megapixels. The maximum speed at the full 8-megapixel resolution is a more pedestrian 1.3 frames per second. Movies can be recorded at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, but only at 15 frames per second. It may be adequate for short clips, but you’ll want a camcorder for shooting a football game.
The Olympus Stylus 800 is an interesting camera: the weatherproofing makes it ideal for outdoor activities like camping, and the strong feature set is attractive to just about everyone. And while the colors are a little off, it’s adequate for snapshots.
| Olympus Stylus 800- THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating: 310.53 |
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| Likes |
| - Aperture and shutter priority control - Nice LCD screen - Reasonable control of noise (in auto ISO) - Fast burst mode - Panorama shooting - Splash-proof design - Bright, large LCD screen - Expandable controls |
| Dislikes |
| - Menus - Images were a bit soft - Exposure values set by the camera were off slightly when in less favorable lighting - Forced tradeoff for most impressive features (full burst and increased sensitivity) - Weight and unbalanced feel - Unattractive look - Auto focus isn’t responsive at times - Short battery life |
Olympus Stylus 800 Compared to the...
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Fujifilm FinePix F10 |
Canon PowerShot S550
Rating:N/A |
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1
Rating:308.02 |
Sony Cyber-shot P200 Rating:N/A |
Nikon Coolpix |
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| Better | Better | Better | Better | Better |
|
-Resolution/
Sharpness Score
-Start to first shot times
-Strong performance for Manual ISO setting
-Lower Price range
-Higher frame rate options in movie mode
-Slightly thinner camera body
-AF options
-Manual White Balance
-Shutter to shot time is expedited
-800 and 1600 ISO settings are not compromised image res.
|
-Better movie mode settings and options
-Tone and body shape are more innovative -Larger Shutter Speed Range
-3 Metering mode options -Manual White Balance setting -My Colors mode for in-camera digital effect settings |
-Interesting 16:9 native format
-4x optical zoom lens -Image Stabilization -Pop-up flash produced non-red eye images -Shutter to shot speed was faster -External design has a nostalgic Leica-esque sense -Color accuracy results
-Slightly thinner body -Movie Mode settings -Manual Focus option -3 metering mode options -Manual White Balance -Larger Shutter Speed range -32 MB memory card |
-Smaller camera body
-5 Step manual focus -Multiple AF setting options -Multiple colors (lackluster design however) -Movie Modes (with memory upgrades) -Larger overall Aperture range -Lower Price Range |
-Faster to Shutter to Shot
-Movie mode settings and frame rate options -Better (although marginal) color score -Face Priority AF mode option -Four metering options -Manual White Balance setting -Clean matte black body design and style
-Lower Price Level |
| Equal | Equal | Equal | Equal | Equal |
| -No Manual Focus -EV Compensation scale and settings -No optical viewfinder -3x Optical Zoom -Poor in-camera flash setup -2.5 inch LCD -Functional although not appealing camera design - Audio Recording |
-Audio recording abilties
-EV Compensation Scale and Setting options -2.5 inch LCD screen -3x optical zoom lens -Direct Print Options |
-EV Comp. scale and settings -Audio Recording options -No pptical viewfinder -Aperture range options -Direct Printing abilities -2.5 inch LCD screen |
-3x optical |
-Comparable body size, though with more protrusions -No manual focus options -EV Compensation scale and settings -Shutter speed range -Aperture range -3x optical zoom lens |
| Worse | Worse | Worse | Worse | Worse |
|
-Suffering Auto ISO mode
-6.33 MP CCD (performs with better success though) -Lower resolution LCD means less clarity for images -Smaller overall aperture range -Limited preset options -Smaller ISO range (performs better in manual however) -No manual settings for Shutter Speed -Slower burst modes settings -No Manual Aperture Option -Smaller Memory storage |
-Smaller ISO range in manual mode -115K resolution on LCD -15 preset shooting modes -Small pointless and inaccurate optical viewfinder -7.1 MP CCD |
-Struggled massively with both manual and auto ISO noise levels
-Start to first shot time -Slower max speed for burst mode -Lower Resolution/ Sharpness score
-Slightly lower resolution on LCD -Fewer preset shooting modes -Smaller ISO range -Higher Price Range |
-2.0 inch, 134 K pixel LCD -7.2 MP CCD -Smaller manual ISO range -Fewer preset shooting mode options -Proprietary memory card only -Pointless optical viewfinder is inaccurate |
-Inaccurate |