Olympus Stylus 1030SW 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Wide Angle Zoom (Black) by Olympus
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Digital camera reviews of Olympus Stylus 1030SW 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Wide Angle Zoom (Black)
Digital camera Review: It comes with a MicroSD adapter
Summary: 4 Stars
I just got my camera today and have only used the 7.1 version. From that experience I didn't want to repeat what everyone else has already said, I just wanted to share my story so far.
The back story:
I purchased the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS5. It was a nice little point and shoot camera, but after carrying it around in my pocket one day, lint got behind the lens. Having had a couple point and shoot cameras in my time, I didn't even realize this was possible, it's never happened before. I've only had it a few months and short of completely disassembling the camera, there's nothing I can do about it. The pictures are so bad now it's not worth taking any. Frustrating!
Flash forward to a couple weeks ago:
I took the kids to an indoor water park and didn't even bother bringing the lint damaged camera. After a couple hours of fun, I noticed the park had digital waterproof cameras for rent so I tried it. It was the Olympus 7.1 megapixel camera. It was great, I could take it down the slides, take underwater shots of the kids in the pool and carry it around without having to worry about anything. The shots were good, not outstanding, but good considering what I was putting it though.
So that got me to thinking, I didn't really need a waterproof camera, but if I had one, I wouldn't have to worry about LINT!
So as to not get burned again, I went out and did a little looking around. There really wasn't much else out there. So I got this 10 megapixel version in hopes of a slightly better picture, after all, 7.1 was good, 10 must be great! Right? Anyway, when I went to order, this is when I got schooled on memory cards. From what I found, Olympus and Fuji only use XD cards, which are slower and more expensive. Not to mention, the biggest card I could find was 2 gigs. I'm sure that will be fine for the most part...and if not, I could get another... but I already had gigs of SD and MicroSD cards, so I wasn't real happy I couldn't use those.
So my camera shows up today, I open the box and right on top is an Olympus XD adapter for MicoSD cards! Fantastic. I didn't recall seeing anything about an adapter anywhere I read, so I just wanted to pass this along.
Digital camera Review: Keeps leaking, sending back for the 3rd time
Summary: 2 Stars
Decent little camera, if it only worked as advertised. I really liked the idea of having a smaller outdoor based camera that could take a little pounding and still function. Especially was high on it being waterproof and being able to take pictures in the pool. Heck, their advertisement shows 2 people cliff jumping with the camera into the water.
Due to it's waterproof requirements, I expected it to be limited in image quality and features (compared to non WP counterparts)...but it still takes decent shots for a point and shoot. I didn't have too high of expectations other then the basics and it's SW features.
Definitely not a good camera for taking pictures in non-optimal lighting scenarios. Tried to take pictures of my son playing Mighty Mites soccer inside a gym...and unless they are close enough for a fill flash or standing still, you aren't going to get much. Inside it's not all that great either, but when there is enough natural light...pictures are much better. Definitely harder to see the LCD in bright light, but not surprised. Battery life is much shorter then expected, but I also kind of knew that going in.
Problems started when I took it into the water for the first time, which was where I was the most excited about using;-(. I ended up taking it into a swimming pool (shallow end, never more then a foot or 2 under water). At first, it was too good to be true. Was working like a charm and enabled me to be pretty creative. Then after a couple of minutes, the LCD screen started changing to almost like looking at a Black and White negative, where I could barely make out shapes. Then it soon turned all while and I couldn't see anything. I would check it about every couple of hours, and it took roughly 1.5 days for the camera to "dry out" and for the LCD to return to normal.
Called their support line, tech says to send it in (on my dime) to get it repaired. Took the repair facility about a week to repair. As soon as I got it back, tested again in the water. After about 1 - 2 minutes in the water, same thing...sigh. called Olympus back up, they requested that I send it in for repair again (at least this time on their dime). Got it back after another week of being with out a camera. As soon as I could, tried it in a sink full of water...so far so good. Took it to the pool the next morning....same problem again!!! Just got off the phone with Olympus Support a few minutes ago, requesting that I send it in again where they will evaluate either "fixing" it again or "potentially replacing". So we'll see.
I'd have rated it 3 or 4 stars if it was actually WP and I wasn't having all this back and forth with Olympus. Unfortunately, there weren't very many options for other outdoor/WP cameras when I bought this back in January of '09. Now, I'd probably be considering a different model (Cannon probably) since I haven't been very satisfied with the Olympus product.
Digital camera Review: Lovin' It
Summary: 5 Stars
Bought this a little over a week ago, just after testing my underwater housing for my Canon S30 and finding it was leaking. We were leaving for five days of snorkeling in Cozumel and I wanted to be able to take underwater pictures. The Stylus 1030SW really fit the bill. Got a 2GB Olympus card and spare battery. The card was more than enough capacity and I was really pleased with how many shots I could take on a single battery charge. Over the 5 days I took over 800 photos and one battery usually lasted most of the day, even though I had the camera on most of the time I was in the water. I'm sure I surface dove to 15 and 20 ft a number of times, so, the 1030 was a better solution for me than the 850 would have been. I also really like the wider angle (effective 28mm). Camera worked great underwater and for other vacation shots. I usually turned the flash off underwater since shots taken with it would have lots of spots from reflection off all the little bubbles and stuff in the water, but, got some real nice fish & coral photos anyway. It can be tough to see the LCD in real bright conditions, and, the black is just paint (one time when getting out I got trown by a wave and slammed the camera into the coral bottom scratching the paint but otherwise the camera was uneffected). I'm very impressed with the quality of the photos this little camera is giving me, the range of adjustments, and, after a fairly short learning curve, the ability to adjust the settings pretty easily. I also got the floating strap which does keep this heavy little beast from going to the bottom if you happen to lose hold of it. I'm very pleased with this camera so far and looking forward to using it a lot, particularly taking it along biking, hiking, camping and other active outdoor uses.Digital camera Review: Many nice features
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm very happy with this product overall. I think it has some great features and takes nice pictures. I haven't used it underwater yet but will be in a couple of weeks. My only complaint is the zoom is not that impressive. My previous point and shoot camera's have had a much better zoom. But I'm still happy with the product.Digital camera Review: Not great....
Summary: 1 Stars
I got this camera a few months ago to have a rugged camera that I could use at the beach and stick in my pocket. I had a Canon Powershot SD600 before that had been ruined by beach spray. Previous to that I had an Olympus Camedia D-560 Zoom in college which had been abused thoroughly and survived 5 years and mutliple countries. I was disappointed with the Canon as it was so delicate so I decided to switch back to Olympus.
To summarize... This camera is well below average. I have tried using it in a variety of settings and all have been subpar. I waited to write a review after a few months, thinking I might be able to work out the kinks - but after a wonderful Thanksgiving - I felt I must mention this camera's inadequacies:
1. The camera takes rather blurry pictures when it should not - it's pot luck - some turn out alright, many do not. There is a setting that is supposed to eliminate this problem, but it does not.
2. I like simple cameras that don't require me to adjust the setting for any moment. This camera doesn't allow that so when a moment strikes -pictures often come out either overexposed, blurry, or grainy. Ridiculous for a camera of this price.
2. The movies are absolutely terrible - seriously, I could probably draw a flipbook better than the movies this thing takes. I was amazed how absolutely horrible the movies are after my previous two cameras - one 3.2MP and the other 6.0MP. I realize this is not a camcorder, but it's nice being able to take brief movies when the moment arises - as my old Canon was able to.
Overall - I am very dissapointed with this camera. I have not used the underwater capabilities but have let my 3 year old niece use it to see how rugged it is. Actually that's the best thing so far - I have no worries that she'll break it and don't really care if she does.
Back to Canon now.....