Olympus Stylus 1030SW Is Drop-, Water- and Freeze-Proof
Here’s the Jack Bauer of the new Olympus compacts: the Stylus 1030SW, drop-proof from 2 metres, waterproof to 10 metres and operates at temperatures as cold as -10 degrees Celsius. With 10.1 megapixels, a 3.6x optical zoom and a 2.7-inch LCD, and with built-in scene modes for underwater shooting as well as beach and snow modes, it looks like we need a vacation to try it out. Available in March for around $400.
AU: We get this snapper late February for the completely awesome price of $499.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
The resolution of this camera was very surprising how poor it is.
Granted, it can take decent underwater and very good macro shots. But the resolution on land and anything past 10 meters like tree’s and building is just lousy.
Even on a bright sunny day using Auto, a tripod, and the camera set to it’s maximum resolution the detail is less than what you’d get from an older 2-3 Meg camera. Even my 5 year old Canon G3 with only 4 Meg’s has at least double the resolution of the 10Meg 1030SW
The limitation could be the tiny, unusually slow lens or maybe the sensor is just too small (physically). I showed some shots to the local rep and they agreed the focus and clarity was very poor and they were not able to get a clear shot either. So the camera was returned to Olympus for servicing and came back the same way, after having the main circuit board replaced and it passed all their quality control specs. As an avid photographer for 24 years shooting weddings and landscapes in 12 countries I know it’s not just me, the camera has a serious design flaw.
I can live with the marginal battery life of 60-80 shots per charge, and the 20 useless shooting modes like baby, beach, auction, and food without a single manual feature. But I can’t work with the consistently low resolution images. The only way to get a clear shot it to reduce the image to 4×6″ size or compress it down to 2Meg size (1600×1200). Then it’ looks ok.
Fortunately I was able to sell mine after 6 months for a good price.
The gizmodo.com web pages auto reloads itself every few minutes and it erased the review I was writing 2 times. So I used a text editor, and then pasted it in. They should fix that.
While Dan may be right about the image quality, I have not met one camera tougher than this. I own a Canon S3 IS so this doesn’t even compare to that, but I bought this a week ago because I’m planning a trip and I don’t want to lug my Canon around my neck the whole time. The Olympus fits in my pocket and it’ll take just about anything. I took it in the shower the first day I brought it home and amazad myself how it can work flawlessly under heavy pour of water. I also tried submerging it in the bath tub for 30 minutes and it came out fine. Then last weekend there was a party at a friend’s house and everyone was drunk and we were taking pictures and the camera was being thrown around a lot and we even dropped it a few times, still no glitches whatsoever. Picture quality is actually not bad unless you’re a pro photographer or a quality junkie. What matters to me is that I’ve finally found a camera I can take just about anywhere.