Solid camera...recommended
Written: Jan 04 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
| Photo Quality: |
 |
|
| Shutter Lag |
|
|
|
Pros: Compact, weather proof, sharp lens, good picture quality, good features
Cons: Uses xD cards, cannot use "regular" batteries as a back up, no manual controls.
The Bottom Line: Recommended for it's size, quality and ease of use but enough countrols for this type of camera.
|
|
|
| sdallnct's Full Review: Olympus Stylus 400 Digital Camera |
Even though I’m very familiar with photography, I wanted a small, light weight camera for travel, party type pic’s, etc. All cameras in this general price range have their pros and cons, but since I have two of the Olympus Stylus film cameras, I thought the Stylus 300/400 would be a good place to start looking. I had it narrowed down to Canon, Nikon and Olympus. Since Dell had a special before Christmas and Olympus had a $40.00 rebate I went with the Stylus 400.
First things I like;
Very small, clam-shell design
Moisture resistant
The option of having the camera remember your prior settings when you turn off the camera
Several different picture settings + exposure compensation
Things I don’t like
Uses xD media cards
No option for using “normal” batteries
No full manual control
The camera is very small and compact. It fits in the palm of your hand. The claim shell design means no lens cap to worry about. The camera has a solid non-plastic feel. All the doors of the camera have seals or O-rings for water protection. The camera is water resistant NOT water proof. I ski a couple of times a year and this is a nice feature. I certainly would not get it soaked, but I have gotten the film version of this camera pretty wet with no problems.
I really like that you can set the camera and have it remember the settings when you turn the camera off. This is a great improvement over the film versions of the camera. For example, when I used this camera at Disneyland I found the best results on a particular day were in Portrait+Landscape mode w/+.3 on the exposure compensation. After setting these, the camera would remember even when turning off the camera. However, if you prefer, you can have the camera return to default settings when turned off. The camera does not have full manual controls. However, it does have 5-6 different shooting modes along with exposure compensation and the ability to change while balance. Sure full manual controls would be nice, but in a camera like this the picture modes, exposure compensation and white balance provide a lot of options.
I’m very pleased with the quality of the photos. As with all small cameras, you have to be careful to only press the shutter hard enough to take the picture. The smaller the camera, the easier it is to shake it. Also as with all small cameras you will get some red eye. The red-eye reduction on the camera does a pretty good job. Shutter lag seemed pretty good. I haven’t been bothered by it. Depending on the setting used, it takes a second or two to save the image.
Olympus uses the xD media cards. These are not as popular and a little more expensive other media cards. And if you want to use the panorama feature (which is pretty cool) you must use Olympus brand cards. You will need to get another card right away as it only comes with 16mg card (5 pictures on the highest quality setting). You can get a 128mg card in the $60.00 range and a 256mg card in the $100 range.
The camera comes with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery and charger. The manual says you get about 150 shots per charge. I took about 60 pictures and the battery light never changed. This is the only battery that the camera can use. You cannot use AAA or AA as a backup. Even though Alkaline batteries do not last long in a digital camera, it would nice for a back up. Picking up a 2nd battery would be a good idea. They run about $40.00.
Getting images to your computer are easy. I didn’t bother reading the instructions. Windows XP recognizes the camera when you plug it in as a drive. You can use Windows or the software that comes with the camera. The camera comes with a USB cord. A memory card reader would save battery life, but is not necessary. The Olympus software is fine. Basic, but easy to use. If you want to do anything other then basic cropping, you are probably going to want to get one of the 3rd party “photoshop” type programs.
I recommend this camera if you are looking for a small, compact, quality camera.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $290 AR
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sdallnct
|
|
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.