islandalex's Full Review: Olympus Stylus 850 SW / µ 850 SW Digital Came...
This camera was bought to replace a broken Olympus Stylus 770 SW , and I am please to note that Olympus has fixed many (but not all) of the problems found in my previous camera. Its 8 megapixels, 3x zoom, rugged shockproof body, and go anywhere style make it a great vacation point and shoot camera.
The Packaging
Olympus, like many other camera manufacturers are slimming down their product packaging. This camera comes in a small box with a battery charger, battery, and quick start guide. The two noticeably missing items are the memory card, and multi-language instruction manual. Have cameras become easier to use? Have manufacturers become more eco-friendly? Or have manufacturers decided to put more value into the camera to stay competitive in today’s market? I think it is a mixture of all three, and I am glad for the slim packaging. (All manuals are available to download on the Olympus website)
First Impressions
This camera looks as though it is built to uphold its promises. The size is almost identical to the SW 770, but the body has been made far more sleek with brushed stainless and far less protruding bolts. It is lighter than its cousin, and fits easily into a purse, or even a pocket.
The lanyard is securely attached to a hole flush with the metal camera body. It was difficult to connect, requiring little fingers, and a ball point pen to nudge it along. The lanyard supplied is just a wrist strap, but I would suggest an adjustable strap to take it swimming, to avoid it getting lost in the waves.
The 3x optical zoom lens is covered by a steel cover that opens and closes when the camera is turned on and off. This has become even more rugged, and is now recessed into the camera body to avoid bumps.
The Camera
The inbuilt memory can only hold about 6 pictures at good quality (why shoot at anything less?) so an xD picture card is also a requirement.
Because this camera is waterproof, the usb port, xD card slot, and battery slot are all protected by locking doors. The lock mechanism is a small plastic lock that needs to be slid across a few millimeters. This is easy for me, with nails and small fingers. However, it is very difficult for my father with bigger hands, and perhaps not as much patience. The gaskets all appear to be well built, and not easily scratched or damaged. However, if they get sandy, they DO NOT work! (Can’t say I am surprised…)
The camera fits quite nicely in my hand, and all the controls are within finger or thumb distance, with the shutter and power under the finger, and the zoom at the tip of the thumb. The shutter button sticks a millimeter out of the body of the camera, and is easy to find by touch.
At the tip of the thumb is the standard wide/telephoto button. It is a bit small for my liking, but easy enough to use with one hand.
Below this, Olympus has gone back to a dial to choose between the different modes.
This is an improvement to a single button, but I can’t move it with the camera in one hand!!! The plastic grips around the edge are not prominent enough, and it is tiny! It can move in either direction, with direct access to Auto, Playback, Favorites, Video, Guide, Scene, and Image Stabilizer.
Below the dial is the standard 5-way button pad. This gives direct access to control the white balance, flash, timer, close-up mode (macro), and a center button for OK and Function. The directional buttons are also used to scroll through pictures in playback mode. I can use this easily with one hand.
Around the 5 buttons are 4 additional buttons; Menu, Play/Print, Display/Help/Light, Backlight/Trash. Play is of course very helpful to review pictures quickly, and menu is an obvious necessity, but many of the other buttons could be made obsolete with a good menu system.
The menu options are different, depending on what mode you are in. The graphic quality is poor and the menus don’t flow through naturally, but some improvements have been made, and the writing is now more legible. In “Scene” and “Guide” the menu takes you straight to a selection of all the different options available, and makes switching between scenes very easy and quick.
The 2.5” LCD is bright, clear, and not obstructed by my fingers. I am more accustomed to looking through a viewfinder, but I find this LCD gives a true image, and it is easy to compose shots in most conditions. The exception is on the surface of the water where there is glare and droplets distorting the screen. Underwater the clarity is very good if you are looking at it perfectly perpendicular.
The display shows the mode in the top left corner, the image size along the bottom, and the amount of images remaining. If any other specific functions are chosen, they also show on the display.
Let’s go through the modes!
Auto
The default mode (camera icon) offers two options. (Why two you ask in default mode? Sorry, I have no idea!) You can have a full “Auto” mode, and a “P” (Program Auto) mode. The image quality is better that the Stylus 770 SW, but not as good as the SP-350. (The SP-350 is a camera that mimics many of the options of a SLR camera, and offers far more flexibility at a moderate price)
“Auto” mode, like most cameras, can’t keep up with the wide range of conditions this camera is built for. In low light, the camera over-adjusts the ISO settings and pictures come out grainy. However, for normal daylight scenes it is sufficient. In this mode the menu button will only let you change the resolution, and the only thing the “func” button will do is change the camera to “P”. You can still adjust white balance, flash, macro, and timer with the 5-way button.
The “P” mode gives you some control. On top of the standard changes from the 5-way button, you can adjust white balance, ISO, drive (so you can take a rapid sequence of pictures), and metering mode (ESP or spot). I like to shoot most pictures in this mode so I can easily control the ISO and metering.
Playback
The dedicated playback option is appreciated, as you can pass the camera around with the lens covered. You can zoom to full size, and anywhere in-between, and zooming all the way out makes the thumbnails smaller and smaller, so you can find pictures easily. Zooming out many times gets you to the calendar, which organizes the pictures by showing a thumbnail on each date that contains a picture.
Favorites
You can choose favorite pictures to show, but I think a dedicated mode is a bit overkill! This might be helpful to show slideshows.
Video
The video quality, up to 640 x 480 (VGA) is good, and the audio (even underwater!) is equal to my more expensive Olympus SP-350.
Guide
I don’t know how many people have actually tried this out, but I think it is fantastic. It gives you information on what you need to do to achieve a desired effect (14 in total), and then does it for you! Very clever for people like my mum who are always asking how I get the photographs I do, and then not actually requiring them to remember it!
They are just another way to do something you could probably figure out yourself, but it is a nice way to quickly explore what the camera can do.
Some options are:
Brightening subject
Sets a fill-flash and adjusts the exposure compensation
Super close up photo
Sets super macro
Shooting at night
Changes to night mode!
Adjusting image quality
This gives you a second set of options; pc-editing, large-print, normal, and email.
Image Stabilizer
The shaky hand is obviously the image stabilizer. I think I have a relatively steady hand, so I don’t use this mode. I also find that it slows the camera down slightly, and doesn’t give any control of the ISO setting. It also takes pictures that I perceive to be of lower quality. On other cameras, I just bring the viewfinder to my eye to steady the picture, so I imagine this mode will be very helpful for some.
Scene
With 25 scene modes, this camera covers many shooting conditions. They are the much the same as the modes on my Olympus SP-350, and Olympus seems to have the formula right for each one.
I don’t think it is necessary to cover them all, but here are my favorites.
The Self Portrait mode (you know all those drunken arm extended ones?) cleverly adjusts the power of the flash so that the pictures come out right every time. It also softens the pictures with use of aperture settings.
The Behind Glass Mode is also helpful. It turns off the flash, but often adjusts the ISO settings to compensate.
I love to cook, so the Cuisine mode is tops! It represents the appetizing colors truly and vividly. It changes the camera to Macro mode, so it only works close-up.
The Beach/Snow mode is good at adjusting all of the glare. Pictures that would normally appear oversaturated and overexposed come out much more accurately.
There are 4 underwater modes, which all remind you not to go below 10 ft. It is very important to use, as red light is lost the deeper you go underwater. However, all the pictures are still very blue, and I have decided Photoshop is far more effective at correcting the light and colors.
Underwater Snapshot is for taking portraits underwater. It works perfectly when the subject is about 3 feet away, but is not ideal for any other circumstances.
Underwater Wide 1 is for taking still life shots of reefs. Fish taken in this mode come out blurry, so don’t attempt it! Like landscape mode, it uses infinity focus to take in the whole scene, instead of focusing on the foreground.
Underwater Wide 2 is the same as above, but shutter speed has the priority to capture moving fish. There is not enough available light underwater (and the flash creates too much back-splatter) to catch very fast moving sea creatures. However, as this is not meant to be solely an underwater camera, I don’t think this detracts too much from the value.
Underwater Macro takes beautiful shots of all the small creatures but the pictures are often grainy due to the low light quality underwater.
Batteries
Battery life is great. The rechargeable Lithium Ion battery charges in a few hours, and lasts two weeks as a standard pocket camera. That is about 300 pictures, taken in a wide variety of conditions.
Memory
The camera uses xD memory which is pricey. However, I am finding it faster than my old CF cards, and more reliable. This camera is run on a 2GB card, with no noticeable delay from my faster 1GB Olympus M.
Durability
Let’s face it; we bought this camera because it is tough. But just how tough?
The 5-foot shockproof promise is frequently tested.
Next, the camera was taken for a swim! There is always that first moment when you wince as it goes in the water, and strangers on the beach warn you that your camera is still on your wrist! However, this camera has been snorkeling and swimming without any issues. I have taken it to about 8 feet free diving, and the seals are still perfect. It has also survived a few tumbles in small (2-4 feet) waves. I don’t dare free-dive to the bottom of the sea-bed, as I could do with confidence on a camera rated to 33ft, and this does limit it slightly. However for most users who don’t exhibit mermaid desires, this should be plenty! Just be careful in the waves as these can contain a lot of pressure.
Now here is where the problem starts. Waves contain sand, and unless you are very careful to rinse, soak, and then rinse the camera again after every use, sand eventually works its way into the rubber seals. Yes, the camera then leaks! This camera seems better guarded against leeks than its predecessors, but still be careful.
It has not been taking skiing, so I can’t vouch for the freeze-proof promise, but it has been sat on so the crush-proof to 220lbs could be spot on. (Sorry, I don’t know anyone 220lbs to test it.)
After two months, this camera has no visible markings of abuse, maybe I am being more gentle after breaking the last one, but I think it is more likely that Olympus has just put a little more thought into the construction.
Overall
This camera has many great features, and Olympus had improved the point-and-shoot capabilities. However, if you leave it in one setting, night pictures will be grainy, people will be overexposed, and mountain greens go grey. Photographs in good to average light are great, and it is fast enough to capture most of those “picture perfect” moments.
Pictures taken in the dedicated scene modes are crisp and clear, with true-to-life colors. If you have the time, remember to set the scene, if not, take the picture, and hope for the best! At worst, you might get a slightly blurry image of that once-in-a-lifetime moment, but at least you will get it, while others are still digging their delicate cameras out of their cases!
The camera is easy to use, and you can almost avoid the clunky menu entirely by using one of the many buttons on the body.
Tough enough for everyday life. The Stylus 850 SW is designed for active people who want a tough camera that can keep up with their on-the-go lifestyl...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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