Olympus Stylus Zoom -- A Great Little Camera
Written: Dec 11 '00 (Updated Jan 18 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of features, small size, GREAT picture quality
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: This is a great little camera -- lots of features, excellent photo quality, easy to use, and even a stylish appearance.
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| tlbwriter's Full Review: Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 QD 35mm Film Camera |
The Olympus Stylus Zoom is a nifty little camera for anyone, from absolute beginners to semi-pros.
The Stylus has a clamshell case, with a sliding cover over the lens instead of a removable lenscap. It’s sleek and stylish, especially in the champagne color (a poor reason to buy a camera, but hey, it’s cool). When I bought this camera, it was billed as the smallest point-and-shoot zoom camera that uses regular film (as opposed to APS). I don’t know if that’s still true, but honestly I don’t think I would even want a camera smaller than this. The small size is very convenient, as it fits into a pocket or bag easily. You can add to the “coolness” factor by purchasing an accessory kit that includes a little tripod and a remote control. However, I could only get the remote control to work once. This is frustrating, but I am still able to get myself into group shots by using the timer, which works perfectly.
Loading film is ridiculously easy – just drop it in, pull the free end over to the opposite side, and close the camera back. The camera does the rest (and lets you know if it didn’t work).
The 80 mm zoom is good for medium shots, but would not work well for anything a great distance away.
The auto focus is the best I've ever seen. An indicator light in the viewfinder lets you know when you are in focus range. Like other auto focus cameras, you can press the shutter release halfway to lock the focus if you don’t want the object you’re focusing on to be in the center of the frame.
There are several flash options – I generally use automatic or fill-in (when there is enough ambient light that the automatic flash wouldn’t go off, but you want a little extra light to catch details). This camera is particularly prone to red-eye because, due to its small size, the flash is rather close to the lens. The flash has a red-eye reduction option, but this doesn't work as well as I'd like (do any of them work well?), and it uses a strobe effect that can actually be startling (I’d rather have photos of happy people with red eyes that I can fix with a red-eye pen than photos of people saying “what on earth is your camera doing?”).
The photo quality is excellent, especially with exterior shots. I used to use an SLR for portrait-type photos and a point-and-shoot for everything else, but this camera does such as nice job that I don't use my SLR much any more.
The QD/DLX version has other nifty features include a panoramic viewfinder option, the ability to rewind a roll of film in mid-roll, and the automatic date stamp (which provides several options). All of the features are easy to use, though you might have a difficult time memorizing all of the little icons for the different flash options – too much of a good thing? All in all, it’s a great little camera.
Recommended:
Yes
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tlbwriter
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Member: Tracy
Location: Oklahoma
Reviews written: 76
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