Olympus Stylus 410 4-Megapixel All-Weather Digital Camera
Written: Aug 02 '04 (Updated Aug 02 '05)
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Pros: Rugged construction, easy to use, excellent performance, USB, remote shutter release, features
Cons: No TIFF or RAW mode, no manual focus or exposure setting
The Bottom Line: The Olympus Stylus 410 is an excellent performer in the tough body and I highly recommend it if you need a point-and-shoot digital...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Olympus Stylus 410 / µ 410 Digital Camera |
The Olympus Stylus 410 is an all-weather 4-Megapixel digital camera that features rugged construction, nice looks and solid performance. The camera uses TruePic Turbo processor that employs pixel "micro-smoothing", which in conjunction with the 4-Megapixel CCD delivers clear photos that can be enlarged to 11x14" and larger.
What's Inside the Box?
The camera comes with a Li-Ion battery and charger, a 32 Mb xD-Picture card, a USB cable and an A/V cable, a remote control unit (with one large button for remote shutter release), a wrist strap, a CD-ROM with software and printed materials (Manual, Quick Start Guide, Warranty Card).
The Camera
The camera has sturdy case and features a sliding door that, when camera is not in use, covers the lens, flash and other elements on the camera's front panel. Sliding the door powers the camera on and extends the lens. Sliding it back makes the lens retract and turns the camera off. I positively dislike this arrangement, as the force you have to apply is slightly scary when you are sliding the door towards the extended lens.
The bottom of the camera has a tripod mount and the battery compartment door that proudly bears "Li-ion BATTERY" inscription. The battery door hides a supplied LI-10B 3.7V 1090 mAh battery (it has 3 large contacts). The supplied charger can charge battery after it is removed from the camera.
The left side of the camera has a DC power input (4.5 V).
The other side of the camera opens (hinged rigid door) to reveal a USB port, and A/V out for viewing pictures and video on TV and a memory card slot. Be careful ejecting the memory card (don't release it after pushing on it) as it can fly out.
Specifications and Features
The camera has a 5.8-17.4 mm zoom lens (35-105 mm 35mm equivalent) with aspherical glass. The maximum aperture is f3.1 at wide angle and f5.2 at telephoto. The lense's 3x optical zoom is coupled with digital zoom, delivering 12x total zoom (with resolution loss once the 3x zoom mark is surpassed, of course).
The shutter speed is between 1/1,000 and 1/2 sec (up to 4 seconds in Night Scene mode). The camera adjusts ISO automatically with ISO range 64-480 available.
The white balance can be set to automatic (iESP multi-pattern auto TTL) or one of the pre-sets (Sunlight, Overcast, Fluorescent and Tungsten). There is no manual focusing or manual exposure.
The camera lets you take pictures at several resolutions. The pictures are saved as JPEG files. There is no TIFF or RAW mode. The available resolutions are: 2272x1704 (SHQ mode with lower compression for best picture quality and HQ mode with higher compression), 2048x1536 (SQ1), 1600x1200 (SQ2), 1280x960, 1024x768 and VGA resolution - 640x480.
Operation
IF you have used other Olympus digital cameras, you will find the onscreen display icons familiar. For example, the flower means that the macro mode is engaged, the letter in the upper left corner lets you know the currently selected mode, the lightning bold indicates the flash mode. The selected resolution and compression setting can be seen at the bottom, the remaining number of pictures that will fit the memory card is at the bottom right.
Next to it is a graphical indicator of the buffer level and above is the indicator of the current zoom status. A green dot indicates to you that the focus has been locked successfully (once you press the shutter release button half-way).
The mode selection has been simplified comparing to the previous Olympus models, say Olympus D-565. Now, the virtual dial is displayed on the screen once you press the "Up" button. After that, you rotate the virtual dial until the mode you need is selected and then press OK/MENU button. When you "rotate" the dial, the description for the currently selected mode appear in the middle of the dial.
Available modes are Program Auto (P), Indoor, Portrait, Beach/Snow, Cuisine, Lanscape, Landscape Portrait, Night Scene, Self Portrait and Movie.
The camera does not let you set the exposure manually, but you can set exposure compensation. It is easy to adjust exposure compensation by pressing the OK/MENU button and then pressing the UP button. Pressing the LEFT button instead of the UP button lets you adjust the resolution, DOWN button turns the monitor off and the LEFT button brings you to the Mode Menu.
In the Mode Menu you can adjust the camera's numerous features.
Under CAMERA section, you can set shooting preferences. You can select ESP or Spot metering (ESP/Spot), single frame or continuous shooting (Drive), enable or disable digital zoom (Digital Zoom) - I never enable digital zoom to avoid resolution loss at zooms higher than 3x, enable or disable attaching sound memos to pictures (Sound Memo), enable or disable super macro mode (Super Macro) = works at 3.5-8", enable/disable Panorama mode (Panorama), merge two pictures (2 IN 1).
The PIC section lets you select White Balance setting (Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Tungsten).
Other menu sections let you format the xD-Picture card, select the shutter sound, change menu color scheme to your liking, set clock, adjust LCD brightness, etc.
LCD
The camera has a 1.5" color LCD monitor that is visible in sunlight. In addition, the camera has an optical viewfinder (with no diopter adjustment). It is better to frame pictures in LCD, since the viewfinder is not as accurate. However, if you want to conserve battery power, using the viewfinder is a valuable option. Plus, the LCD is not as fluid as the viewfinder.
Movie Mode
The movie mode lets you capture video at 320x240 pixels at 15 fps with audio for up to 20 seconds or 160x120 pixels up to 60 seconds. I have not used it so I cannot commend on it.
Playback Mode
Once you are into playback mode, you can push telephoto button to see thumbnails of images. You can see 4, 9 or 16 thumbnails (index images) per page, depending on the menu settings. You can select an image by using menu control buttons and push the wide-angle button to make the image fill the screen. You can zoom in using the same button from 1.5x to 4x in 0.5x increments and you can also scroll within the image using menu control buttons.
Focusing
The camera uses TTL contrast detection for focusing, which provides accurate, but somewhat slow, focus. In normal mode, the auto-focus system covers 20"-infinity range, 8-20" in macro mode and 3.5-8" in super-macro mode.
Flash
The built-in flash is bright with flash recycle time of less than five seconds. It has red-eye reduction. You can also select fill-flash (forced-on), forced-off and auto mode.
USB
You can use the supplied UBS cable to connect the camera to your computer. As soon as the camera is powered on, you will find that you have another removable drive (there isn't even driver required under my Windows 2000), from which you can copy JPEG files containing your pictures.
Performance
The camera startup time is about 5 seconds and focusing took slightly less than a second. Shutter lag is under a second if you don't use pre-focusing and almost instantaneous if you pre-focus. The shot-to-shot time with flash about 5 seconds and 2-3 seconds without flash.
The picture quality in the highest quality mode (SHQ 2272x1704) is excellent. The pictures are well exposed and have good white balance, are well-saturated and color-correct. However, the camera produces slight noise in dark areas/situations.
Bottom Line
The Olympus Stylus 410 is an excellent performer in the tough body and I highly recommend it if you need a point-and-shoot digital camera and don't need more manual control.
My Reviews of Other Digital Cameras
Canon:
Canon Powershot S2 IS Digital Camera Review
Canon Powershot S1 IS Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A520 4-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot S500 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot S410 / Digital IXUS 430 Digital Camera Review
Panasonic:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4 4-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ15 4-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 Digital Camera Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ2 Digital Camera with 12x Leica Lens and Optical Image Stabilizer Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 Digital Camera with Optical Image Stabilizer and 12x Leica Lens Review
Olympus:
Olympus Camedia C-765 4.0-Megapixel Digital Camera with USB and ED Lens Review
Olympus Stylus 410 4-Megapixel All-Weather Digital Camera Review
Olympus Camedia D-580 / C-460 4.0-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Olympus D-565 Zoom Digital 4-Megapixel Camera Review
Olympus D-575 Zoom Digital Camera Review
Others:
Minolta DiMAGE Z2 Digital Camera Review
Pentax *istD Digital SLR Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T1 Digital Camera Review
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 280
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
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Location: California
Reviews written: 838
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About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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