Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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870 however I also think that I need to experiment with the spot metering focus mode versus the ESP metering mode. I know my Canon had 9 point AiAf focusing which seemed to make more objects in the photo in focus. I don't think this camera has the same type of focusing system. I haven't really tried the face recognition feature that much but it did work when I tried it in the store prior to purchasing. The color reproduction seems accurate to me and the photos I took outdoors on a sunny day seemed to really pop. Indoor photos seemed overly noisy however this has been consistent with other point and shoots that I have owned (Canon S500 and 870).

Value: The price of this camera is admittedly high however it does offer features that other point and shoots in this category don't. The crush, freeze and water resistant features are compelling. I typically have very high expectations for items that I purchase and initially was a little disappointed with this camera. However as I use it more and take more pictures with it I am becoming increasingly satisfied. It's not a digital SLR and it doesn't have a lot of manual controls, viewfinder, light-up-the-night-sky flash, etc. It is a very well built, extremely rugged and water proof (to 33ft) 10MP digital camera with a decent LCD, zoom and software that takes good point and shoot quality photos.

Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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the middle of the screen. This was not dirt on the outside of the lens where I can get at and clean. It would disappear under certain lighting conditions, but most underwater shots had it. My guess is that it's an internal reflective defect or dirt on the optics. Curiously, I don't notice it in my photos, just videos.

In addition to this, the lens would fog up during the night after some underwater excursions. The fog would cloud up the lens internally, so all photos and videos were foggy. Holding the camera in my hands would warm it up, causing the fog to get cloudier. As a work-around, I would air dry the camera each night with all its ports open, but this doesn't always work.

Another major drawback of this camera that was not publicized very well is that you MUST use the type M+ XD memory card to record VGA in 30 frames/sec. Using the included adapter my 4GB MicroSDHC card, you are limited to 10 seconds VGA 30 frames/sec videos. You can record lower resolution or VGA with 15 frames/sec videos without the M+ XD memory card, though.

Additionally, my videos would sometimes have strange regular very loud clicking sounds, about once click per second for certain stretches. This was very disconcerting.

I also noticed that the videos of bright lights indoors would sometimes have vertical glares above and below the light sources. I never noticed this phenomenon on my TZ-5 videos.

The final weird restriction that I found out only after using this camera was that it had two video modes: Underwater, and Non-underwater. In Underwater mode, you have no audio, but can use zoom. In Non-underwater mode, you can record audio, but cannot zoom. Perhaps the zooming caused horrible audio noises to be recorded so the engineers decided to never record audio while allowing zooming?

In conclusion, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW was everything I was looking for on paper and would have been a wonderful all purpose point-and-shoot photo and video camera for all occasions. Unfortunately, my particular unit seemed not be quite waterproof as advertised, and the model had some major design drawbacks in the areas of video recording.

I really cannot recommend this camera based on the unit I had.

Olympus Stylus 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

...

the middle of the screen. This was not dirt on the outside of the lens where I can get at and clean. It would disappear under certain lighting conditions, but most underwater shots had it. My guess is that it's an internal reflective defect or dirt on the optics. Curiously, I don't notice it in my photos, just videos.



In addition to this, the lens would fog up during the night after some underwater excursions. The fog would cloud up the lens internally, so all photos and videos were foggy. Holding the camera in my hands would warm it up, causing the fog to get cloudier. As a work-around, I would air dry the camera each night with all its ports open, but this doesn't always work.



Another major drawback of this camera that was not publicized very well is that you MUST use the type M+ XD memory card to record VGA in 30 frames/sec. Using the included adapter my 4GB MicroSDHC card, you are limited to 10 seconds VGA 30 frames/sec videos. You can record lower resolution or VGA with 15 frames/sec videos without the M+ XD memory card, though.



Additionally, my videos would sometimes have strange regular very loud clicking sounds, about once click per second for certain stretches. This was very disconcerting.



I also noticed that the videos of bright lights indoors would sometimes have vertical glares above and below the light sources. I never noticed this phenomenon on my TZ-5 videos.



The final weird restriction that I found out only after using this camera was that it had two video modes: Underwater, and Non-underwater. In Underwater mode, you have no audio, but can use zoom. In Non-underwater mode, you can record audio, but cannot zoom. Perhaps the zooming caused horrible audio noises to be recorded so the engineers decided to never record audio while allowing zooming?



In conclusion, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW was everything I was looking for on paper and would have been a wonderful all purpose point-and-shoot photo and video camera for all occasions. Unfortunately, my particular unit seemed not be quite waterproof as advertised, and the model had some major design drawbacks in the areas of video recording.



I really cannot recommend this camera based on the unit I had.