Olympus Stylus 1030 SW 10.1 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver

WOWwowWOWwow

Strengths: Can go underwater! Tough! Scene modes are great. Wide angle.

Weakness: Heavy (could be a problem if it sinks!), Manual is terrible, Olympus proprietary standards (USB ports/xD), wrist strap non adjustable. Small battery.

After initially reading reviews on the web, I wasn't expecting much from this camera. I was pleasantly surprised! My last 5 point and shoot camera's have almost all been Canon Powershot's. This camera trumps all other point and shoot camera simply by being waterproof. The photo's & memories you will capture are priceless! The pictures in daylight & brightly lit sources come out beautiful (better...
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After initially reading reviews on the web, I wasn't expecting much from this camera. I was pleasantly surprised! My last 5 point and shoot camera's have almost all been Canon Powershot's. This camera trumps all other point and shoot camera simply by being waterproof. The photo's & memories you will capture are priceless! The pictures in daylight & brightly lit sources come out beautiful (better than my Powershot SD800is); the color saturation is vivid & looks beautiful. I can't begin to stress how great the pictures look; some of the shot's honestly rival ones from my Canon 40D. The scene modes & guides on the camera are awesome; they set the camera to appropriate settings for whatever you're shooting. The settings on this camera took me a second to get adjusted to; they are not as logically organized as Canon's. The wrist strap that is included is not adjustable so the camera will sink if it falls off your wrist as it is steel! Olympus sells a floating strap which I will be getting after almost loosing the camera in a lazy river!


The photo's in the night & poorly lit rooms leave a lot to be desired (poor flash performance, noise, etc). I haven't played with the settings too much to see if I can improve on this. Though the images are on par with other point & shoot camera's in this size.


The included battery is not very large, and is drained rapidly as there is no optical viewfinder, just the LCD. The LCD has great color & is accurate enough for me, though is probably a large factor in draining the battery. If this is your main camera for your vacation consider getting an additional battery.


I initially stayed away from Olympus camera's due to their insistence on using the onerous xD memory card format. Thankfully, Olympus includes a MicroSD to xD converter so you can do away with their proprietary memory. Unfortunately you loose some features (notably, in camera panorama/photo stitch). The manual won't really tell you this either... grrr...


All & all I am very happy with this camera. If I was Olympus the things I would change immediately are: the wrist strap, complete re-write of the manual, and of course... just use SD or MicroSD cards!

By paazel - Jun 19, 2008

10.1mp water proved camera

Strengths: Can go where other cameras can't and takes shots that you would normally miss out on

Weakness: Image quailty yet to be perfected, quirky about memory cards.

Picture quality is about a 7 out of 10, but a 7 is better than no picture at all. If you find yourself in extraordinary environments and want to photo them without dragging a bunch of weatherproof gear around- this camera is THE best option on the market right now. I am thrilled to be able to pull out this pocket sized camera ANYWHERE and quickly get a few shots off in harsh environments. If the...
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Picture quality is about a 7 out of 10, but a 7 is better than no picture at all. If you find yourself in extraordinary environments and want to photo them without dragging a bunch of weatherproof gear around- this camera is THE best option on the market right now. I am thrilled to be able to pull out this pocket sized camera ANYWHERE and quickly get a few shots off in harsh environments. If the only other option is to simply not have a picture of it...then 7 is the new 10. Its intended purpose is to let you take pictures where you normally would not be able to, and it fulfills its purpose 100%. Make sure you use a correct memory card for all the features to function. Panoramic mode and some video modes are not available with non-olympus cards. I am using the free card that came with the camera from Circuit City and everything functions 100%. It came in a Sandisk package, but the card itself says olympus.

By nelson714 - Jun 11, 2008

Olympus Stylus 1030 SW

Strengths: Utility, Shock proof, water proof, compact

Weakness: size, shutter lag

This camera is not bad consider this is a 4th generation of sporty design device to withstand shock, water and temp. Notice a slight faster shutter speed than previous model, due the fact it has a lot of dampening in the mechanical to reduce shock damage that may cause the slow in between shot, yet quite tolerable. Built sturdy like a tank. I took it to white water rafting in Kern River, survived...
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This camera is not bad consider this is a 4th generation of sporty design device to withstand shock, water and temp. Notice a slight faster shutter speed than previous model, due the fact it has a lot of dampening in the mechanical to reduce shock damage that may cause the slow in between shot, yet quite tolerable. Built sturdy like a tank. I took it to white water rafting in Kern River, survived the submersion test and drop on the rock without any casing protection, ie silicon skin. 10.1 mega pixels!!! way to much. microSD card adapter work fine not as fast as xD card. Notice faster with SanDisk cards. I use Kingston micro SDHC 4gb. Have to play with re formating the card by computer couple time to work out the card reading error even with updating the camera firmware to 1.1 the latest as suggested on Olympus website. Although no problem on my Sandisk 6gb micro SDHC. I will be handing this over to my father since he more likely to neglect taking care of using any digital devices to see if it survive him and he travel a lot. If after 6 month no problem. the 5th generation of this device will replace my Sony DSC T9. So far love it.

By luanminhle - Jun 4, 2008

Olympus waterproof not really

Strengths: Price is okay, shockproof, 10MP

Weakness: not really waterproof

I bought this camera primarily because of its shockproof and waterproof capabilities. I've only had it for 3 months but now its broken. I go to the beach at least once a month and yesterday on my most recent trip it stopped working because it got wet in the sea. I didn't even submerge it, I had it on my kayak the whole time. I'm not the only one who had this experience. My friend bought the same...
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I bought this camera primarily because of its shockproof and waterproof capabilities. I've only had it for 3 months but now its broken. I go to the beach at least once a month and yesterday on my most recent trip it stopped working because it got wet in the sea. I didn't even submerge it, I had it on my kayak the whole time.
I'm not the only one who had this experience. My friend bought the same camera around the same time I did. He was unlucky because the first time he used it underwater, his Stylus 1030 stopped working as well.
Boo to false advertising.

By wisepeso - Aug 11, 2008

Olympus Stylus 1030 SW (Silver)

THE GOOD: Rugged, sealed body thats waterproof, crushproof, shockproof, and freezeproof; solid build and design, onboard Guide for beginners; live preview. THE BAD: Average image quality and performance. THE BOTTOM LINE: Other cameras may deliver better image quality and performance, but none can survive the range of conditions that the Olympus 1030 SW was designed for.
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By cnet.com - Sep 5, 2008