Yoshi here… Digital Photography Review has written a complete Olympus Stylus 800 review. This camera is noted for being weatherproof. I wonder what that really means. Also, my attention was grabbed by the “Bright Capture” feature. Olympus says this technology gives a big boost to the cameras sensitivity allowing for photographs in very low light with no flash. I LIKE that feature. Except that there is no free lunch. Using “Bright Capture” will probably increase visable noise in photos, which I don’t like.
[Full Olympus Stylus 800 Digital Photography Review]
Verdict:
Pros
- Excellent resolution
- Bright, vivid and sharp results (though see cons, below)
- Weatherproof
- Excellent build quality
- Attractive design and good handling
- Aperture priority and shutter priority modes
- Lots of scene/subject modes
- Fast, reliable focus
- Excellent screen, remains usable in very, very low light
- Very little purple fringing
- Excellent low-light focus
- Good ’super macro’ mode
- Good flash exposures
- Good battery life
- Lots of ‘fun’ features and playback options
- Good price
Cons
- Visible noise reduction / sharpening / demosaicing artefacts at all ISO settings, especially if you don’t use the SHQ mode
- Images over-sharpened and too contrasty
- Occasional white balance problems in scenes with one predominant color
- Smearing of low contrast detail (such as foliage and hair)
- Tendency to mis-expose in bright high contrast scenes
- Slow flash recycling
- Some basic controls too deep in menus
- Writing to xD picture card slow
- No orientation sensor
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Well mantained site. I’ll talk about in my podcast.