The Stylus 850 SW is the cheaper of the two Olympus new water proof cameras. Both the 850 SW and the 1030 SW offer water proofing, shock protection, and freezing temperature protection, but the 850 SW is more than $100 cheaper. It does offer reduced protection when compared to the 1030 SW though.
Specifications
- 8.0 MP
- ISO 64 - 1600
- 3x opitcal zoom
- 5x digital zoom
- 2.5" LCD Screen
- digital Image Stabilization
- Water proof up to 3m or 10 feet
- Shoock proof up to 1.5m or 5 feet
- Weather proof up to -10 deg Celsius or 14 deg Farenheit.
For the full specs and comparison with the other 2 current underwater cameras read this article.
In The Box
- Olympus Stylus 850 SW Camera
- Battery
- Charger
- Micro SD / XD Adapter (MASD-1)
- USB AV Cable
- USB Cable
- Wrist Strap
- Manuals
- Software
The Olympus Stylus 850 SW is a smaller version of the 1030 SW. It offers reduced protection over the 1030 SW, and without the Crush Proofing. This camera regularly retails for about $270-300. It comes in 6 colors - black, blue, orange, pink, silver and yellow.
The camera's body is well made. Though it's made out of plastic and metal pieces, the camera feels sturdy in your hands. There are two doors that open, which provide access to the ports in the camera, and both doors are very thick and lined with gaskets to prevent water from leaking in. They are also locked by switches. You can tell that this camera is water proof and stronger than your typical camera. One door is to access the USB port to connect to your computer or TV. They are very easy to open and close. The other door is just for your battery and your memory card. I'd say the buttons are well laid out and are easy to press. Even the wheel where you select the camera mode has a bit of rubber dampening on it.
The lens housing protrudes out of the top a little bit. I usually don't like it when the lens is placed at a top corner, because my fingers tend to get in the way of some shots. That also goes for this camera. But if you use it enough, I'm sure you will remember to keep your fingers out of the way. I'm just used to my Canon point and shoots where the lens is more centered. I had this same problem with the Sony DSC-T70. The lens does not come out of the body when you turn on the camera, and when you zoom in and out. There's also a lens protector which slides open when you turn the camera on. It seems like debris and water can get stuck in between the protector and the lens if you turn the camera on and off underwater.
Now on to the actual functionality of the camera.
The Stylus 850 SW is equipped with a 2.5" HyperCrystal LCD. It is crystal clear like the name says, and has a lot less noise in the dark areas than the SD1100IS. The images look good when looking through the LCD, but it refreshes rather slow. This can be seen when panning or moving it quickly from side to side. There's a bit of a delay. None the less, it is very clear, and picks up the colors well.
Once I got a memory card in, and charged the battery for about two hours I finally got to take pictures. Taking a picture works like any other point and shoot. Half press the shutter button to focus, and once it beeps or gives you the green light, press the button down some more to take the shot. But, I must say this camera has the loudest auto focusing lens. It is also very slow. Another odd thing is that even when you aren't half pressing the shutter, just moving the camera around will cause the lens to refocus or at least make a sound similar to it auto focusing.
Changing settings on the camera is pretty easy, they can be done through the face buttons, some with just a simple click and selection. However, when you actually get to the menu it is very ugly. The menu is very kiddy like and not appealing at all. Luckily you can change the theme of your menu, but still their use of icons isn't very good. I much prefer the menu lists found in Canons and Nikons. In my case menu of the icons were greyed out.
The face detection feature only works when you set it to face detection and have the appropriate shooting mode. I had face detection turned on, and then went back to Auto mode, and it would no longer recognize faces.
There are 24 scene modes, and in total, I think about 28 actual shooting modes (which includes the scene modes). Its easy to switch through modes. When in scene mode, if you keep the menu on a specific item for long enough, it will tell you when to use that feature. There are a bunch that I haven't seen on any other cameras, and it distinguishes if you are taking a shot of just landscape or landscape with portrait. I guess this is a good thing for people who use scene modes. Personally, I have not, and usually just use most of the settings in Auto. I like to keep the ISO at 400 or lower, and I like to control the flash. One thing I'm confused about is that one of the shooting modes has a Hand Shake, which I'm guessing is for the digital Image Stabilization. Does that mean it's not always on? Only when I select this mode. If so, that's pretty lame. Their digital image stabilization is supposed to reduce both camera shake and motion blur in the subject. I'm guessing it just adjusts the ISO and aperture to shoot as fast as it can to reduce motion blur in the subject.
The battery life is a little bit screwy also. When I first charged the battery it took over 2 hours to fully charge. When I stuck it in the camera and used it, it seemed to run out very fast. It went from full Green, to flashing Red. I turned off the camera, and it's back to full Green.
What makes this camera special? Well for one, it does have built-in water proofing up to 3 meters or 10 feet, and for up to 1 hour under water. Typically, you'd have to buy an underwater casing for $200 on top of your $200+ camera. And it will be bulky, however you'll probably be able to go further down and for a longer period of time. For me, just being able to use this at the beach, and under water for a short period of time is perfect for me since I can't swim well to begin with. 10 feet is plenty. It even has scene modes specifically for underwater, and an underwater macro mode.
The camera can also take a 1.5 meter or 5 foot fall. I know most people are taller than that, but at least the protection is there. And with the sturdiness of the camera i can understand how it can take a fall from that high.
The last thing that makes this camera special is that it can work in very low temperatures up to -10 degrees Celsius or 14 degrees Farenheit. Now I'm not sure how much bearing this has, because I have used my old Canon SD450 when going snowboarding at Big White. It was pretty cold there, and I also used it during night boarding. I guess the extra impact protection and water proofing would make this camera safer to use in those conditions. Snowboarding and playing out in the snow is another reason why I would purchase this camera. Olympus recommends getting the seals and gaskets replaced every year by an authorized service centre. Also if you happen to use the camera in salt water, you should let it soak in fresh water for 10 minutes to get rid of the debris and salt. Never pour water onto the camera.
This Stylus also has a Panorama mode for taking wide landscape pictures. However, there is a problem. I used my microSD card with the MASD-1 XD Card adapter, and this feature does not work. I can see it in the menu but it is greyed out. It requires the use of an XD Card in order to take panoramic pictures supposedly due to Olympus headers which are in their XD Cards. I guess it's not that bad as you can just purchase an XD card, but they are a bit pricey. At the time of this review a 2GB XD card was $50. SD cards can be purchased for under $20 for the same size. I was really looking forward to this feature because they have 3 different settings. The first one you just take one picture and then it automatically takes the other two pictures as you drag it across the screen. It just looks for a matching target and then when it lines up it takes a picture automatically. The second mode allows you shoot the panaromic shot automatically, and it shows a part of the previous picture so you can line it up properly. The third mode is for the computer only but you can take up to 10 pictures and you can move up and down and left and right.
One other feature that I was impressed with was the Hi burst mode. The regular burst can take a picture every second. The high burst mode takes 7 fps though at reduced resolution. It's still very fast though. Another mode I was kind of excited about was the Shoot and Select feature which allowed you to constantly take pictures at 7 fps. Then you can quickly delete or keep the pictures there. Normally, I find deleting pictures on the 850SW to be bit tedious.
The Macro Mode also has its pros and cons. For one, it has a feature that I haven't seen on any other cameras where you can shine the LED on the front of your camera during macro for imporved lighting. But the bad feature is that the minimal focusing distance is close to 3 inches. That's pretty bad when some other cameras can focus as close as 1 cm away.
There's also a few other effects that you can apply to your pictures. Aside from the typical editing such as Red Eye Removal, Black & white, Sepia, etc. you can also do a bunch more to your pictures. From in your camera you can add a frame to your picture, add text, and even create a calendar from your pictures. Theres also an indexing mode for videos, where it takes a few frames from the movie as a preview.
Pros
- Water Proof!
- Can withstand a 5 foot fall.
- High speed burst of 7 frames per second
- Comes with a micro SD adapter
- Comes in 6 different colors.
- Button layout is pretty good and easy to press
- Lots of features in camera editing
- Cheapest of the current under water cameras
Cons
- Loud and slow Auto Focus
- Horrible menu system
- Panoramic mode only works with XD cards and not micro SD
- Battery life is pretty low
Overall the camera is average at best. It offers some good features. But the real reason to get this camera is for its under water capabilities. For myself the 10 feet is a lot, but I don't like having to replace the seals and gaskets every year. I'm not sure how much it costs, but I'm guessing it is not cheap. The Auto Focus is also a bit off as it is slower and louder than what I'm used to in a Point and Shoot. The LCD is crystal clear and the delay isn't that bad. I wish the lens was a bit wider, like the other two water proof cameras at 28 mm, but there has to be trade offs between the lower end and higher end. And at $230 (which is what I purchased this camera for on sale) it is a very good bargan as some Canon underwater cases at $230 for the case itself! It also has Image Stabilization but it's in the electronic or digital form, so it is not as good as Opitcal image stabilization. I'd probably use this camera only for its specialized features and keep my existing camera for regular outtings. Currently, this is the cheapest way to take good digital pictures underwater, unless your willing to spend about $100 more for a better one.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
