Olympus keeps noise down through ISO 200. While you can see the beginnings of noise at ISO 200, it's only visible as a slight mottling of colors and won't mar prints. At ISO 400, this gets a little more pronounced, but you can still make good prints and there's only a slight loss of fine detail. At ISO 800 noise becomes heavy, there's a significant loss of fine detail (the markings on the measuring tape in our test scene became illegible), but only a mild loss of shadow detail. At ISO 1,600 noise is extremely heavy, fine details are obliterated, and a lot of shadow detail is lost. I suggest staying below ISO 800 when using the Stylus 790 SW and avoiding ISO 1,600 at all costs.
While the Stylus 790 SW is far from perfect, it's one of the few cameras on the market, especially in this price range, that can take a beating and actually operate well under water or at the top of a ski resort. If you need a camera that can face up to those challenges, then the 790 SW makes sense. If not, you're probably better off with a regular compact camera that can perform faster and give you better image quality.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Time to first shot | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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