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- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 22 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"A good camera can easily be made better"
Pros: Water resistant, good battery life, quick accurate focus, excellent LCD in bright or dim light, guides for different modes, high ISO modes for low light situations, incamera red eye fix, manual modes
Cons: Scene modes not fully explained so high ISO might be chosen or shutter speed requiring tripod without operator knowing, poor image quality at high ISO (over 400)
Summary: If left in the "P" mode this camera uses ISO 250 or below and the pictures are as good as any camera in its class. Heavily cropped 4 X 6's look great on my dye sublimation printer. Pictures are sharpened to the point that on a computer at 100% you will see some artifacts along edges, but you will never see these in your prints. This sharpening is for people who are going to print without using Photoshop to sharpen their pictures, such as those printing direct from the camera. The high ISO pictures are good for "remembering the moment" or for when you want to record the layout of a large dark room and the layout is more important than fine details or accurate colors. ISO 2500 lets the flash work for over 40'. If you understand that the high ISO pictures are OK for viewing on a TV screen slide show or for low res. Internet, not for printing, you will be happy with them.
Olympus should be more specific about what the scene modes are really doing. They should display ISO, shutter, and f-stop in all modes, not just "P", aperture, and shutter priority. Also, when ISO "auto" is selected, the camera does not report the selected ISO until playback. It ought to tell you in record mode. Another problem is that changing the EV in flash mode makes subtle or no change in exposure. If this were fixed and the camera reported the values chosen in the scene modes, I would have given the camera a "9". If you remember that this is not a DSLR and use the high ISO modes only when absolutely necessary, you will be happy with this camera. The all weather housing makes this much more versatile for people using it for outdoor activities than any competitive model.
Olympus Stylus 800:
