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| Brand: Olympus
Category: Photography
List Price: $349.99
Buy New: $275.99
You Save: $74.00 (21%)
New (67)
Rating:  130 reviews
Sales Rank: 82
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 3.6
Digital Zoom: 5
Connectivity: AV
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 18.2
Minimum Focal Length: 5
Maximum Resolution: 10100000
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 3.7 x 0.8 x 2.4
nv:Sensor: 10.1 Megapixel
Size: 1/2.33
Image Resolution: 3648 x 2736
Movie Resolution: 640 x 480
Memory Included: 14.7MB Internal
Storage Media: xD-Picture Card
Compressed Format: DPOF
Compressed Format: PIM3
Compressed Format: JPG (EXIF 2.2)
Movie File Format: AVI motion JPEG
Optical Zoom: 3.6x
Digital Zoom: 5x
Combined Zoom: 18x
Focal Length: 28 - 102mm
Focus Mode: TTL - AF
Focus Mode: iESP
Focusing Range: 50cm - infinity
LCD Monitor: 2.7-inch
LCD Pixels: 230,000 pixels
LCD Coverage: 100%
MPN: B0011E87RM
Model: B0011E87RM
UPC: 050332162921
EAN: 0050332162921
ASIN: B0011E87RM
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Super Camera May 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This camera was recommended to me by daughter who loved her similar Olympus camera. this camera has surpassed my expectations. I was very happy with my Canon digital camera but as we spend a lot on time in our boat and love snorkeling this water proof camera intriged us...we Love it. Wonderful clear pictures and very user friendly.
So far so good April 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was my first digital camera so I have not fully mastered the learning curve yet, but what I see so far is good. I found I could download pics without the Olympus software which is great. I discovered that I cannot see through the viewfinder AT ALL when trying to take outdoor pics - how do I fix that?!?!? It is like shooting blind for heavens sake. Resolution on pics is AWESOME. I gave it a dunk and it performed as advertised. Tough to find accessories but hopefully that will improve with time. I dislike being forced into Olympus brand accessories and need a car charger too but no luck so far. Guess that comes with jumping on a totally new camera very early on
 Poor quality / Good features April 21, 2008
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
The camera has cool features that you will not find on most digital cameras including the fact that it is crush proof, water proof, and freeze proof. These are all great but the quality of the pictures is lacking. I tried many different settings and set the size and the quality to the maximum size but the quality still suffered. I gave this camera 2 stars out of 5 because of the poor quality which is unacceptable for a camera at this price range and also the fact that this is the 3rd generation of these cameras. The quality of the pictures is more important to me than all of the features I mentioned above which is why I returned this camera and purchased a Canon Powershot SD790-IS. My previous camera was a Canon which I loved so I decided to stick with what I know will not disapoint me.
If somewhat grainy and fuzzy pictures do not bother you and you need something that can handle rough terrain, kids, or clumsy hands than this camera is for you. If you are like me and prefer nice quality photographs than I recommend you steer clear.
Great little camera that takes VGA 30fps videos for more than 10sec! April 18, 2008
166 out of 169 found this review helpful
After 5 years with a 5MP Olympus Camedia C-50 with the underwater housing, I decided it was time to upgrade. We only used the underwater housing to protect the camera from the elements when we went sailing. We used it a couple of times to go snorkeling, but it wasn't worth the bulkiness of the housing.
So, that being said, I went looking for another camera that was waterproof--we could take it on the boat or for the occasional swim without buying an underwater housing. The options were limited with the Pentax and the Olympus. I went for the Olympus because we were happy with the old camera and still have a few xd cards. I went for the 1030sw since it is the latest and greatest. So far I am glad with my choice.
In the box: The camera, USB cable (not the same camera connection as the old one), audio/video cable, microSD converter (put the microSD card in to fit into the xd space), Olympus Master Software, battery, and wall plug-in charger (no more cord--although the manual says in some areas a cord is still used). No xd-card is included.
I took the camera right out of the box and started playing. I took videos of my dog and plenty of pictures of him, too. I loved it! It is strange to me not to have an eye viewfinder, but I am getting used to it. It is super easy to use and I had so much fun dropping it in a bowl of water to test it out and having it work! I've ruined a camera before because it got wet, so this was the coolest feature!
I bought the camera even though I knew it only took VGA video at 30fps for 10sec, which was a disappointment, but I figured I could live with it. Well, after registering the camera a couple of days ago, I got an email this morning saying that an update to the firmware was available that would allow longer video at 30fps! Yea! I upgraded the firmware (through the provided software) and tried it out and it didn't work. Then I re-read the email--an M+ or H xd card is required. The older (or cheaper) M xd cards don't allow for the longer videos at 30fps. So, I ran out and bought a 2GB M+ xd card and sure enough, I can take VGA videos at 30fps for as long as the card can hold. That does away with that negative!
Let's get down to the pros and cons:
Pros:
*small & lightweight,
*takes nice pictures,
*easy to change settings (a quick click on the "ok" button and you can change settings,
*lots of available features on the camera itself (it even has a selection that will "guide" you for certain things),
*nice big LCD
Cons:
*the xd card--just about every other camera out there uses an SD card and computers don't have built-in xd reading capability,
*it doesn't have a remote to take group photos--the c-50 did and I loved it because I didn't have to set the timer and run into the picture--I'm going to miss that,
*it is easy to get your finger in front of the lens--I will have to learn to keep my fingers off to the side.
It doesn't have all the features of an SLR, but hey, it isn't an SLR! For a point and shoot, it does enough for me. I have the SLR for the "big" projects and this is for the times when I don't want something bulky and want to take pictures. I can't wait to take it on the boat or snorkeling!
I highly recommend this camera for someone looking for a sturdy camera that is waterproof (not just all weather) and easy to carry around. Go for the M+ xd card for the video capability (I went for the 2GB). I would also recommend protective covering for the LCD (I'm thinking about the silicone cover, too). An extra battery is always nice, too, but it doesn't seem necessary so far--I've been playing with it for 3 days running around taking videos and pictures and it still shows a full battery even though I don't think I even charged the battery all the way when I first got it because I was so excited to play with the camera.
Good for watersports, not great on land. April 14, 2008
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
I spend a lot of time on and in the water and I bought this camera to stick in my pocket and go. It is very good for that. For general purpose use though it is poor-to-mediocre in comparison to other point and shoot digitals at this price that I looked at. I usually shoot slide film/ SLR, but I figured for the price this camera would probably take acceptable pictures.
The good: the macro mode works very well and is fun to use. The underwater thing is as cool as it sounds. The camera is well built and rugged and easy to carry around. The battery life is outstanding. All in all it should be a great outdoors person's pocket camera
The bad. The biggest problem (and it is a huge one) is the horrible program mode system. The lack of an aperture or shutter priority setting is a major, major issue in light of the bizarre pre-sets on this camera.
For starters, the camera sets the aperture wide open, no matter what you're actually trying to take a picture of. I shot about 150 pictures in "Landscape" and "Portrait & Landscape" modes last week and every time the camera set the aperture to the max allowed by the zoomed lens, usually f/3.5. Even if you point it at a fluorescent light or bright water (so there are no low-light issues) it does not stop down. This is stupid. It means that the only thing in focus in most of the "landscape" photos was a tree-branch in the foreground or some guy's hat. There is no manual override. Apparently it is a fixed aperture camera. The only way is to zoom to the max which only has a max aperture of up to 5.6 or so. Of course this means that the wide angle feature is useless for landscapes.
Even if you manage to get an appropriate f-stop, the camera has a problem picking appropriate ISO and shutter speeds, especially in low light. It seems to prioritize for low ISO, meaning that it also slows the shutter speed down, resulting in blurry and noisy photos. A speed of 1/40s with ISO 80 is pretty useless in terms of getting good handheld pictures vs speed of 1/250 and ISO 200, for example. Using the LED seems to fix this in the Macro mode but in other modes the camera insists on reducing shutter speed and opening up the lens inappropriately. You can set the ISO manually but the modes are fiddly and it's easy to forget if you switch back and forth a lot.
Finally my autofocus simply refuses to focus on anything more than about 70' away. Even if I confirm spot-focus before shooting on a distant object it will be blurry in the final picture, while random closer objects are in focus.
It is possible that there is something wrong with the camera I have as I can't imagine anyone designed it this way (right?). However I went to a local camera store and tried their two display models and had the same issues. It's going back.
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