Olympus Stylus 1000 Digital Camera Review

by Emily Raymond
Published on November 16, 2006

Navigation
Intro	Testing / Performance
Physical Tour	Components
Design / Layout	Modes
Control Options	Image Parameters
Connectivity / Extras	Overall Impressions
Conclusion	Specs / Ratings
Photo Gallery

 

The Auto mode can be accessed on the mode dial with a camera icon, then in the function menu. Users can jog between Program and Auto modes. This isn't exactly the most intuitive setup, but we've already determined that ease of use is not this camera's strongest point. The Auto mode keeps things simple and automatic, while the Program mode is the most manual mode on the camera. Settings can be changed and even saved; users can make changes and reboot the camera and still have the same settings. The Stylus 1000's defaults work well, as there was hardly any shutter lag and pictures were properly exposed. Some cameras have an over-active auto flash in the auto mode, but this camera reserves the feature for only when absolutely necessary.

 

Movie Mode (6.5)

The Olympus Stylus 1000 can record QuickTime movies with sound at the following resolutions: 640 x 480 at 30 fps, 320 x 240 at 30 fps, and 160 x 120 at 15 fps. These options are fairly standard, but the availability of the white balance and metering settings is above and beyond the standard. It's nice to be able to control the shade of Great Aunt Marta's teeth, but this movie mode lacks in other areas. There is no optical zoom while recording videos; there is only digital zoom. The auto focus system doesn't work continuously, so if it doesn't focus before the video begins recording, there is no hope that it will recover for the remainder of the clip. Another annoying feature is the red light on the back of the camera that continuously blinks to indicate the camera is recording the movie to memory. Movies can be played back with sound in the camera, but editing is not possible. The movie mode can be easily accessed with the designated position on the mode dial, but the movie mode should not be used extensively. The video quality is okay and probably good enough to record a few baby steps, but it isn't meant to capture anything where detail or video clarity are essential.  

 

The burst mode is found in the Camera Menu under the Drive option. Single and Hi-Speed choices can be selected. The burst mode, also called Hi-Speed on this model, does not use the full 10 megapixels but restricts the image size to half the resolution. At the 2048 x 1536-pixel image size, the camera can shoot 3.6 frames per second. According to the specs, it can do so for 12 images – but I got it to snap 29 shots consecutively. After the burst, though, it took just as long to write the pictures to the memory. Of note is the 12-second self-timer that is activated with the bottom of the multi-selector.

 

The playback mode on the Olympus Stylus 1000 is quite elaborate but is found easily with a designated position on the mode dial. At its simplest, pictures can be viewed one by one on the high-resolution 2.5-inch LCD screen. Images can be magnified up to 10x or viewed in groups of 4, 9, 16, or 25 per screen. Pictures can be sorted into albums too, but only when a memory card is present.

 

Slide shows can be played with or without background music. The tune is the same one found on the other Stylus models; it is about two measures of elevator music that plays over and over and over again. It is pretty obnoxious; I don’t think I’d ever use it. Strangely, the length of time that the picture appears (3 sec) cannot be adjusted but there is a slew of transition effects available: Normal, Scroll, Fader, Slide, Zoom Down, Zoom Up, Checkerboard, Blinds, Swivel, and Random.

 

There are plenty of in-camera editing effects for still images. Pictures can be rotated, protected, resized, and cropped. There is also a button on this camera that is new to the Stylus line. This Perfect Fix function lightens shadows, reduces red eyes, and eliminates blur; the button also has other duties of digital image stabilization in recording modes and transferring print orders to printers when connected. Brightness and saturation can be tweaked 10 steps in the playback mode as well. Sure, it isn’t exactly Photoshop. But it will do just fine for casual users who want to print cards or scrapbook pages directly from the camera.

 

For these consumers, there are other interesting effects. Black & White and Sepia color filters can be added in the playback mode, 13 different frames are available to choose from, and 10 labels such as “Happy Birthday” and “Happy New Year” can be added to pictures. The Olympus Stylus 1000 aims to be the multimedia machine with its card-making abilities. The camera can also create calendars by letting users choose the month, year, and image to display at the top of the monthly calendar. There are 6 different layouts to choose from so scrapbook pages can be printed directly from the camera.

 

Histograms can be viewed and voice memos can be attached to image files – although they can’t be more than 3 seconds long. Movies can be played with sound in the playback mode, but cannot be edited. They can be fast-forwarded and rewound normally or frame-by-frame. Overall, the playback mode is very thorough and the high-quality LCD screen facilitates the great view.

 

The scene modes can be accessed from the “SCN” position on the mode dial. When the dial is turned to this position, the list appears with these modes: Portrait, Landscape, Portrait + Landscape, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Sport, Indoor, Candle, Self-Portrait, Available Light, Sunset, Fireworks, Museum, Cuisine, Behind Glass, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select 1, Shoot & Select 2, and Beach & Snow. There is also a Panorama mode that provides guidelines so users can snap 10 pictures in a row and later stitch them together with the included Olympus Master Software. There is a catch to this though: an Olympus-branded xD-Picture card must be used. When scrolling through the list of scene modes, a sample picture appears with a text explanation. This is very helpful in picking out just the right shooting mode. Here is an example from the Landscape + Portrait mode: “For shooting both main subject and background. Vivid reproduction of blues and greens.” Unfortunately, some of the scene modes don’t work at full resolution. The Candle and Available Light modes shoot using 5 megapixels or less only. This is too bad for users who want high-quality pictures from their low light shooting. The Available Light mode doesn't work well in other ways too; I took lots of pictures with it and was impressed with how great they looked on the 2.5-inch LCD screen. The camera didn't flash and still stopped action without any shutter lag. The disappointment came when I uploaded the pictures and viewed them on a computer screen, where I could see that everything in the images was muddled with noise and the details were completely lost. Not all of the scene modes were this bad though; the portrait modes worked great and the Shoot & Select modes were handy for action sequences. Shoot & Select 1 recorded at limited resolution, but used the quick burst mode to snap lots of photos and display them as thumbnails across the bottom of the screen with a selected larger preview above. Users can choose photos right after snapping a sequence and can easily delete them – certainly easier than the interface in the playback mode. Shoot & Select 2 shot full resolution photos, but captured them at a much slower pace.