Olympus Stylus 1050 SW

 

Lens (3.50)
The 6.mm-20.1mm lens (equivalent to a 38-114mm on a 35mm camera) has an f/3.5 maximum aperture at its widest setting and f/5 at maximum zoom. As often happens with compact cameras, the zoom isn't smooth and freely adjustable, but moves into preset lengths as you press the control. There are nine zoom steps in all. If you want finer control, you're just going to have to walk closer or further away from your subject.

We like the full-camera-width protective cover that shields the lens and flash when not in use, and also acts as an on-off switch. It requires no finicky fumbling to slide this cover up or down, and it moves into place with an authoritative snap.

In addition to optical zoom, two types of digital zoom are available. What Olympus calls 'Fine Zoom' produces higher apparent zoom ratios by capturing a progressively smaller section of the sensor, lowering image resolution as you zoom in, The maximum zoon in this mode is 17x, at a resolution of 640x480. You do end up with a lower-res image but, on the plus side, you don't experience the ugly pixelation caused by standard Digtial Zoom, which is also available up to 15x magnification.

Macro mode, which includes three settings, works well. Choosing the standard macro mode allows focusing as close as 7.9 inches (20 cm) from the subject. The super macro mode lets you get thisclose to the target, as near as 2.8 inches (7 cm). Finally, you can engage an LED light with the super macro mode. The bright LED light causes too much glare to be useful shooting anything with even a slightly shiny surface (even postage stamps proved problematic), but it does allow handheld shots of small objects that you'd never be able to achieve without the light. Overall, all three macro modes produced impressively sharp close-up results.

What's sorely missing, though is true image stabilization, whether through shifting lens elements or the image sensor itself within the camera. There's a digital image stabilization mode, available in both still and movie modes, but this simply boosts the ISO setting to enable faster shutter speeds, a poor substitute for true hardware-based image stabilization, particularly in a camera that's likely to be used in active settings.