Picture Quality / Size Options (6.5)
Plenty of image size options are available on the Stylus 720SW, but only in certain modes. Unfortunately, many of the scene modes won’t take pictures larger than 3 megapixels. The Olympus Stylus 720SW also automatically shrinks the image size for the high-speed burst mode. Users should be aware of the image size at all times: this Stylus tends to change to the smaller images quite often. The following image sizes are available: 3072 x 2304, 2560 x 1920, 2304 x 1728, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480. Image sizes are an option in the initial menu screen. The top 7.1-megapixel size can be captured in fine or standard compression, but the rest of the options are captured as standard. If users change their mind about an image size or want to shrink files so they can fit more pictures on a memory card, there is a Resize option within the playback menu.
Picture Effects Mode (8.0)
From the initial playback menu screen, an Edit option offers both standard and unique features. Built-in editing options fix red-eye, crop, resize, and adjust the brightness and saturation of an image. The red-eye fix option didn’t perform very well, even when presented with a blatant case of red-eye. On the other hand, the cropping and resizing options are more intuitive than most features on this digital camera, and the brightness and saturation scales, which have +/- 5 scales with live views, are easy to adjust.
Color filters are also available from the editing section of the menu are a few color filters. Black & White and Sepia both lack contrast and the sepia mode looks off-color. From the same menu, users can add frames and titles and can even create calendar files. Thirteen frames are available, ranging from a plain white rectangle, a suitcase-shaped frame, and a heart cutout. Ten titles can also be added in various shades of black, white, or gray: Congratulations, Thank You, Happy Birthday, Good Luck, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays, Best Wishes, Missing You, Love, and Smile. Adding a frame saves the file separately in order to preserve the original, always a good idea. To top it off, users can pair a single photo with a month and year. This Calendar function creates a separate file with the photo on top and the month’s dates on the bottom; this can then be printed directly from the camera.
Overall, the Olympus Stylus 720SW has more special effects than most digital cameras. Its editing features are just as extensive as those it offers on its included Olympus Master Software, so users may as well do it all on the camera. From the Stylus 720SW, users can not only brighten a picture a few steps and add a black and white filter, but also prepare birthday cards and calendars for printing.
