Manual Control Options
This digital camera isn’t made with manual control in mind. There is no manual mode and no manual control over shutter speeds and apertures, but the exposure compensation can be tweaked directly from the multi-selector. Users can also make a few minor changes like ISO and white balance.
Focus
Auto Focus
The Olympus Stylus 730 uses a CCD contrast detection system that has two auto focus modes: iESP and Spot. The camera normally focuses from 19.7 inches, but can focus as close as 2.8 inches in the super macro mode. Super macro focuses from 2.8-17.4 inches. The regular macro mode can focus as close as 7.9 inches when the lens is at its widest focal length and from 11.8 inches when the camera is zoomed in on a subject.
Manual Focus
This feature is not available on this automatically oriented digital camera.
ISO
The Olympus Stylus 730 has a wider ISO range than previous Stylus models; the Stylus 720 SW’s ISO selection extended to 1600. Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 are the 730’s options. Olympus’ Bright Capture technology uses higher sensitivities to bring out background detail.
White Balance
This digital camera has Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, and Fluorescent 3 white balance options. They can be found in the regular camera menu and also in the OK/Func menu. The looks of the menus are slightly different, with the regular menu covering most of the live view in text. The other menu has a much better live view. Unfortunately, there is no manual white balance mode.
Exposure
From the multi-selector, users can access the exposure compensation scale that has the standard range of +/- 2 in 1/3-stop steps.
Metering
The Stylus 730 has two metering modes available from the recording menu: the default multi-pattern ESP mode and the Spot mode. If users aren’t quite clear on which should be used when, there is a help guide that can be accessed that leads to the proper setting based on the lighting situation.
Shutter Speed
This digital camera has a typical range of a compact model. Its shutter speeds range from 1/1000th of a second to 1/2 second, with an extension to 4 seconds in the night scene. The extended shutter speeds from 1/2-4 seconds automatically activate a noise reduction system.
Aperture
The Olympus zoom lens’ widest aperture is f/3.5, which is much smaller than what the competition is offering right now. Most cameras have an f/2.8 stop, which lets in much more light onto the image sensor. The maximum aperture at the 3x focal length is an even smaller f/5.0.
