Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Sep 28, 2005 - By Noam Reuveni
The Olympus Stylus 800, known in Europe as the µ[mju:] Digital 800, comes equipped with an 8.0 megapixel, 1/1.8-inch CCD and Olympus’ Bright Capture Technology. A member of the long line of Stylus cameras, first introduced to film-based point-and-shooters in 1982, the camera is built for the automatically-reliant crowd with 22 automatic shooting modes. But it also includes several manual controls and a fast burst mode, which should broaden its appeal to more advanced users. Like the rest of Olympus’ Stylus line, the Stylus 800 is weatherproofed with rubber seals within its body. This enables the camera to endure raindrops and splashes, but it certainly can’t be taken swimming. The 4.1 x 2.3 x 1.3-inch Stylus 800 has a 3x optical zoom lens that fully retracts into the camera’s body and is protected by a sliding door that locks shut. There’s no optical viewfinder; instead the Stylus 800 relies on a bright, 2.5-inch screen. The Stylus 800 has a suggested price of $449.99, but ships for as low as $355.95 online; however, it doesn’t include an xD-Picture Card.
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Picture Quality / Size Options (7.0)
The Stylus 800 captures all still pictures in JPEG format. There are four image quality modes, which apply various degrees of compression, creating a combined 9 available resolutions. The picture size and quality can be saved in the Record Mode menu, which is accessed by pressing the menu button, followed by the left arrow. The following image sizes are available: SHQ, 3264 x 2448, low compression; HQ, 3264 x 2448, high compression; SQ1, 2560 x 1920, 2272 x 1704, and 2048 x 1536, high compression; SQ2, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, standard compression; and 640 x 480, low compression.

Picture Effects Options (6.5)
The Stylus has two color modes which are accessed in the Playback mode, and two picture options which are available in the shooting modes. When in playback mode, the user can opt to apply black and white or sepia tone effects to previously recorded images. Edited images are saved as a new file on the xD card.

During shooting, users can select either Panorama or 2 in 1 effects options. Panorama shooting is unfortunately only available when using an Olympus brand xD card. It allows the user to later stitch together up to 10 pictures using Olympus’ software to create a panoramic composite. The 2 in 1 shooting option allows the user to take two pictures on a single image. The user first takes an image that will be the left half of the final image, then takes a picture that will be the right half of the final image. The camera splices the two together to create a single split-screen image.

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