Olympus Stylus 830

Viewfinder (0.0)
Many manufacturers, including Olympus, are forgoing viewfinders on slim point-and-shoots in favor of LCD monitors. While viewfinders are useful in certain situations, such as when taking photos outdoors in bright sunlight (which makes it difficult to see the screen) for the most part, viewfinders on point-and-shoots are becoming a thing of the past.

LCD Screen (7.5)
The 2.5-inch HyperCrystal LCD is used to compose shots and as a menu display. Its 230,000-pixel resolution provides a crisp, smooth view. The screen withstands extreme viewing angles, to the left, right, above, and below eyelevel. LCDs with low resolution, slow refresh rates, or limited viewing angles look pixelated, choppy, and solarize at extreme angles, factors which make it difficult to show images to a group of friends standing around the camera or check for focus while reviewing images.

Sometimes LCDs are difficult to see outdoors because the direct sunlight overpowers the screen’s brightness or its shiny surface reflects the surrounding scenery. To combat these issues, Olympus included an anti-glare coating and five brightness levels, accessed through the Setup menu.

While in Shooting mode, various amounts of shooting information can be displayed on the screen by pressing the DISP button. When shooting information is displayed, pressing the shutter button down halfway brings the aperture and shutter speed. The live histogram, which warns when part of a scene is underexposed or overexposed, helps the user select the proper exposure for a scene.

Olympus’s Perfect Shot Preview, also included in other Olympus models, displays the effects of various settings on an image. Perfect Shot Preview is accessed by turning the mode dial to Guide and selecting “Shoot w/ effects preview.” Users may select from the following effects: zoom, exposure, color, metering, and movie smoothness. The various effects of different settings on the scene are displayed in a quadrant of thumbnails. Users can select the desired setting from this menu or from the Camera or Function menus. This is a somewhat useful feature, but it takes several steps to access, more than many might be willing to take to change a setting.

The Stylus 830’s LCD screen meets what is becoming a standard size and resolution for point-and-shoots. Some point-and-shoots, such as the Sony T100 and the Panasonic TZ3 have 3-inch monitors, but those are somewhat of a luxury; 2.5 inches is suitable for shooting and reviewing images.

Flash (6.25)
The built-in flash has a reported range of .66 to 11.8 feet when the lens is zoomed out and 2 to 7.9 feet when it is zoomed in, when the camera is set to Auto ISO. The flash doesn’t reach very far, especially considering Olympus’s reported range is likely at an ISO setting somewhere in the middle of the range, which makes the camera more sensitive to light.

The flash is located to the top left of the lens. Its placement is dangerously close to where the middle finger of the right hand wraps around the camera. Its position, though not as poor as if it were placed the right side of the lens, still makes it vulnerable to being blocked. The flash illuminates unevenly. The center portion of the frame is brighter than the edges. If you're taking photos of people, they will be noticeably brighter than the background.

The Stylus 830 has basic flash settings: auto, red-eye reduction, fill-in, and off. The red-eye reduction setting fires off a pre-flash to shrink the subjects’ pupils, lessening the reflection off the retina, which causes eyes to appear red in photos. In contrast to the auto setting, the fill-in setting will fire the flash no matter the lighting condition, even in bright light. This feature can be used to “fill in” shadows on subjects’ faces in brightly lit scenes, producing a more flattering effect.

The Olympus Stylus 830’s flash options are nothing fancy. In this price range, the Canon PowerShot A720 IS perhaps sets the benchmark with a full array of flash options including slow synchro, and first and second curtain sync modes, as well as flash compensation. The Stylus A830’s will satisfy basic flash needs, but those who want to be experimental with their flash should consider the A720 IS.

Zoom Lens (7.75)
The 5x optical zoom Olympus lens has a 35mm equivalent range of 36 to 180mm, the same as its predecessor, the Stylus 780. The lens is comprised of eight lenses in six groups, with four aspherical lenses. When the camera is powered off, the lens retracts into the body and is covered by two metals plates that snap closed. The lens protrudes about a quarter of an inch from the front face. When the camera is powered on, the lens extends about an inch from the camera body in three tiers.

The 5x zoom lens gives users a little more reach than the typical 3x point-and-shoot lens, which is great for capturing the action from your seat at a small concert venue, for instance. But the wide end of the lens isn’t, well, wide. If you’re taking pictures of a large group, such as a children’s baseball team, you may have to back up (hopefully not into other eager parents) to fit everyone in. The Panasonic TZ3 has a wider and longer 10x optical zoom lens, with a 35mm equivalent range of 28-280mm.

The lens is controlled by the zoom toggle on the camera’s back. When engaged, a vertical bar appears on the right of the LCD screen to indicate to the user where they are in the zoom range. The lens makes a lot of mechanical noise as it zooms through the range. It’s an annoying sound, like a fly buzzing around your head. The lens stops at about 12 focal lengths zooming in and out.

The camera’s 5.6x digital zoom can be turned on and off in the Camera menu, but it should be avoided. Digital zoom simply magnifies images, with no regard for image quality. When digital zoom is activated, the top portion of the zoom bar turns red. Red, perhaps, to warn users not to go there. Don’t.

The maximum aperture when the lens is zoomed out is f/3.3 and f/5.0 when zoomed in. Competing cameras, such as the Panasonic LZ7, Canon A720 IS and A650 IS have wider apertures, which allows more light to hit the sensor. Wide apertures are useful when shooting in low light without a flash.

The Stylus 830 includes Olympus’s Dual Image Stabilization system, something its predecessor did not have. The system combines sensor-shift stabilization to combat camera shake, and high ISO settings that allow for faster shutter speeds to freeze moving subjects. Neither the Stylus 820 nor the 1200, the step down and step up models to the 830, have sensor-shift stabilization.  Sensor-shift stabilization and optical image stabilization systems literally shift a part of the camera or lens to counteract camera shake, which can cause blurry photos, especially in dim lighting when the camera selects slower shutter speeds; this is a highly desirable feature, especially for longer zoom lenses. The Stylus 830’s image stabilization is activated by pressing the designated button located next to the shutter button and then the ok/func button.

With the addition of sensor-shift image stabilization, the Stylus 830’s lens is a step up from its predecessor. Its lens is a little longer than the standard 3x lens found on most point-and-shoots. But if a long zoom is among your most desired features, consider the $299.95 Panasonic TZ3, which has a 10x optically stabilized zoom lens. 

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