Olympus Stylus 830

Manual Control Options
The Olympus Stylus 830 is primarily an automatic camera. For point-and-shooters not interested in manual controls, this is acceptable, but for those looking to grow and learn with a camera, there are similarly priced and featured cameras available, such and the Canon PowerShot A720 IS, that offer a host of manual controls./o:p>

Focus
Autofocus (7.0)
The Stylus 830 has a CCD Contrast Detection autofocus system. There are three autofocus modes: face detect, iESP, and spot.

The face detection mode is somewhat slow to find faces. Once it does, a green box appears around the face. If the subject turns their face to the side, up, or down, the face detection loses track of it. The Sony T100 has superior face detection.

Though it performs adequately in bright light, the autofocus isn’t the quickest around and struggles to focus on low contrast subjects.

The 830 can focus from 27.6 inches to infinity normally. In Macro mode it can focus from 7.9 inches to infinity when the lens is zoomed out and 23.6 inches to infinity when it is zoomed in. In Super Macro mode the camera can focus from 1.2 to 27.6 inches. The Super Macro mode allows users to capture small objects, like jewelry, and though it makes a bug-like buzz while focus achieved, it’s effective.

Manual Focus (0.0)
The Stylus 830 cannot be manually focused.

ISO (7.5)
When the Stylus 830 is set to the Auto mode, the camera automatically chooses the appropriate ISO. The High Auto setting, available when the camera is in the Program shooting mode, sets the camera to higher sensitivities, thereby increasing shutter speed, to reduce the effects on images caused by the user’s shaky hands.

The manual ISO sensitivity range spans from 64 to 1600 ISO. ISO can be adjusted by the user when the camera is set to the Program mode. The ISO menu is accessible by the Function and Camera menus. ISO is not adjustable in Movie mode.

White Balance (6.5)
The White Balance menu is found in both the Function and Camera menus. It can be changed by the user in the Program shooting and Movie modes. The Olympus Stylus 830 has an Auto and six preset white balance settings. The presets are: Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent lamp 1 (for daylight fluorescent), Fluorescent lamp 2 (for neutral white fluorescent), and Fluorescent lamp 3 (for white fluorescent). The multiple fluorescent presets are a plus, but there is no custom white balance setting, which usually produces the most accurate white balance. Read about how accurate the Stylus 830’s white balance is in the Testing/Performance section of this review.

Exposure (8.0)
The Olympus Stylus 830 has several features that allow users to adjust exposure. Typical of many point-and-shoots, the Stylus 830’s exposure can be adjusted +/- 2 in 1/3 EV step increments. This feature can be used in the Auto, Program, and Movie modes.

Exposure compensation is accessed by pressing the top of the four-way controller. With most cameras, a horizontal bar appears on top of a live view to show the user where they are in the range and each step’s effect on a given scene’s brightness or darkness. The Stylus 830, however, displays a quadrant of thumbnails that show the exposure at each step. This is great for previewing the effects of different settings on images side by side.

The Auction Scene mode is actually a bracketing mode. It takes three photos in succession with the exposure compensation set to 0.0, 0.7, and +0.7. This saves users time when trying to get the proper exposure for a product photo, for instance.

The live histogram is a helpful inclusion that can be displayed on the LCD monitor while shooting. It warns users of over- and underexposed portions of a scene so they can make the appropriate adjustments.  Olympus’s Shadow Adjustment feature, part of Olympus's "Perfect Fix," lightens only areas of an image that are too dark, a common problem and useful fix for backlit scenes.

Metering (7.5)
There are three metering options: digital ESP, spot, and face detection AE (when face detection is activated). Digital ESP and spot metering are selectable in both the Function and Camera menus. Digital ESP meters from the entire frame and is recommended for photographing most scenes.

Spot metering reads from a small portion of the center of the frame and is ideal photographing a person standing in front of a window, for instance. If the camera based its meter reading on the entire scene, it would expose for the bright part of the image, leaving the subject dark. The spot meter tells the camera to base its reading only from a small portion of the scene and provides better overall exposure.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Olympus Stylus 830 has a 1/2000 to 1/2 second shutter speed range. In the Night scene mode, the shutter speed lengthens to 4 seconds.

Aperture (0.0)
The maximum aperture at the wide end of the zoom range is f/3.3 and f/5.0 at the telephoto end. Many cameras have wider maximum apertures of f/2.8 at the wide end of the lens, which lets more light hit the sensor.