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Olympus Stylus 760
| Olympus
Stylus 760 |
| 7.1
Megapixels Weatherproof with Dual Image Stabilization |
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| Basic
Specifications |
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| 3.00x
zoom (37-111mm eq.) |
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| 3.9x2.1x1.0in
(99x54x24mm) |
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Olympus Stylus
760 Overview
by Rob Murray
Review Date: 04/09/07
The Olympus Stylus 760 offers both hardware image stabilization
and software anti-blur in a very pocket friendly body. The Stylus
760 includes both a seven megapixel CCD image sensor and Olympus-branded
3x optical zoom lens, as well as a 2.5" LCD display with
230,000 pixels. The LCD is a wide-view type that allows good visibility
within a useful 140 degree angle, and unusually there's a button
on the camera body to boost the backlight strength to help improve
the view when sharing photos with friends on the camera's LCD.
The Olympus 760 packs these
features into an all-weather metal body that can handle rain,
dust and snow. Other features include a whopping 26 shooting modes,
compatibility with an optional underwater housing, as well as
18MB of built-in memory, and an xD-Picture card storage slot.
The Olympus Stylus 760 ships from February 2007, priced at $249.99.
Olympus Stylus 760
User Report
by Rob Murray
The Olympus Stylus 760 all
weather camera is a sleek, easy to pocket camera built for the
enthusiast photographer. It has the familiar Olympus styling,
common to their Stylus models for some time now, which allows
it to easily slip into any pocket for easy access. This model
features a 3x zoom lens with a 37-111mm equivalent focal length
and a F3.4 to F5.7 maximum aperture. This is coupled with a 7.1
megapixel imager that's mounted on a carrier that can move in
two directions, allowing for sensor-shift type image stabilization.
This can be a great help for getting blur-free images under dim
lighting, although I didn't think the 760's IS was as good as
that of some other cameras I've played with. Additionally, there's
what Olympus calls "Digital Image Stabilization" --
where the camera's gyro sensor detects the amount of camera shake,
and correction is made in software by compensating with blur removal
after the exposure. This type of blur reduction is less effective
than that accomplished by moving the sensor, but in combination
with an increased light sensitivity setting and the faster shutter
speeds that permits, as well as tweaks in the camera's image sharpening
algorithm, it does help somewhat.
The all-weather designation of
the Olympus 760 deserves some special mention, as it represents
a great step forward relative to most digital cameras on the market.
In common with their film-based predecessors, most digital cameras
really dislike like water or dust. The Olympus 760 though, includes
environmental seals in a number of key areas, letting it shrug off
the occasional rainstorm with no ill effects. Note that you can't
take the swimming, or dunk it under water for any reason (check
out the 760's sibling, the Olympus 770SW for that sort of use, or
buy one of Olympus' excellent underwater housings to put the 760
in), but splashes and raindrops are perfectly OK. A consequence
of this splash-proofing is that the camera is also less susceptible
to getting dust into its inner workings than are many of its competitors.
The Olympus 760's LCD display
is a nice large 2.5 incher with adjustable brightness and a high
resolution of 230,000 pixels. There is no viewfinder on this camera
so you must use the LCD display, but the camera does a (somewhat)
better than average job of brightening the display when you're shooting
under dim lighting, so I didn't find myself missing an optical viewfinder
too much in indoor or after-dark shooting situations. Outdoors under
direct sunlight though, I found it much more challenging to see
what I was doing. The surface of the LCD window is very reflective,
so in bright light, I ended up seeing more of my face than I did
the picture I was composing. The Stylus 760's LCD really needs an
anti-reflective coating on it (or a more effective one than there
is.)
Most of the camera's controls are in
a tight cluster on the back of the camera, with not a lot of space
between them. In practice though, the combination of reasonable-sized
buttons, and the fact that they project a bit above the surface
of the case made for pretty easy operation. I also felt that they
were well-marked, and had no trouble figuring out which button
to press to accomplish any particular task.
Design-wise, I found the Stylus
760 very well executed, its trim, sculpted body a nice change from
the more common "bar of soap" designs of many of its competitors.
Looking down on the top of the camera, you can see that it's tapered
somewhat toward the left-hand side. Initially, I thought this a
little odd, perhaps just one of those things designers do to make
their products look different. Once I started using the 760 though,
I realized that this slight taper made it easier to slip into my
shirt pocket, a nice touch. In the hand, the Olympus 760 has a nice,
quality feel to it, its metal-clad body is lightweight, but has
enough heft that it doesn't feel cheap, either. The 760 can be used
one handed if need be as all the controls are on the top or far
right hand side. Its an easy camera to hold as there is only one
place for your thumb to fit on the back of the camera, I wish there
was a rougher surface at that spot for a better grip.
Relatively unusual on a basic point
& shoot camera like the Olympus 760 is an option for spot
metering. This lets you tell the camera to only base its exposure
on a very small part of the subject, such as someone's face. This
can be very handy for getting the exposure right in situations
that would form a normal metering system (taking a picture of
someone with their back to the sun, for instance), but I suspect
most users of the 760 would never delve deep enough into its capabilities
to access this feature.
More useful for the average user
are the Stylus 760's 22 scene modes. (Although, truth be told, I
question how many "average" users ever bother to play
with their cameras' scene modes.) The scene modes include: Portrait,
Landscape, Landscape & Portrait, Night Scene, Night & Portrait,
Sport, Indoor, Candle, Self-Portrait, Available Light, Sunset, Fireworks,
Cuisine, Behind Glass, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select1,
Shoot & Select2, Beach & Snow, Underwater Wide1, Underwater
Wide2 and Underwater Macro. A nice touch is that each scene mode
has brief explanatory text along with it, that describes what it's
useful for.
The Olympus 760 also has a "Guide" mode, accessed via
the Mode dial. In this mode, the menu system lists things you're
likely to want to do to while shooting, each selection offering
one or several options you can select to solve lots of photographic
problems. Guide mode is wonderfully simple, you just select a menu
entry that describes what you want to do ("Brightening subject"
or "Shooting into backlight"), and the camera lists one
or more things it knows to try for that situation. Select the one
you want, and snap the photo.
Shooting indoors and after dark, I found the 760's
flash to be adequate for lighting relatively close-in subjects,
but in larger rooms I had to boost the ISO to 400 or higher to
get enough flash range. Of course, boosting the ISO tends to soften
the images somewhat and increase the image noise, but I found
that shots at ISO 400 didn't look too bad: They made good-looking
prints up to about 5x7 inches, and even ISO 800 shots looked pretty
decent at 4x6 inches. Results from the ISO 1600 setting looked
pretty bad, no matter what size I printed them at.
Performance-wise, I found the Olympus 760 to be
pretty responsive. It starts up and shuts down pretty quickly,
shutter lag seemed reasonable (somewhere around a half-second),
and lag dropped to practically nothing when I "pre-focused"
the camera, half-pressing and holding down the shutter button
before actually snapping the shot itself. It did moderately well
from shot to shot, taking about two and a half seconds from one
shot to the next: Not a first choice for fast-paced sports action
(or maybe for squirmy kids), but good enough for most typical
shooting situations. (It's also nice that it doesn't penalize
you for pressing the shutter button too quickly after the previous
shot was taken; it just snaps the next one as soon as it's able.)
Looking at the Stylus 760's images,
I found myself a little disappointed with its color handling. I
personally like nice, bright, saturated colors, and I just didn't
feel I was getting them from this camera. Reds were OK, and bright
blues looked pretty snappy too, but most shades of green looked
just a little dull to me. But then, as I said, I like pretty bright
colors in my photos. If you're more inclined toward more natural-looking
color, you might like the 760's shots just fine. Another criticism
of its photos is that they tended to lose detail in strong highlights
or deep shadows. A lot of cameras do this, so it may not be a particular
strike against the 760, but if you care about this, you might want
to shop around more.
Movie modes are becoming increasingly capable
on digicams these days, and thus more important for many users.
The Olympus 760's movie mode was OK, but its restriction to 15
frames/second at all three resolutions is a bit off what the best
performers can manage currently. (30 frames/second is becoming
quite common these days.) The slower frame rate has the advantage
of not creating such enormous movie files so quickly, but I'd
like to at least have the option of 30 fps for those times when
I want the maximum quality.
Compact cameras have generally gotten a lot better
in terms of battery life than they once were, and the Stylus 760
seems to follow this trend: Over the course of several days of
use, I found that the Stylus 760's battery lasted surprisingly
well. A fully-charged battery was often sufficient to handle a
full day's shooting, including a fair bit of looking at the images
I'd shot on the LCD screen. All in all,
the Olympus Stylus 760 was an enjoyable camera to use, but I'd
really like to see a better anti-reflective coating on its LCD
screen, and would have preferred brighter-looking colors (particularly
greens) in its images.
In the Box
The Olympus Stylus 760 ships
with the following items in the box:
• Stylus 760 digital
camera
• LI-42B Li-Ion rechargeable battery
• AC charger with power cord
• USB cable
• Audio/Video cable
• Wrist strap
• Manual
• CD-ROM with Olympus Master Software
• Warranty Card
Recommended Accessories
• Large
capacity xD-Picture memory card. These days, a 512MB or 1GB
card is a good tradeoff between cost and capacity.
• Small camera case for outdoor and in-bag protection
Conclusion
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•
Stylish, ultra-compact design
• Large 2.5 inch LCD with high resolution
• All-weather seals and gaskets
• Optional underwater case, with special
scene modes to match
• 7.1 megapixels of detail
• 3x optical zoom with up to 15x total
zoom
• Dual-mode image stabilization (sensor-based
and anti-blur image processing)
• Guide mode for solutions to common photo
problems
• Optional live histogram
• Help system for menu selections |
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LCD very hard to read in direct sunlight
• Image stabilization didn't seen terribly
effective
• No autofocus assist lamp
• So-so macro mode
• USB not as fast as many current cameras
with USB 2.0 High-Speed connections
• Green hues not very saturated
• Marketing calls attention to ISO 1600
setting, but it's all but useless, even for
4x6 prints
• Tended to blow out highlights, plug
shadows
• No memory card included, internal memory
is enough for only a few shots (But then, bundled
memory cards are generally uselessly small anyway.) |
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Olympus's Stylus 760 camera is a very handy size, and can produce
good pictures under the right conditions. In my testing though,
I was expecting more from its image stabilization system. You
can always push an IS system beyond its limits, but I never felt
I saw the level of sharpness improvement I'd normally expect from
an image-stabilized camera when I was shooting with the 760. My
other big gripe was that I found the LCD monitor way too hard
to use outdoors, it's just too reflective. With no optical viewfinder
on the camera, outdoor shooting was not pleasant. It was usable
if there wasn't direct sun, and it was always OK indoors, but
in full sun I found it almost impossible to frame my shots. I
liked the camera operationally, the buttons were easy to use and
the menu navigation was easy to learn. It's also very nicely designed,
is very stylish looking, and slips in and out of pockets very
easily. Its splash-proof rating is also a very nice feature to
see on a digicam, it's great not to have to worry that a few raindrops
might kill your camera. All in all, the Olympus 760 is a stylish
and responsive camera, with splash resistance thrown in for good
measure, and helpful features in the form of its Guide mode and
helpful explanations in its menu system. If Olympus could just
put a good anti-reflection coating on its LCD, I think they'd
have a winner, but as it is, it counts as a near miss in my book.
 Stylus
760- Accessories |
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LI-42B
Lithium-Ion Battery Pack |
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LI-40C
Battery Charger |
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Lithium ion rechargeable battery is suitable for quick recharging
with the exclusive Olympus Lithium-Ion battery charger Li-40C.
The extremely compact and ultra-slim design of the Li-42B
rechargeable Li-Ion battery makes storage and transportation
very convenient. With a capacity of 740mAh, the new Li-Ion
battery allows hundreds of images to be shot before the
battery needs to be recharged. |
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Lithium-Ion
Battery Charger for the µ[mju:] 700, µ[mju:]
720SW, µ[mju:] 790, µ[mju:] 820, µ[mju:]830,
µ[mju:] 1200, FE-150, FE-280, FE-290, FE-300, FE-500,
SP-700 and IR-300 digital cameras The smart and powerful
Li-40C charger was specially created for the powerful Li-40B
rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. It has a charging time
of approx. 210 minutes and has a rated input of 110V to
240V and can be used all over the world. |
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PT-036
Deep sea digital photography made easy |
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| When
the action moves from the beach to the water, your Olympus
digital camera needn't be left behind. The PT-036 underwater
case has been specially customised for the Stylus 760 camera
and is waterproof up to a water pressure equivalent to a
depth of 40 meters. This case is perfect for fascinating
underwater photography or capturing the thrill of water
sports and activities. With its durable, high quality polycarbonate
construction, it protects the camera from water while also
cushioning it from knocks and bumps on land. Complete control
of photo functions, such as zoom and flash mode, is also
permitted.
• Waterproof up to a water pressure equivalent to
40 m depth
• Simple handling above and under water
• All camera functions can be controlled
• Detachable LCD hood for LCD monitor
• Neutral buoyancy under water
• Screw mount for converter lenses and filters provided
• Internal flash can be used underwater to trigger
digital compatible slave
• Standard tripod socket permits attachment of lighting
tray
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