Stealth Camera Takes Low-Light Shots Where Other Digicams Have to Blaze Their Flash
Written: Nov 01 '05
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Pros: High ISO with good low-light performance, big clear LCD, manual controls, sturdy small size, weatherproof
Cons: Aggressive noise reduction at high ISO, more plastic than Olympus Stylus 300/400, limited resolution modes
The Bottom Line: Solidly built little cam gives you 8 megapixels and manual controls. And you can still take blur-free pics when the sun goes down, if you don't mind a few sacrifices.
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| mediageek's Full Review: Olympus Stylus 800 / µ 800 Digital Camera |
Several very good reviewers have already done a great job of outlining the features, specifications and quality of this camera. So for this review I will try and tell you more about why I decided to buy the Olympus Stylus 800, what it's been like using the camera for a month and a half, and how I've liked it.
Introduction: The Purchase
The Stylus 800 is my third real digital camera, and the second one I've purchased in the Olympus Digital Stylus range. I purchased my Olympus Stylus Digital 300 two and a half years ago not long after the line was first introduced, and made that decision based upon the fine legacy and reputation of the Olympus Stylus point-and-shoot film camera line.
I've learned a lot about photography since I purchased the 300, and while I still love that camera for it's sturdy pocketability, I was also starting to feel hemmed in by its limitations. Chief amongst my complaints were that, like most little digicams, the Stylus 300 performs poorly in low light without a flash, and it has no manual modes to adjust aperture or shutter speed.
I decided to upgrade cameras in anticipation of spending my honeymoon this past September in the Grand Canyon region. I had been thinking about holding out to buy a digital SLR, but I also really didn't want to be hauling around a full photo kit of camera body, lenses and accessories on vacation. (I also wasn't ready to spend close to a grand).
One camera I had been considering is the Fuji Finepix F10. A review in Popular Photography got me excited about that camera because it sports very good low light capabilities, and useable sensitivity up to an ISO of 1600. That's amazing for a digicam, and made me seriously consider it.
But using a demo of the F10 in a local store left me less enthused. While it does have the great sensitivity, I didn't find it intuitive to use. Further, it lacks any real manual modes.
Then I read a short article about the new Olympus Stylus 800, mentioning that the 800 also had sensitivity up to 1600 ASA. There weren't yet any published reviews, so I went to a local store to try it out. I was convinced and bought it, and here I'll tell you why.
Why I Bought It
What I immediately liked about the Stylus 800 when I picked it up in the store was that it felt a lot like the 300. It's small, compact and sturdy. Though, frankly, it feels a little more plasticky than the 300, with less of a thick metal exterior skin.
The 300 has a sliding shutter door that goes over the lens, like its Stylus Epic film camera predecessor. When I first got the 300 I thought it was a great feature, keeping the lens safe. But now, more than two years later, that door is getting creaky. It opens up OK, but often it doesn't want to close, and it takes several attempts moving the door shut to get the lens to move back in.
So, the fact that the 800 has a fully-motorized lens that retracts completely into the body behind a motorized porthole was a definite positive.
The second thing that struck me about the 800 is the enormous 2.5" LCD. This is a major improvement over the postage-stamp sized LCD on the 300, and it is bright.
I could see immediately upon picking up the Stylus 800 that it has several manual modes, because they're on a selector wheel that looks just like the one on other digicams and SLRs.
Moving through the modes in the store I was able to very quickly figure out how to take photos in aperture priority, shutter priority and auto mode without a manual or help from a salesperson.
I also quickly figured out how to change the ISO settings manually, so I could take some sample pics at 400, 800 and 1600 speeds. At 1600 I could take pics with a short shutter speed in the store's rather dim fluorescent lighting that had zero blur. They looked good to me in the camera's LCD on playback, and even looked decent when I zoomed in to 100% on the LCD.
I took some pics on other cameras with manual ISO to compare results at 400, 800 and 1600, and the Stylus 800 looked the best of the bunch (the Fuji F10 was not one of them).
Ergonomically the camera felt good in my hands. The rocker switch for the zoom fell right under my thumb and I found I could change apertures or shutter speeds quickly.
Moving through the menu, I found it pretty intuitive, and in SCENE mode it looked like there were lots more options for when I don't want to have to think about the settings for every shot.
From the ten minutes I played with the 800 in the store, it looked like Olympus had addressed many of the deficiencies of the Stylus 300/400 models, and made lots of improvements.
The thing that sealed the deal is the resolution. I'd be stepping up to 8 full megapixels, at a price cheaper than most 7 megapixel digicams.
So I bought it.
Meaningful Features
I won't outline for you every feature of the camera, you can find that elsewhere. Instead I'll tell you what features have been most useful to me.
Feature: Manual Controls
As I mentioned in the previous section, I like that the Stylus 800 has aperture and shutter priority modes. When you select the mode by turning the dial, the left and right arrow keys on the rear keypad let you increase or decrease aperture/shutter.
On the LCD it clearly shows you both aperture and shutter speed. I've put that feature to good use in a club shows, where it's relatively dark, so I wanted to be able to either select a wide aperture or a shutter speed fast enough to minimize blur.
Even in a crowd of people at a rock show, I was able to adjust shutter and aperture without a problem and often with one hand.
Feature: High ISO Sensitivity
This was one of the big selling features of this camera, and I would say that I am 75% happy with it. Going into my purchase I knew that there are some limitations to the Stylus 800's performance at 800 and 1600 ISO.
The first limitation is that pics taken at those ISOs are only 3.2 megapixels, not 8. That's a compromise I can live with, since I really wasn't unhappy with the Stylus 300's 3.2 megapixels, and so having the ability to use high ISO was an OK tradeoff for me.
The other limitation that I realized after using the camera is that the Stylus 800 has very aggressive noise reduction that kicks in at high ISOs. And in my opinion it's too aggressive.
While you are able to get vibrant, reasonably clear shots in light that most cameras would fail at, you do so with a loss of overall sharpness and detail. When you blow up a picture taken at ISO of 800 or 1600 to 100% on your screen, it's almost like an impressionist painting.
A lot of review sites have hit the Stylus 800 pretty hard for this fact. These sites tend to be ruthless on the technical details, and I agree that the pictures taken at 800 or 1600 ISO are far from perfect.
But then, there's the real world, where people don't take a magnifying glass to pictures, or view them all at full resolution on the computer screen.
In that world, the high ISO pics look decent, if not flawless. I took a bunch of photos at high ISOs at a performance of the Knitters, which is the country side-project of the great 80s LA punk band, X. I was able to get clear, unblurred shots that I would never have gotten with any other digicam without using a flash. I don't use flash at shows because it's annoying, and makes for flat lifeless pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediageek/sets/1273137/
I made 4x6 prints of my Knitters photos and they look fine. Nobody whose seen them posted on my wall at home has said, "gee, these are grainy and low resolution." Certainly, I can see the flaws, but I'm looking for them. And I'm not sure I can blow them up to 8x10s -- I may still yet try.
I have to say that I like the high ISO feature of the Stylus 800, flaws and all. I wish the noise reduction weren't so aggressive, or were adjustable. I'd rather have a more noisy picture with a little more resolution, where perhaps I could fix the noise myself in Photoshop using a noise reduction plug in with more fine control.
But, frankly, to get better high ISO performance you either have to buy a Fuji Finepix F10 and forego the manual controls, or you have to get a digital SLR.
Feature: Size
Yes, size is a meaningful feature, because I want a camera I can pop in my pocket, and this achieves it. That's why I still don't have a digital SLR. I own a film SLR for when I want that type of control and performance and I do use it. But most of the time, I don't want to schlep around an SLR. And so the Stylus 800 gives me about 2/3 of the control and performance at a fraction of the size.
Feature: Lens
That's a nice lens on this camera, although not necessarily nicer than a Nikon, Canon or Leica/Panasonic. It's a little bit faster than the one on the Stylus 300, 2.8 rather than 3.1, which gives you just a little more low-light capability.
It's a 3x zoom, which isn't fantastic, but is fine for my needs. I'm willing to compromise zoom for size.
Feature: LCD
Oh, yes, the HyperCrystal LCD. It's the nicest LCD I've seen on a digicam, and it really is bright, even in sunlight. Even on a full sunny day at the Grand Canyon I could see much more on the Stylus 800 LCD than I could ever see on the 300 or other digicams I've used.
In full bright desert sun, it's washed out. But it's still better than 99% of what's out there.
Only in the most washed out sun do you miss the viewfinder. You see, the Stylus 800 doesn't have one -- presumably to make room for the big LCD and controls. You won't miss it most of the time, since the viewfinder on most digicams is too tiny to be useful. Photo purists decry the fact that LCDs make people take photos with the camera at arms length. So the purists can buy another camera.
The LCD also brightens up in dark places. So that, when you are in a dark club taking pictures in low light, you can still see what you're shooting. This is a major improvement over the Stylus 300, which forces you to either use the teeny viewfinder in low light, or do a hail-Mary shot not knowing exactly what you're shooting.
I think this gorgeous LCD is worth losing the viewfinder.
Feature: Resolution
I actually am not sure if the resolution is a great feature or not. There are lots of problems with cramming in more megapixels into the tiny CCD sensors in digicams. One big problem is noise, and the Stylus does a good job at overcoming that, but is far from perfect.
The photos definitely look good, and better than my Stylus 300, but I'm not sure if they're 2.5 times better.
One nice aspect of 8 megapixels is that you have more freedom to crop and retain good quality. You can afford to throw away more, which is nice if you like to do a lot of editing in Photoshop.
So, I can say that 8 megapixels is definitely an improvement over 3 or 4 megapixels, but I can't really say that it's that much better than 6 or 7 in the real world. So if resolution is what would make you pick the Stylus 800 over a cam with 6 or 7 megapixels, I wouldn't necessarily say that's the best determining factor.
One gripe I have about the resolution is the range of choices. Most digicams give you a range of resolutions, file sizes and qualities to choose from. The Stylus 800 gives you just four: two 8 megapixel, 3 megapixel and 640x480. I really wish there were a choice in between 8 and 3 -- I also wish maybe you could shoot at 5 or 6 megapixel at higher ISOs like 400 and up and get a little more noise in exchange for more resolution. It's not a big deal, but a gripe nevertheless.
Real World Performance
I actually own the Stylus 800 and have spent 6 weeks using it, taking over 700 pictures. And I am satisfied and happy with it, but not enthralled.
On the one hand, I think it's harder for me to be enthralled with a digicam after several years of digital picture taking. I was more enthralled with my Stylus 300 because high-quality digital photography was so new camera to me. I guess I'm a little more jaded now.
On the other hand, while the Stylus 800 is an enormously competent camera, very little about it is extraordinary. Out of everything the features that are most remarkable are the LCD and high ISO abilities.
But that doesn't make it a bad, or even mediocre camera. It's a very good digicam that I enjoy using.
The pictures look good, and the biggest limitation is mostly my photography skills, not the camera. It powers up quickly, focuses and takes pictures quickly. It's still slow compared to many film cameras or SLRs, but it's quicker than most digicams I've used.
Performance: Battery Life
The Stylus 800 is like the Energizer Bunny. I am amazed at how long the battery lasts. I was pretty impressed by how many shots I got out of the Stylus 300, and my own unscientific impression is that the 800 lasts almost 3 times as long on a charge.
I have an extra battery that I pack, and I've almost never had to pull it out, even on a day-long trip around the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I took 150 pics, often keeping the camera on for several minutes at a time, and never ran out.
I don't know how many shots you get per charge or any metrics like that. I just know that it lasts as long as I've asked it to.
Performance: Focus and Responsiveness
On both these counts, the Stylus 800 is a major improvement over the Stylus 300. The autofocus is faster and more accurate, and it takes pictures more quickly.
The Stylus 800 does not have a focus-assist light for low-light like some digicams have. So sometimes it does hunt more for focus in low light than I wish it would. But it still does better than its predecessor.
If you lock focus and exposure by pressing the shutter half-way down, then the response is nearly instantaneous for taking a picture. If you don't let your finger all the way up, then you can keep shooting almost as quickly as you can fire. That's much more responsive than a lot of digicams I've used.
There's even a burst mode that keeps taking pictures as long as you hold down the shutter, but it only works at 3.2 megapixels and I've never really found a use for it.
Performance: Macro
One really nice thing about digicams is their macro mode. Back in the film days, a pocket camera was lucky to be able to focus at a distance of less than 1 or 2 feet. To get closer you had to use an SLR with an expensive macro lens.
But most digicams get within inches pretty well.
The Stylus 800 has two Macro modes, regular and super. Both work well, though focusing is slower. Super lets you get in really close, within about an inch, and at full resolution. I really like this feature for taking a different look at small things, or capturing photos of insects or flowers.
Because of their small sensors and lenses, digicams have very deep depth-of-field--things stay in focus for a great distance behind what you're focused on. That's great, unless you want to blur the background.
If you can get close to your subject, the macro modes do that very fine, and I think the bokeh, or blurred portion of the background, created by the Olympus lens is very pleasing.
Conclusion: Would I Buy It Again?
Short answer: yes. I think the Stylus 800 is a good value for the money, compared to other cameras in it's price range. For the $350 that a Stylus 800 costs right now, you can get a bigger zoom on a bigger camera, or a smaller camera with lower resolution. But it's hard to get this mix of features, along with Olympus' quality.
Like I mentioned, I was sold on the manual controls and the high ISO feature, and really only Fuji cameras have the high ISO. If you like taking pictures in normal or low light without a flash, then the Olympus Stylus 800 is one of your few choices.
Yes, there's noise at high ISO, but that's true of all digicams, and worse with most pocket point-and-shoots. But, frankly, in 4x6 prints, it's not too distracting for ISOs of 800 and 1600, and really not noticeable at ISO 400.
You can even take full 8 megapixel shots at ISO 400, and they look great on print.
The LCD is great, perhaps even one of the best around, and the controls and menu are logically and easy to use. If you know anything about photography you really never need to consult the manual.
But make no mistake: the Olympus Stylus 800 is not an SLR.
It is a very well-built, capable, weather-proof pocket digicam with high resolution and the ability to shoot in low light. This is the perfect camera to take to a party so you can take pictures without blinding people with a flash, or take to a museum or concert where using a flash is prohibited.
It's kind of a stealth camera that way, you can slip it out of your pocket and snap pictures without the telltale flash, and those pictures will still look good, without the blur so common with most digicams no-flash pictures.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 379.00
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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mediageek
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Member: Paul Riismandel
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
I'm a true mediageek--into all sorts of electronics and gadgets for making media.
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