Digital Trends

Olympus Stylus 800 August 30th, 2005 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The Olympus Stylus 800 is not the prettiest or slimmest baby on the block. With a nondescript shape, the all-metal camera is much thicker than competing slim digicams with 2.5-inch screens such as the Sony Cybershot T series, Fujifilm FinePix Z1 and other popular models (they're only 5MP models though). The camera measures 4.1 x 2.3 x 1.3 (WHD, in inches) and weighs 7.4 ounces with battery. Forget about putting this one in a shirt pocket but it'll fit nicely in a pants or jacket pocket.

The camera has a 3x optical zoom lens with a built-in lens cover that protects it from the elements. Note: this camera is weather resistant—not waterproof—so it won't take a dunk in the pool nor should you take it snorkeling. But it's perfect for walking around and taking snaps in rainy weather. The lens translates to 38mm-114mm, the traditional point-and-shoot zoom ratio.

The front of the Stylus 800 is fairly plain vanilla with a metal accent with an etched Olympus logo on it. The case color is a luminescent gray/pearl that won't make you think of a Lexus right off the bat. It's OK, nothing more or less. You'll also find the centered flash and three pinholes for the microphone. The top of the camera only has the shutter and a tiny power on/off button.

The rear of the camera almost takes the prize but not quite. It's dominated by a 2.5-inch “HyperCrystal SuperClear” LCD that's one of the best we've seen. It's rated 215K pixels. Unfortunately there is no optical viewfinder for use in extremely dark situations but it had to get almost pitch black before it became useless and it worked very well in direct sunshine. On the right of the screen are the wide/tele zoom switch, a mode dial and arrow keypad to navigate the menus and make adjustments. On the left are four dedicated keys for Quick View,  Display, Guide, Self timer/delete. Quick View lets you see your last shot so you can check focus (you can zoom in 8x to see if the image is sharp). The DISP (or Display) shows your current settings including shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation, and resolution settings. Click it again and grids appear on the screen to help compose the shot and it turns on the histogram. The Self timer and delete function is pretty standard. What isn't standard is the Guide key. Click and you get access to an onscreen owner's manual that tells you how to handle situations such as shooting in backlight, blurring the background and 13 more. Once you choose a subject, you toggle the arrow pad and come to a screen that shows you what to do to get the desired results. This is terrific for photographers of all stripes and Olympus gets a standing “O” for it. Even better when you turn the mode dial to Scene and  choose Landscape, it shows you a thumbnail of the landscape image and tells you why you should (or shouldn't choose it). Again, this is a wonderful real world benefit for those who don't know their apertures from a hole in the ground.  The only other negative is the fact the marking above the keys is hard to read and you to angle it to read the lettering.

The right side of the camera has a solid door for the battery compartment and bottom has a sturdy door for the xD card slot, speaker and tripod mount.     

The Olympus Stylus 800 is a joy to use from the moment you open the carton. Again let me state this camera is not perfect but it does many things well. For instance, when you open the box, there's a big folder that states: “Getting Started.” In this package a Quick Start Guide suggests you walk a path from checking the contents of the box to installing the software. This is very nicely done but for some strange reason they don't tell you how to load a memory card!?! Perhaps they're embarrassed for using the xD Picture Card. No matter it's a little switch that pops open the card slot door. The back of the guide tells you how to use the mode dial, adjust the focus, adjust the flash and so on. Like the job done by Kodak, this is a wonderful service for consumers and we give Olympus engineers a gold star for it. Also in the Getting Started folder is the Olympus Master software, and Advanced Manual CD ROMs and a printed Basic Manual (24 pages in English) with French and Spanish versions.

The carton also contains a rechargeable lithium ion battery and charger, wrist strap, USB and A/V cables. There is enough internal memory to handle 10 HQ 3264 x 2448 pixel images so budget for a 256MB or 512MB xD card ($50, $90 respectively from the SanDisk web site) but there are better deals to be had on the web.

Image Courtesy of Olympus America