Digital Trends

Olympus Stylus 750 November 5th, 2006 | by David Elrich

Testing and Performance

No surprise here: the Made In China camera is ready to go in less than 2 seconds as the lens extends and the LCD comes to life. As usual, I began in Auto with image stabilization on and then moved to the various options in the P mode. As a 7.1MP camera, it was set to SHQ 3072 x 2304 pixels. One of the reasons this camera costs more than the usual point-and-shoot digicam is its more powerful zoom and its dual IS system. Rather than using just a digital system to eliminate blur, the Stylus 750 adds a mechanical CCD shift setup that uses electro-gyro sensors to record camera movement and adjust the CCD to compensate. According to Olympus, the light remains centered on the imager and this reduces blurry images. Digital image stabilization raises the ISO and shutter speed to help the CCD shift system. Bottom line: this is a much better system than the purely digital SP-510UZ and I could really see the difference when shooting in macro in available light. Tiny flower pistils were much sharper and quite usable as large prints (8.5x11). Typically you can’t use a flash with macro since it obliterates the subject. Here the camera worked well with the flash off. The camera’s size is another reason for this system. Since the Stylus 750 is similar to a thick credit card, you hold it with your fingertips rather than in your palm. Image stabilization is a big help here as well. It’s one of the reasons we prefer models like the Sony DSC-T50  compared to skinny digicams without IS.

Even though a tiny camera, I enjoyed shooting with the 750. I gave the weather-resistance a workout since it was a rainy day and just keep on shooting. People thought I was crazy but that’s their problem. The camera was reasonably responsive but it definitely labored when saving the big files and using the flash. Olympus engineers better boost processor performance for the next batch of cameras or they’ll be further behind the competition. Focusing was decent, without a lot of drift but an AF Assist lamp would’ve been a big improvement when shooting indoors.

The 5x optical zoom is a real plus, giving you the flexibility to move between 36 and 180mm. Very few cameras this size have lenses as powerful but there are some competitors beyond the Kodak V705. The 6MP Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 ($229) has optical image stabilization and a 6x optical zoom but it’s bigger than the 750 or V705.

After shooting tons of images and offloading them to the PC it was time to make 8.5x11 prints. And the results? They were O.K., nothing more. At higher ISOs (above 200) they were definitely less, with lots of digital noise. This camera hits 1600 ISO and the photos looked as speckled as can be. That said quality is better than the SP-510UZ, another 7.1MP Olympus digicam, a reason you shouldn’t be seduced by specs alone.

This camera has a fun feature called in-camera editing. Once you take and move into playback, you can perform some simple editing tasks such as removing red-eye, adjusting saturation and brightness, drop the images into a postcard-type frame, overlay phrases such as Happy Birthday or Happy Holidays. You can even adjust the color of the type. Neat stuff but if you’re really into it, you would do this on your monitor, rather than a 2.5-inch screen. In all cases, the originals are saved along with the edited image.

Image Courtesy of Olympus