Digital Trends

Olympus Stylus 770 SW May 1st, 2007 | by David Elrich

Testing and Use

Before we get into the picture-taking abilities of this 7.1MP point-and-shoot camera, let’s get to the really fun stuff. Olympus claims this camera is drop-proof up to five feet (MIL-STD-810F Drop Test Compliant). This means you can drop this baby onto concrete and it will keep working. Holding the camera at arm’s length, I proceeded to drop it many times on concrete and asphalt. The Stylus 770SW kept going, making it great for hikers who might drop it onto rocks while walking along. This spec doesn’t mean you can throw the camera like Nolan Ryan into a wall, just that it can be dropped with no ill effects. Very cool.

Speaking of temperature, Olympus claims the camera functions down to 14 degrees F so I popped into my freezer for a time to see what would happen. Nothing did—and the camera kept operating.

Another rugged aspect of this digicam is it’s crushproof up to 220 pounds of force. I didn’t have a metal press like the one in Terminator 2 so I just stepped on it with my shoes on. Since I weigh 175, the camera was OK with this unscientific torture test as well.

The final claim for the camera is the fact it’s waterproof to 33 feet (JIS Class 8). My pool is closed so there was no chance to try this one out and since my pool is only eight feet deep it was a moot point anyway. Knowing DT wouldn’t think too highly of me asking for a trip to the Caribbean to test this out, I improvised and dropped it into a full bath tub. Again no problem but there wasn't any way to hit 33 feet in my house! Note the camera has four underwater scene modes, so it’s really targeted to water lovers, whether they’re snorkeling or taking a casual scuba dive. I have to reserve judgment on the underwater capabilities since I couldn’t do it justice but the camera survived the dunking without a hiccough.

The camera has another feature making it a cool toy for outdoorsy types. The Olympus 770SW has a built-in manometer that measures water and air pressures. In other words, you can see how high you were when you went skiing or mountain climbing and how deep you dove since the information is saved in the image meta-data and appears onscreen, if you’d like. The range is 16,400 feet high to 32.8 below the surface—plus it’ll show a warning if you get too deep with the camera while you’re swimming with the fishes

Image Courtesy of Olympus