Great Digital Camera for Everyday Use

The Olympus Stylus 850 SW is a great camera for both digital pictures as well as short videos. I have had it for almost a year now and have yet to be disappointed. This camera comes with claims to be waterproof up to 10 feet, shockproof up to 5 feet, and freezeproof to - 10 degrees C. I have put many of these claims to the test and have found them to be reliably true. I have used this camera while skiing and snowboarding in even colder - 20 C weather with no problems. I have used this camera underwater, taken it down water slides, dove into pools, and gone swimming in the ocean with it without any problems. I just rinsed the camera off under tap water after returning from the beach. The salt water had no adverse affects on the camera, and the underwater pictures and videos have high quality. I have also been unfortunate enough to test the shockproof feature a number of times. This camera has been dropped on the floor, and I have had it fly 15 feet across a room onto a metal floor. It is a little scratched and dinged on the corners but was not affected otherwise.

The Stylus has a setting for just about every type of picture you would want to take from low light and outdoors to portrait and landscape. There are 28 settings in total. The menu is very simple to navigate through and only requires a turn of the dial and then scrolling down the screen to the setting you wish to use. It uses face detection technology to focus on the subject and image stabilization to give blur free pictures. I have no complaints about the quality of pictures that this camera takes. The Stylus takes up to 8 megapixel images which are capable of being enlarged without sacrificing the picture quality. Pictures that I have enlarged to poster sizes are still clear and high quality.

The Stylus has a 3x optical zoom and a 5x digital zoom which both function very effectively and are quite handy and easy to use. It is possible to zoom in and out without looking at the buttons.

The battery is a lithium ion battery and it is removed from the camera for charging with the included AC adapter. This only takes 2-3 hours for a full charge. My only complaint with the battery is that when you replace it into the camera, it will flash low battery within a few shots. It will then last forever on low battery, probably just as long as you would expect it to last from a full charge as it is supposed to last for 190 shots, it just shows low battery the entire time. This might only be an issue with my camera, I have not heard of this happening with anyone else but even with it flashing low battery, I'm sure I have been able to take around 300 pictures with it before having to recharge the battery.

I would recommend this camera to anyone who wants a very easy to use and incredibly versatile camera. The Stylus is lightweight, compact and has a range of useful features that make using it fun.