Waterproof, image-stabilized 7.1 MP for accident prone or not

When I first discovered that Olympus made a MilSpec drop-proof (from 5 ft) camera, I immediately thought about a member of my family, who has destroyed a few cameras by 'drop-testing' them. The perfect present!!!! So I purchased one from Olympus' auctions website. Obviously the internal 18MB storage isn't nearly enough so we added a Fuji 2GB Type M xD card, which allows for over 1,000 pictures at max resolution or results in ~1.5 hours of movie (320x200) and, yes, it can be one continuous movie - not just a bunch of 1- or 3-minute long movie clips. You may have guessed it - it has already been dropped by the lucky recipient with no adverse effects other than a few cosmetic blemishes ;)

The Stylus 770 SW is water-proof to 10m (33ft) and we tested it at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park. The underwater performance is great for a camera of this price and feature set. Underwater sound is also great. The only thing I didn't like was the distorted sound when returning to the surface. It sounds like having your ears clogged with water. In order to restore the sound quality one has to blow on the microphone to displace the drop or two of water that collects there. A small price to pay for the stares you get when you show up with your digital in the pool. I got looks from 'whatanidiot' to 'awwww-thepoormanjustruinedhiscamera' to just plain stares when pulling the camera from my pocket while in the pool.

The ultra-compact form factor is a big reason why this little fellow is coming along wherever we go. It just goes in my back pocket - and, yes, I sit on it. It kinda like offsets the wallet on the other side ;) My weight of 170 lbs is no problem since the camera is also crush-proof to 220 lbs.

Image stabilization is outstanding - we tested this while deliberately waving the camera around. Background was blurred, but the subject was in focus and looked great considering that I practically had a seizure waving this thing around.

Being from Southern Virginia, we don't have really frigid temperatures, so we leave the testing of the freeze-proof claim to anyone from the northern realm.

The picture quality is generally good and the nightmares about the terrible controls are not true in my opinion. With a little practice controlling the camera quickly becomes second nature.

The in-camera edit features are very handy, but I rather edit my shots at the end of the day on the PC. However, it's nice to be able to do it in a pinch.

The camera has a 3X optical zoom but videos become very unsteady at max zoom. The 2.5" LCD is fairly big for an ultra-compact and an auto-shutoff feature will keep your battery from draining in case you forget. I bought a second battery just in case but never needed it, even when using the continuous drive extensively. The continuous drive feature mimics an SLR's motor-drive by taking continuous pictures (@ ~3.5 fps) while the shutter button is being held down.

I like the camera and I think it is and outstanding value for what it is - a feature-packed, ultra-compact, 7.1 Megapixel camera that's fairly hard to break. An absolute bargain I can honestly recommend. For more technical info you can check:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Olympus/oly_stylus770sw.asp

Have FUN!!!