It's Pretty But Is It Just A Dumb Blonde?

Important Note
I am by no means a photography expert. Until I read some of Howard Creech's excellent camera reviews here, I had never heard of the term ISO before. But I don't really think that it matters as much when reviewing this camera, because it's not a camera for crazy photography junkies. It's a nice, cute little camera to take general pictures for everday use, not professional use. So, I continue with my first camera review and feel free to leave any feedback of how I don't know anything about photography.

Specs

4.0 Megapixels
2x Optical Zoom
4x Digital Zoom
Metal, All-Weather Design
1.8" High-Contrast TFT LCD screen
15 Shooting Modes w/ QuickTime movie mode w/ audio
USB 2.0
Lithium-ion battery and charger
16 MB xD memory included

Design

Wow, this camera is cute. The picture here shows it in bright blue, but it also comes in copper, gold, black, white, and silver. I got the black one and let me tell you, there is no cuter camera. While all other cameras are variations on the box look, this camera is nice and curvy. But anyone who has looked into this camera knows it looks nice. In fact, that is the main selling point of this camera in its ads.

While it's really small and easily fits in your hand, it seems rugged enough. It even boasts All-Weather construction, meaning you can still take pictures when it's raining out. I don't plan to really test out this feature though, as I'm somewhat leery over putting water on my electronic devices. I still shake when I remember the time I spilled Coke on my iPod. Someone else want to try taking pictures in the rain and get back to me on this. I'm dying to know just how All-Weather it is. You can get a water proof case for this if you have $80 lying around and it'll be waterproof up to 10 feet deep in water. If someone gets me that for my birthday, I'll take some pictures in the rain and update this review with the results. Deal?

A little compartment opens up for your battery and memory card. This cam uses xD memory which I'm not so fond of because it's the most expensive, and I finally got a laptop with a built-in SD drive! Dammit! Although it's really really small, it's almost too small, and I wouldn't advise taking this memory card out of the camera too often since you might lose it. Another nice feature is that there's a little tab that pushes the card out and clicks into place when you push it in. With my old camera, I always have a helluva time getting the memory card out and I'm always worried I'm going to snap it into two in the process. What I DON'T like is that only a 16 MB card is included, which means 16 pics at the default settings. The battery also clicks in. It's a Lithium Ion Li-30B and it enables the camera to be really small, since it takes up a LOT less space than AA batteries. The trade-off is supposed to be battery life, but I'll get to that in a bit.

While I've read that this cam is not greatly designed and that it often takes two hands to take a pic and that a finger often got in the way of the flash, I did not find that to be the case. In fact, I love the design and can take a pic very comfortably with one or two hands. My fingers do not get in the way of the flash, and I frankly can't see why anyone would have a problem with it. Your fingers might get in the way of the built-in mic, but that's it. Very comfortable. Not only is this camera pretty, the design is pretty flawless. A+ for design. I even got the strap in without a problem. For some reason I usually do...dunno why.

If you're into getting attention over your gadgets, you'll love this for sure. I don't really care too much for that, but I do like to be self-satisfied with the look of my gadgets. While this whole section may seem frivolous or superficial to some, the better looking and the more compact my digi-cam is, the more places I'll bring it and the more pics I will take!

I had trouble finding a suitable case for this camera, until a friend suggested the iPod sock. Fits great!

Performance

Okay, turning it on. It's pretty cool, the lens cover opens and the lens peeks out. The camera also makes a "whoosh"ing sound that is cute in the beginning but gets annoying quick. It starts up really quickly and once you push the power button, it's good to go in....let me check...in about two seconds. That's not bad at all and would come in handy if anything exciting ever took place in my life. There's no lens cap or anything and you don't have to pull open the lens cover like with my old camera...just press the power button and you're good to go. When it's closed, the lens completely retracts and is covered. So the front surface of the cam is completely flat. Nice.

There's a mode button by the shutter button, and it's a little dial so it's really easy to use. There's just three modes though: picture taking mode, movie mode, and viewing mode. You don't have to go to viewing mode to look at your pics, so unless you take a lot of movies with this cam, you won't be touching the dial much any ways.

Movie mode is the standard QuickTime movie thing, except this has sound, which is nice and a little unexpected with such a small camera. It's just a small bonus I guess.

There are several scene modes including "behind glass", "cuisine", and "fireworks". I didn't even check this really on my earlier cam, but that's pretty cool. So I tried taking a few pics of my brothers' stinking fish in their aquarium with "behind glass" mode and it came out all cloudy. Normally, it comes out clear, but there's a light reflection in the middle. So instead of the middle being unclear, "behind glass" mode makes the whole picture cloudy. Not good. There's also modes for "snow" and "beach" and I'll update if those turn out any better.

This is a 4.0 megapixel camera, but I've found its picture quality to be about par with my older, bulkier 3.0 megapixel cam, and that's what I expected. I was not hoping to get super-professional quality pics, but pics that look fine on my computer and would look good in 4x6 or 5x7 printouts and it suceeds in that aspect. I have a few problems with the flash as I get grainy pictures in dim areas, but I took a pic in almost perfect dark and the picture came out good. Probably it's just the automatic flash doesn't come on as strong as it should be. Picture quality is definitely good, but not jaw-dropping. If you drop me an e-mail or something, I'd be glad to show you sample pics or something.

People have commented on the battery life, but I haven't found it to be that bad. You get 60+ pics on one charge.

Red-eye has yet to make an appearance in any of my pics and even so, that's what imaging software is for. It's a little annoying but nothing that should deter you from buying a camera.

Conclusion

This camera isn't going to win any image quality awards, but is more than capable for day to day use. Put it in an extremely attractive and SMALL body, and make it come in 6 different colors, and ta-da, you have the Olympus Stylus Verve. If you are someone who knows the mysteries of a camera without AutoFocus, stay away! If you depend on AF, if you don't really mess around much if your camera, if you are just a pointer-and-shooter, this camera is more than capable. Plus, I got it for around $260...look around, you might find a good deal.

I guarantee if you go to the store, they will not have your first choice of color in stock. P.S. the white is not really white, it's just really light gray. Enjoy! Yeah, so don't forget to leave feedback on how to make this review better!