Olympus Stylus 720 SW Digital Camera

Very tough camera

By Tan  Apr 26, 2006 | 18 out of 18 found this Olympus Stylus 720 SW review helpful

Pros: Extreme Versatility

Cons: Only 15 fps video, Ok battery life

This is a great camera. I bought it right before I went to Florida for Spring Break. The camera looks too nice to be as tough as the manufacturer claims it to be. It's waterproof up to 10 ft underwater for up to 1 hour and shockproof from up to 5... ft. I took it to the beach. I swam and took pictures with manatees with this camera. Mangrove forests, beach, swimming pool, it doesn't matter. I took it everywhere. Great pictures everytime. Low lighting does get tricky if you do a lot of indoor pictures. The camera has a "use available light" setting, but the resolution is limited and the picture is a bit grainy. This setting increases both shutter-speed and ISO to capture low light images. Higher ISO, more grain. You can use the "indoor portrait" setting instead but you need to have either very steady hands or a tripod to make full use of the 7.1 MP because the shutter-speed is slower. I've done this and the pictures turned out great so long as the subjects stayed very still. The camera has no explicitly labeled manual mode but you can adjust ISO from 64 to 1600. The only con is probably the battery life and the 15 fps video mode. It is a mere 3 hours because of the superbright 2.5" LCD screen and I wish the video capture can do 30 fps. All in all, this is a camera for the outdoors. I've taken it surfing, snorkeling, hiking, and everywhere in between. I even used it to take pictures of my professor's notes on the blackboard. There is even a built-in alarm clock (it's very loud, I put it next to my pillow before bed and it blows my ears out come morning to wake me up.) My friends are jealous and they all want my camera. Even people at the pool can't believe its waterproof. Everyone says "No way dude!" Read more Less