Roundup: Compact Digital Cameras : Olympus Stylus 840
24. Olympus Stylus 840
Shadow adjustment technology
A new technology that is currently all the rage on digital cameras is shadow adjustment technology which enables balancing out images that are too dark (after the shot) by playing with tone curves (like image editing software). The result is that images have more detail in dark areas although they can also appear a bit dull (the curve smoothes out values).
Amongst the plethora of 8 megapixel digital cameras, it can be hard to make a choice. Manufacturers have to think of new and ingenious ways to set themselves apart from the competition. Olympus is no exception to the rule and they have released this colored compact (we received the quite pink looking model) equipped with an intriguing 5x optical zoom. Will this be enough for the Stylus 840 to impose itself?
Handling
- Stylus 840 Black...
Available in different colors, the Stylus 840 has a truly nice design and finishing touches. On the back there is a 2.7-inch screen (fluid in good lighting) and average sized buttons that both help in making this camera pleasant to use. Navigation is entirely classic with the presence of a menu and dial that enables making the necessary adjustments. Olympus has "borrowed" menu ergonomics from Canon (practically the leader in this area for compacts) and the Stylus 840 is easily configured and very intuitive. In terms of speed, autofocus in full sun is quite fast (much less so in low light) and startup takes less than a second. In the end, it’s a very pleasant camera to use.
Quality of images
Overall, image quality is satisfactory; however, we did notice a few weaknesses. On A4 prints, the result is good in terms of the level of detail, but color rendering is reddish. In addition, we noticed the presence of purple fringes although these are relatively harmless. Noise control is in the low average, and while billowing is rather well controlled up until 400 ISO, smoothing can be seen at 100 ISO. Otherwise, the macro mode is good (3-cm). In terms of video, although quality is satisfactory in 640 x 480, recording time is limited to only 10 seconds. This isn’t much!
| Olympus Stylus 840 | |
|---|---|
| Pluses | Minuses |
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| The little Olympus Stylus 840 is a nice camera. It's thin, elegant, rather fast and very easy to use. Equipped with this brand's latest technological finesse, it produces honest images if we dont go too high in sensitivity. On the other hand, the video mode limited to 10 seconds is a real handicap. |  |
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
When you say classified, what do you mean? Do you mean the pages should go in order of price, or in order of rating? Such as the cheap ones at the beginning and the expensive ones at the end OR the best cameras at the top and the worst cameras at the bottom?
i meant group them by chosen price ranges/brackets or any feature you think is relevant since comparison between cameras is just difficult with the present format wherein it is only possible to compare models of a certain brand.
It would have been nice if all the cameras were given scores (yes I know this is very subjective, but so are all the comments and pro/con sections). Idealy they would be given su scores as well (i.e. a still picture score, a video score, a asthetics score, a usablity score, maybe some others) and then the cameras could be sorted by those scores with links, maybey a short blurb at each camera in the sorted list. Another thing that would be very usefull to myself and I assume other readers is a features table that allows us to compare all the cameras.