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Definitely Not Waterproof
By: Cameron
July 23, 2008 @ 8:58 AM
I currently own Olympus C4000 and as well as the SW 770 and at only 4 megapixels the C4000 takes some of the most professional looking shots I’ve seen. Compares to Dig SLRs even. Everyone is so concerned about megapixels, why? Even at 7 megapixels the picture quality of the SW 770 is horrendus, no color, no blacks, no whites, no focus. Although I wasn’t worried about that, I purchased mainly to surf and dive with. The camera stopped working after one dip in the water no less than 3 feet under in the ocean. I open up the battery compartment and it was dripping with water. Now it has oxidation on the inside as well as my memory card and only works 3-4 days after every water shoot. LAME. I definitely don’t recommend. I still do love my other Olympus.
Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Good stuff.
By: John
December 14, 2007 @ 10:48 AM
I must say, I’m impressed with this camera. The qualities of pictures are much more than I expected and rival those of much more expensive cameras. For a point and shoot digital, it doesn’t get much better. I carry it everywhere and I know I couldn’t do that with other brands. I am an avid outdoorsman and spend a lot of time in the corrosive seawater with my camera. I do wish it had a viewfinder, but tit for tat. I’m pretty sure there aren’t many other cameras that can stand up to a 5′ fall, 33′ submersion, sub-freezing temps, or 200+ pounds on top of it! The only reason I give it an 8 is because I’ve only had it one summer so-far, and I haven’t tried all the cameras out there yet.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Stylus deficiency!
By: Chuck Carr
October 25, 2007 @ 4:31 PM
Just bought the Stylus 770SW. Most of my work is in the bright sun on the edge of the coral reef. In the sun, I can hardly see the image on the monitor. Terrible.
Next problem: I am near sighted. Cannot use this camera without reading glasses. With no view finder, you are left with the monitor as your window. Cannot focus on the monitor without glasses. Try that underwater!
I’m ditching this unit.
Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
short ife
By: Randy
October 18, 2007 @ 9:21 AM
This camera has many great features, and a few drawbacks, so let me do my best to list them both. It is fairly simple to use. The auto feature makes it a simple point and shoot camera, while the multitude of options allow you to be very choosy on how you want your pictures to turn out. Although the buttons are fairly small I found them quite usable with bare hands. It takes nice pictures, both of people and of landscapes. Even the underwater feature is very nice.
On a cruise vacation I was able to take both great pics of the fish and of the scenery. With a 2 GB XD card (about $30) I was able to take over 500 pictures at the highest quality. Actually I never came close to filling the card in 4 days. The camera worked well in the water and out, but after the second day in the water, and taking good pics afterwards, late that night I went outside in the humid air and the camera started to act up. Eventually it died all together. Although I did save the pics already on the card, I was without a camera for the rest of my trip. I was not happy!
I guess in summary I would say that this camera is a good little camera. It takes fair pictures and withstands rough conditions . . . but donÃ’t trust just this camera on something as valuable as a vacation. Take a backup! I made the mistake of leaving my larger Fuji at home, hoping this would be enough. I took a spare hair brush, I should have taken a spare camera.
By the way, I bought my Olympus Camera at Best Buy, I figured, local store, better service if anything goes wrong. Oops. I don’t recommend Best Buy anymore. After the camera died less than 2 months after being purchased, they would not exchange it. Only send it in for repairs that may take 6 weeks or more! No service there and, no camera for upcoming birthdays, or Halloween parties. I later realized if I had returned it for store credit, I could have used that to buy a new one, but still I was very unhappy with Best BuyÃ’s lack of willingness to take care of me immediately. Even Wal-Mart will exchange things you still have the box for! Not Best Buy! And that was after I paid for their special warranty, and an accessory pack, totaling about $640 for camera accessories and warranty. And still no service. I wonÃ’t shop at Best Buy again!
Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Performs as expected
By: Murray
October 16, 2007 @ 4:07 PM
I bought this camera for day-to-day use in an industrial plant where a normal telescopic zoom would be prone to damage by dust and corrosive gases. I did some research before buying, so I wasn’t expecting fantastic picture quality or slick menus. The 770 SW produces very good results for my purposes, although I’ve had to do some experimenting with the settings to get good results under certain light conditions. It also gives good results underwater with no ill effects. The software could do with some improvements to reduce user effort.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Not Waterproof at all. Pure Rubbish in water. It lets down the camera.
By: Tallbob
August 27, 2007 @ 10:12 AM
I’m giving this camera a rating of 1 out of 10 because I can’t give 0. I bought 2 of these cameras. Like a previous reviewer, I’m not new to photography & have had SLRs all my life & still have a Canon 400 & various lenses. I bought a 720 & my son brought it on holidays to the Canaries. It died in sea water at a depth of 1 meter. The screen stopped working & it started taking photos on its own. While he was in the Canaries, I bought a 770 for my daughter who was going to Australia & Thailand. This camera also died in seawater at a depth of less than 1 meter also. The screen also died & the camera stopped working. It was only 2 weeks old. Olympus UK replaced the 1st camera under guarantee & I’m afraid to put it in water. They’re looking at the 2nd one at the moment. All in all THE CAMERA DOES NOT DO WHAT IT SAY ON THE BOX. The common denominators with my cameras were flying and seawater. The product must not have been tested properly.
Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
New generation of techno portability
By: Fefitt
July 23, 2007 @ 1:12 PM
Great for any expedition if you carry extra batteries and take off auto stuff like sound, zoom … Great pictures takenwhere I wan’t able to carry my SLR Nikon D70.
High capacity 2GB memory cards for 700 pictures in hq 3072 x 2304 with same battery and 6 movies of 15m.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Extremely disappointed
By: Robert Cooper
July 12, 2007 @ 9:13 PM
My wife and I bought a 770SW a few weeks ago for our daughter. I had extremely high hopes due to it’s durability and most importantly, it’s underwater ability. I’m not new to photography. I shoot with a Canon 30D and have a Canon A80 point and shoot. I looked at the pictures my daughter had taken with the 770 and I thought she’d messed something up. The noise was horrendous. I messed around with the settings and still couldn’t get consistently good quality photos. I even compared it to my 4 megapixel A80 and the little Canon won every time. Needless to say, I was so disappointed with the Olympus. I really wanted this to be a great camera. In the end, we returned it and bought a Sony DSC-T100. The quality of pictures is night and day. I really hope Olympus gets it together. They’ve got a GREAT package if they can improve the image quality.
Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Durability and Quality
By: Kanans
July 4, 2007 @ 8:34 PM
Being a graphic designer, I have had my fair share of cameras from manual to digital alike. This camera I would say is the most durable camera I have used, not only does it allow you to take shots in weird positions, but heck you can take it on whatever adventure you go on.. rain or shine.
I love this camera. Some other reviewers say the picture quality is not good, but it all depends on the camera man. If you know how to work your settings properly this camera takes GREAT shots.. Like the gentleman that talked about the $10 dollar indoor shot.. Try pressing the record button once more, and it will automatically set your camera to the prime setting.
Its all about camera settings, no matter what camera you use. If you are a true photographer, you know what I am talking about. Check your settings, or learn alittle bit more about what settings work best for the situation.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
LOVE this camera
By: swanzie
June 27, 2007 @ 9:51 PM
I travel a lot- and I don’t have children – but I am rough on my technology – this camera is easy to use – and great photos – looked and have had many cameras w/ manual options – but i never could figure out how to use it – but this one is easy to use – great for going out to the bars w/ the occasional drop or spill…
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
A Go-Anywhere Camera
By: Tigger Pilot
June 20, 2007 @ 2:04 PM
As a more adventrous type, I wanted something tough. After experience with other pocket point-in-shoots, I found that they could not handle the abuses of the outdoors. Extending lenses, lense doors, and fragile LCDs were just some of the victims of my lifestyle. Because of that, I started leaving my camera at home when I went anywhere wet, dusty, cold, or bumpy. I missed pictures of kyaking, hikes, mountain biking, roller blading, and ski trips. No more. This camera is tough and even though it does not take pictures as good as my 35mm Digital SLR, I don’t expect it to. I expect it to take pictures where I would not take my SLR or my previous point-in-shoot (which, by the way, did not take pictures as good as my digital SLR either and shattered on it’s first accidental contact with dirt).
My advice is that if you just want great pictures taken under normal conditions, by a 35mm digital SLR. If you want a pocket sized rough-and-ready go anywhere camera that can take a bit of abuse, buy this camera. Better, by both and use this camera for what it was designed.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Not too shabby
By: Joe
June 3, 2007 @ 7:49 PM
It takes great pictures outside, and inside only about half turnout good, it seems pretty important for pictures to turn out good to use the recommended scene options (i.e. indoor, outdoor portrait, underwater, night etc…) the image stabilization works good, i really had to use it today as i was on a golf cart going over rough terrain in the rain and i snapped a photo of my dad in the distance which turned out good. The camera isn’t a 10 for quality photos. I don’t worry about what happens to it as long as i don’t lose it. i’m not disappointed with the quality of pics, it’s just that i’m not impressed with them either. You could probly spend < 200$ for the same quality in a 7.1 megapixel camera. I use Google’s Picasa and hit the im feeling lucky then add the warmth option to my indoor pictures and which seems to do the trick for making them look somewhat amazingly good.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Oh, it's just fine
By: Cas Ual Observer
May 21, 2007 @ 9:04 AM
I thought the pics were just fine. I took it on a trip to Jamaica with many friends. When comparing pics with my friends, I thought my pics turned out better than the other cameras with the exception of the Canon Digital Rebel (not sure of model).
I tested the underwater features about 7 times, including a snorkeling trip. They weren’t as bright as I would have liked, but I didn’t play around with the manual controls. On the 7th trip, the waterproof seal didn’t hold and it took on sea water, ruining the camera. I recommend you inspect the two compartments that open for battery & usb port every time you take it into the water. Since it was still under warranty, I called Olympus, sent it in, and received a new camera in 1 week. No hassle.
Overall, I love the camera. Pics are average for a 7mp, good for a compact camera, and I love the lens placement (upper left rather than middle of camera so you can hold onto it easier).
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Durable, but lacking
By: Jeremy
May 8, 2007 @ 8:37 AM
This camera although durable, takes extremely shotty images. The pictures indoor look like a ten dollar digi cam took them, and outside you get major bleaching of white through subjects. My advice, stay away from this camera you wont be impressed with the images it gives you
Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No