New waterproof Olympus P&S

Olympus has announced a new stylus, the 770 SW. Biggest news is the increased depth over the old model. it now sports an impressive 10m, this could be a fun little camera.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0701/07012505...stylus770sw.asp

Wow, that's cool! I wonder what the image quality's like.

Cheers

James

Wow, that's cool! I wonder what the image quality's like.

 

Cheers

James

that's a good question. It does use folded optics to seal off the lens so it's not going to be super sharp.

the 720 version ... the previos model has insanely good quality ...

its a very popular camera for people here in the tropics who live on boats a lot.

Also with tourists are using these and the pentax's a lot .. especially on snorkely trips .. I must see at least 5 of each a week .. and I am hardly ever our there on the front row anymore ...

but yes out of the 3 people i know who have the 720sw .. I have seen some great image come out of it ... does it use the same imaging technique ?

This looks really cool, *truly* an underwater digicam whereas the Pentax Optio WP I have is really good for only the shallowest immersion.

Too bad Oly are still using xD. Even Sony is seeing the light.

This looks really cool, *truly* an underwater digicam whereas the Pentax Optio WP I have is really good for only the shallowest immersion.

 

Too bad Oly are still using xD. Even Sony is seeing the light.

yes, xD is a pain, but the cards are much cheaper these days. I'd like to test one of these and see how much past 10m it can go . Olympus is the king of all weather cameras. I have their E-1 and it is a little tank.

I just saw one of these yesterday on the boat. The guy just jumped in the water with the tiny compact in hand. Since it looks just like a "normal" compact, it creeped me out and I was sure the guy had flooded it!

Now I am really interested in one of these to take as a topside/boat camera in my trips. Even when I do take a point and shoot with me in the travels I never take it to the boat afraid of water getting into it. Can someone point me to a good review and/or sample images?

Thanks!

Luiz

I can even imagine taking it in a cheap otter box on the deep part of your dive profile and then taking it out at 30ft during the rest of your dive. Very cool for the business traveller like me.

I just picked one of these a few days ago and so far I'm very happy with it. Picture quality is very good on land (a bit noisy IMO but pretty much what you'd expect from a similarly priced camera). I'll post some UW pictures when I get a chance to test it.

As promised, some shots taken with the Olympus 770 SW. These where all in the pool between 0 and 12 feet with the camera on Program mode. Seems to work as advertised and it is much, much easier than using a housing. I'll post shots at its max depth as soon as I get some.

I bought one just before my recent family Costa Rica trip. Takes nice pics. The only problem I had was when I tried to take it snorkelling in a tidal pool, there was a lot of turbulence and sand jammed the on/off lens cover. I managed to clean it out and it worked fine, though I thought I had trashed it.

Very nice, thanks for posting the samples. I just ordered one for me, not for underwater, but just to have it in the boat. I was always afraid of taking P&S cameras to boats, but now I will do that often!

Actually the 770SW is nearly a year out now but the new SW is the 1030SW, 33 feet also, even greater shock capability, 10MP, ultra wide (weitwinkel) angle lens, 28MM (35MM eqyiv.). My 770SW rig:

CD

yes, xD is a pain, but the cards are much cheaper these days. I'd like to test one of these and see how much past 10m it can go . Olympus is the king of all weather cameras. I have their E-1 and it is a little tank.

Here is an interesting review with regard how deep it can go!

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http...%3Doff%26sa%3DN

Another advantage of the camera is that used in the PT035 housing should it have a minor leak there would be no damage to the camera since thanks to it being waterproof. Maybe by the time Olympus introduces the 1170SW they will include a few manual controls.

I had a look at one of these today (I think that it was this model - my local camera shop had one in and were fascinated by it - and showed it to me). I had a look at the seal around the battery/card compartment which was a moulded 'rubber' gasket. Whilst I'm sure that it fulfills the JIS Class 8 requirements (look them up!) I'd be very wary of using such a cxamera in salt water as any build up could so easily compromise the gasket's integrity. As an above water camera for use in any conditions it looks great and in a housing it should be brilliant, but I'd personally be very wary of using one in the sea without being very thorough in cleaning the gaskets (that I could get at!).

A guy had one in Cocos. Great for topside shooting and snorkeling. He did mention he risked it past 25ft and found most of the buttons stopped working he thinks due to pressure.

A guy had one in Cocos. Great for topside shooting and snorkeling. He did mention he risked it past 25ft and found most of the buttons stopped working he thinks due to pressure.

Several people have used them below 100 feet without a housing.

The major drawback to the 1030SW is the camera's flash is disabled in supermacro mode. Without a hot shoe, you can't force the flash to fire a slave. A work-around would be to use an INON-165 macro lens adapter and shoot in macro mode where the camera's strobe will fire.

The major drawback to the 1030SW is the camera's flash is disabled in supermacro mode. Without a hot shoe, you can't force the flash to fire a slave. A work-around would be to use an INON-165 macro lens adapter and shoot in macro mode where the camera's strobe will fire.

Inon does not currently support the 1030SW.

Another solution would be just not to shoot macro, each to their own. Hopefully Inon will provide an AD adapter soon for the 1030SW.