Olympus Stylus 800

Reviewed January 2006

Image Quality

Although it does not have an optical viewfinder, the Stylus 800 has an excellent monitor that increases in brightness when the ambient light is low, making it possible to a subject which would have been otherwise impossible.

As do many other compact cameras, the Stylus 800 has a Program mode that allows the user to modify the exposure compensation, the white balance or even the sensitivity. More unusual however, is the fact that while the Stylus 800 also provides Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, it omits a Manual mode, and full Auto mode.

On the other hand, the Stylus 800 is equipped with a couple of special modes that allow the camera to increase CCD sensitivity beyond the maximum 1600 ISO that can be set manually.

Based on what Olympus refers to as "Bright Capture" technology, the first of these programs is directly accessible on the Mode Dial. Called Image Blur Reduction Mode, the mode gives preference to the shutter speed so as to freeze a moving subject, and avoid camera shake. To achieve this, the camera increases the sensitivity as necessary up to a maximum of 2000 ISO. The other mode, this time part of the Stylus 800's 19 Scene modes, operates in a similar fashion. The Available Light Portrait mode lets the camera boost the CCD sensitivity up to 2500 ISO, making it possible to capture an image without using the flash.

While these two modes make it possible to capture photos under low light or of subjects that would normally require a tripod, they also impose a few limitations.

First, the images are limited to a maximum 3-megapixel size (2048 x 1536 pixels). Second these modes require the use of the SQ1 format, a format that applies a compression ratio in the range of 12:1. And third, photos captured with both of these modes tend to contain a fair amount of noise.

On the optical side, the 3X zoom of the Stylus 800 is almost completely distortion-free, revealing little if any barrel distortion in wide angle shots — with the exception of the macro mode which emphasizes it — and no pincushion distortion with images captured at the telephoto end. Moreover, chromatic aberration is well controlled, appearing only lightly with wide angle shots and on the border of very strong contrasts.

Similarly, the auto focus is fast and reliable, even under low light, and there is little shutter lag.

In use, the default ESP metering system of the Stylus 800 proves to be quite similar to a centre-weighted system, giving greater importance to what is at the centre of the frame than what is around it. As a result, attention must be paid to the brightness of the subject at the centre of the frame as it can impact the entire image. By the same token, when well-exposed, the Stylus 800's images stand out for their very accurate colour rendition.

At the highest image quality, SHQ (3264 x 2448 pixels), the Stylus 800 compresses images with a ratio that is in the range of 6 to 7:1, a level that is more commonly associated with an average compression. And when images are observed at full scale on a monitor, it can be noted that some of the finer details are affected and that in turn the overall image sharpness is reduced. And indeed, when inspecting the images at 100%, the artefacts that can be seen resemble the results of over-processing.

Overall, the strengths of the Stylus 800 are its high quality build, its excellent monitor, and its capability to withstand inclement weather or environments that are usually risky for a camera, all of which would make it an ideal travel companion.

The weakness of the Stylus 800 is that it seems to be a bit more prone to noise than some other 8-megapixel cameras, and that when inspected closely at 100% its images exhibit some artefacts. This said, its 8-megapixel image size allows photos to be printed out at up to 8 x 10 without any imperfection becoming noticeable, and that may be the most important factor when considering the camera.