Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera: Review

I was extremely hesitant about purchasing the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera. I did not think that this digital camera would truly hold up to it's bold promises, not only that though, it was the only underwater camera I had seen available on the market that did not come enclose in a big plastic waterproofing case. The Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera instead looked like an average digital camera, no water case, nothing... this is what made me so freaked out when it came to actually buying it, and then dragging it along with me into the water.

I'm a stubborn person though, and me being me, I wanted the cream of the crop, the creme de le creme. I wanted the best, and according to every diving website, digital camera website, and blog I came across, the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera was just that. Oh yeah, did I mention this sucker takes 10.1mp photos? Yeah well there you have it!

My boyfriend and I have recently planned a trip to the Bahama's. Seeing how this will likely be our first and last trip into the tropics, I wanted a camera that could take beautiful, beautiful picture's not only on land, but in the sea as well. I wanted to come home not only relaxed, but with photos that would grant me bragging rights like no other. Thus my purchase.

I purchased the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera online at circuitcity.com. Doing this not only allowed me to add in an online only promotional code saving me $40.00, but I was also able to pick up my camera from a nearby local Circuit City the very same day.

No trouble, no hassle, and a discount I couldn't get otherwise. With taxes my Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera came to $342.00.

Before I get into how well the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera worked for me, let me discuss this bad boys features first.

The camera of course can take underwater photos up to 33 feet deep, besides this gnarly feature though, the camera is being called the indestructible digital camera. If dropped this camera will not break up to 6.6 feet, if accidentally kicked, or even stepped on this sweet number can handle up to 220 pounds of weight.

The Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera can also handle extremely cold weather, allowing it to function at temperatures as low as 14 degrees F.
Impressive yes?

Yes!
 
Picture Modes will also impress you as well. The camera can take photos according to your environment.

Available Modes:
 
Portrait:
 
In this mode you can take a perdy perfect portrait of your face, or a couples face, or a few couples. This mode for me created some beautiful shots of my friends and family.

Landscape:
 
Its pretty self explanatory. Landscape mode allows you to take beautiful photographs of none other than nature. Taking a trip to the Grand Canyon? Than this is a must have for flawless quality photos.

Landscape + Portrait:
 
Picture it, your kids in front of a mountain, an ocean, or a lake... this mode allows you to capture the beauty of your family, as well as the setting they may be in.

Night Scene:
 
In the city? New York or Las Vegas, this mode allows you to capture all the twinkling action of what is going on around you without adding those annoying ugly light squiggly lines lower quality cameras will have.

Night + Portrait:
 
Again, this is pretty self explanatory. Scenario would be you in the city with tons of lights at night... you want to capture the beauty of the city and yourself in the picture... well here is your mode.

Sport:
 
This mode allows you to catch flawless action motion photos without missing a beat, and without the blur!

Indoor:
 
Taking photos inside? Than this would be the mode you would want to use.

Candle:
 
Another neat little mode that comes packed in the camera is Candle mode. Here you can capture the beauty of a birthday party cakes candles without flawed light squiggles.

Self Portrait:
 
Take a picture of your gorgeous mug! Go on do it!

Available Light Portrait:
 
In this mode you basically pick the environment you are in. Light behind you, light in front of you. The camera will take a beautiful picture no matter which one you choose in my opinion.

Sunset:
 
Finally a digital camera that allows you to take a picture of a gorgeous sunset without flawed quality.

Fireworks:
 
An awesome mode that I have yet to be able to use. I am however pretty excited to blast of some left over fireworks from this past 4th of July. My old camera captured squiggly lights that looked like sperm! I have a feeling that my new Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera will handle the job with charming results.

Cuisine:
 
I guess you can take a picture of your food if you are like a food critique or reviewer... for me this feature is useless, but I guess it is cool, knowing it is there. Hehe!

Behind Glass:
 
Very neat mode that I was able to use with stunning results. Here you can take picture perfect high quality photos behind a glass source! No glare! Yes I said it, no glare at all! What you see is a picture more beautiful than what you would see with the naked eye.

Documents:
 
Another mode I have no use for, but for those who need to take pictures of documents, it is here.

Auction:
 
This mode if for you ebay and auction site lovers. You can take photos that can be used on your auctions, making it easier to fit the sites photo standards.

Shoot & Select 1:
 
Here you can take photos in secession and choose which ones you would like to keep. A neat mode for when you accidentally get a shot of someone blinking.

Shoot & Select 2:
 
This mode takes 2 continuous photos, like above, it allows you to choose which photos you want to keep and which ones you want to ditch.

Beach & Snow:
This mode should be chosen for when you are taking beach and photos in the snow. It allows you to get undistorted photos. Most photos with high sun, and white coloring come out flawed. The Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera in this mode makes sure the photos come out flawless.
Pre-Captured Movie:
 
Basically this mode allows you to create a home movie on your digital camera. Pretty cool!

Underwater Snapshot:
 
The feature I wanted most, and here it was. This mode is also pretty self explanatory... it allows you to take your underwater snapshots!

Underwater Wide1:

 
This mode allows you to take wide-screen underwater photos.

Underwater Wide2:
 
Like above

You can also take underwater movies, and non underwater movies. Do remember though that underwater movies will have no sound.

The camera is loaded with tons of other features such as panoramic photos which are by far one of my favorite features built into the camera. The camera can also be used in auto mode, which is sort of like letting the camera take the photos without you having to put any guess work into it. It will adjust everything to make sure you get the best photo for the environment you are in. A pretty neat feature if you are lazy and don't feel like playing around with all of the modes to find the best quality photo you can get. -I still recommend you toy with the camera to see which looks best to you.

Appearance:
 
The camera is sexy, there is no other way to put it. The model I purchased was the all silver model. However you can purchase the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera, in silver and black, silver on silver, or silver and moss green. I would have however loved if they had made a yellow mode, which would make finding the camera in the water easier if you were to drop it.

The Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera weighs in at 6.3 ounces, and measures in at 3.7"W x 2.4"H x 0.84" D. Although the company tries to make it sound like it is a light camera, I will say that the camera feels a bit hefty in your hand. For me though it just felt like it was of higher quality. Which was a good thing, and not a bad thing. The size however is perfect for holding in your hands.

The camera has no eye hole for viewing to take photos. Every photo you shoot you will be using the cameras 2.7 inch Hyper-Crystal II LCD screen to do all your shooting. The screen in my opinion is gorgeous, however it does have a small set of issues which I will discuss later on.

The camera also features user buttons to the right side of the screen. If you have had a digital camera before it should be a breeze to navigate your way through the camera. The first two upper buttons to the left side of the screen are your zoom buttons. Pressing them will allow you to zoom in and zoom in at your photo targets.

Just below your zoom buttons you have a turn dial. Here you can set the camera to certain mode menus, auto, anti-shake, and play (to view photos you have already snapped). Here you can also adjust to movie mode, and favorites that you have saved.

Below this dial you have another set of buttons, with a small controller type analog. Here you have your menus, one touch print button, trash button, flash adjustment and so on. The analog can navigate through previous photos you have already taken.

At the top of the camera you have your power button and photo shot button.

The front of the camera you have your flash, and shutter. The right side of the camera has a small notch sticking out for you to add in the available wrist strap.

Accessories:
 
The main reason I wanted the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera was because it was nearly the only digital underwater camera that came with a wall charger. The camera uses Lithium ion batteries that are rechargeable. Many digital cameras that were waterproof only used AA batteries! Not cool!

The Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera comes with of course a rechargeable lithium battery, a wall charger, USB plugs to transfer photos to your computer, and a plug to hook your camera up to your televising in order to view them on your big screen! Pretty nifty, and so far has been the only digital camera I have ever owned that came with such plugs.

The camera also comes with photo software for your PC, which I highly recommend you install because you can seriously take your photos to a whole new level with the software. It is called Olympus Master 2.0 and it's really cool. If you purchase an Olympus XD card for the camera you will also be given a code to unlock 3D features and other Art features for the program!

Battery Life:
 
According to the manual the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera will have battery life for up to 260 photos, and will take 2 hours for the battery to charge.

Based on my use, the battery was fully charged in around 1 hour. I was using the camera non-stop for 2 days straight and got over 500 photos in before it finally went black on me and needed a re-charge.

During all of my photo taking I was also messing with the play mode, and menus which supposedly will drain the battery life faster. For me this wasn't the case. I am completely happy with the cameras charge rate and battery life. The second re-charge took also around an hour, give or take a few minutes.

Quality of Land Photos:
 
Land photos look completely flawless. I swear that things on the camera look more detailed and beautiful than they do in real life. I took around 200 photos outside in different settings, from sport activities to normal lounging activities, and each and every time I ended up with a flawless photo. I will say though that a few of my photos did come out a little off compared to other pictures.

Quality of Underwater Photos:
 
I truly love the underwater photographs. They came out nearly flawless, but not quite perfect. They however in my opinion are perfect for what I wanted the camera for.

I don't know how to get rid of the blue glare though that the camera adds to photos. I can fix the blue hues in the additional software that the camera came with, but truly its time consuming and a pain in the rear. I imagine the blue hue is also due to our pools liner color.

When I first jumped into the pool I was nervous because it did not have an underwater housing. I was so afraid that if I accidentally hit the battery compartment button Id ruin the camera.

Likes:
 
-I love the fact that I can bring this one along with me in the water, up to 33 feet for up to an hour.

-I like the quality of land photos. They look better on the camera than they do in real life.

-I love the fact that this camera comes with a re-chargeable Li-ion battery.

-Love the connector for viewing pictures straight from my camera to my TV.

-Love knowing I can tote it along with me anywhere, and I do not have to worry about it breaking if I drop it.


-Allows me to take photos in the rain, in the snow, in the water.. wherever I go.

-Pretty wide screen.

-Menu options are great

-Quality of the camera itself

-Comes with wall charger

-Very user friendly

-Fast charge, and long battery life

-So rugged, you can let the kids play with it

Dislikes:
 
-Does not support SD cards. You have to buy a special XD card.

-Blue hue on underwater pool shots

-Can only stay underwater for up to an hour

-No housing case. I'd feel 100% better taking this camera into the water with the extra safety housing.

-Large hands may sometimes get in the way of the flash creating a shadow in photo

-In bright sun it is very hard to see LCD screen

-Impossible to see screen underwater when taking a photo. Everything is guess work

Overall:
 
Even though I have some things I am not 100% fond of on the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera, it is still by far the best digital camera I have ever owned. With tons of modes, the ability to tote it underwater with me, and the fact that it is nearly indestructible makes it one hell of a killer digital camera.

I needed it for my upcoming vacation to the Bahama's, and I have a feeling this camera will deliver stunning photos on land and in the water. The best thing about my purchase was that I didn't have to spend a ton of money.

From me I rate the Olympus Stylus 1030SW Shock & Waterproof Digital Camera 4.5 stars out of 5.
I have included some personal photos for you to check out the cameras quality.

Recommended:
 
Highly. This one is for those who are looking for a durable rugged camera to suit all of their needs, land or sea.