The Stylus Verve is equipped with an Olympus aspherical glass 2x zoom lens, 5.8 - 11.6mm (35 - 70mm equivalent in 35mm photography), it has a 4x digital zoom feature. The maximum aperture is F3.5 (W) / F4.9 (T).

The TTL contrast-detect auto focus system covers from 20" to Infinity in normal mode, from 8" to infinity in macro mode, and from 3.5" - 8" in Super Macro mode. The lens retracts fully inside the camera when the lens barrier is closed.

The built in speedlight features Auto, Red-eye reduction, Fill and Forced Off modes. The flash range is 8" - 9.2 ft. (W) / 8" - 6 ft. (T.) Flash recycle time is less than 5 seconds.

On the top you'll find the Shutter Release, Power button and the Mode Dial.

Controls on the back: Upper right is the zoom lens control which also functions as the magnified playback and index mode buttons when in play mode. The 4-way selector buttons are used to navigate menu screens and select images for playback. In record mode the "Up" button calls up the Scene menu, the "Left" button toggles Macro focus mode, the "Down" button enables the Selftimer and the "Right" button selects the desired Flash mode. The QUICK VIEW button enables the fast review mode. The OK button calls up and dismisses the menu system and accepts menu selections. To the right you can also see the built-in all-weather speaker.

The A/V Out port sends the audio/video to a television set, the video format is user selectable for NTSC or PAL standard. Data I/O is via a Mass Storage compliant USB v2.0 port, no driver is required for Windows Me, 2000, XP or Macintosh OS 9.1+/OS X systems. The Verve may be connected directly to any PictBridge-compatible photo printer with its USB download cable.

Still images and movie clips are stored on removable xD-Picture Card flash memory cards. Olympus supplies a 16MB size card. Olympus brand xD-Picture Cards are required to use the camera's built-in Panorama feature. 16MB to 1GB xD-Picture cards are now available.

Note the black rubber O-ring inside the I/O port door. Olympus states the camera is "weatherproof and is not damaged by water spray from any direction" as long as the rubber ring is intact and the I/O port door is properly closed.

Power is supplied by a LI-30B 3.6v 645mAh Li-ion battery pack. Olympus does not specify the battery runtime. The included LI-30C charger lets you charge one battery while using another. Lithium battery packs can be charged or "topped off" at any time without shortening the service life of the battery.