Olympus Stylus Digital 1030 SW Review

Rotating the Mode dial to the GUIDE position will bring up the built-in Shooting Guide on the LCD screen. It provides a detailed description of various photographic scenarios, and will also set the camera with the touch of a button. This is a great way to learn some creative and artistic photographic techniques.

Here you can see the typical record mode screen. The "P" indicates Program (Auto) exposure mode, in the center are the auto focus target marks, and across the bottom is image quality, 10-megapixel Fine quality and there's enough space on our xD card for 409 pictures. On the right side you will see the information provided by the manometer, which when set correctly will give you the atmospheric pressure both in and out of the water (1020 hPa).

When you half-press the shutter release it starts the autofocus process and if it locks you'll see the AF targets turn green. If focus fails, they will turn red and flash on the screen (not shown.) The "red lightning bolt" icon indicates the flash is charged and ready to fire.

Pressing the 4-way controller Up, Down, Left or Right allows you to quickly change settings for Macro focus mode, Flash mode, Self-timer, and Exposure compensation.

You can access a variety of Scene modes by rotating the Mode Dial to the SCN position. As you go through the Scene selections an image depicting the mode is shown. A brief text explanation of the mode is presented when you press the DISPlay button (not shown). You can choose from a wide variety of different exposure modes on the dial: Auto, Program Auto, Digital Image Stabilization Mode, Movie, Scene Preset (Portrait, Landscape, Landscape & Portrait, Night Scene, Night & Portrait, Sport, Indoor, Candle, Self-Portrait, Available Light Portrait, Sunset, Fireworks, Cuisine, Behind Glass, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select1, Shoot & Select2, Beach & Snow, Pre-Capture Movie, Underwater Snapshot, Under Water Wide1, Under Water Wide2, Under Water Macro).

Unlike its Stylus siblings, the 1030 SW can be submerged up to 33 feet, without the use of an underwater housing.

Digital Image Stabilization Mode is also accessed via the Mode Dial (shaky hand symbol) and uses Olympus' Bright Capture technology, which boosts the ISO sensitivity. This keeps shutter speeds higher in order to reduce the blurring effects of camera shake or subject movement during the exposure. Image size is not reduced when using this feature. You can also see we have the Grid Lines display overlay enabled.

Pressing the OK/FUNC. button will bring up the menu of options shown above.

FUNC. Menu Options:

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten (Incandescent), or Fluorescent 1, 2, and 3
ISO - Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
Drive Mode - Single, Continuous, High-Speed Continuous
Metering - ESP or Spot
Image Size - 10 megapixel, 5 megapixel, 3 megapixel, 2 megapixel, 1 megapixel,
VGA (640x480), Wide 16:9 (1920x1080)
Image Quality - Fine, Normal

Press the MENU button to bring up the Record mode Menu. You can use the shortcut menus to quickly change Image resolution, Reset all settings to factory defaults, enter the Camera or Setup menus, enter Panorama mode, change the Scene mode as well as enter Silent mode.

Camera Menu Options

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten (Incandescent), or Fluorescent 1, 2, and 3
ISO - Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
Drive Mode - Single, Continuous, High-Speed Continuous
Fine Zoom - On or Off
Digital Zoom - On or Off
Metering - ESP or Spot
AF Mode - Face Detect, iESP or Spot focus modes
Voice Memo - Off or On

SETUP Menu Options:

Format - Format the xD memory card
Backup - Save a copy of images on to your PC
Menu Language - Choose from one of the 38 languages
Power on Setup - Screen and Volume startup controls
Menu Color - Normal, Color 1, Color 2, Color 3, My Favorite
Sound Settings - Controls the different sounds made by the camera
Rec View - On or Off
File Name - Reset, Auto
Pixel Mapping - Map out bad pixels
LCD Brightness - Adjust the LCD Brightness
Clock - Set the time and date
Dual Time - On or Off
Alarm Clock - Off, One Time, Daily
Video Out - NTSC, PAL
Power Save - On or Off
LED Illuminator - On or Off
Manometer - Lists atmospheric pressure
m/ft - Select between meters and feet

Press the 4-way selector "left" to enable Macro focus mode and take close up shots at a range of 3.9 inches (0.1m) to infinity, or enable Super Macro mode and get as close as 0.79 inches (2cm). The 1030 SW also feature a S-Macro LED mode, which uses the LED illuminator to help achieve focus in marginal lighting.

Movie mode lets you capture VGA (640x480) or QVGA (320x240) resolution motion video at 15fps or 30fps with sound. When shooting at highest quality, you are limited to clips of just 10 seconds. Because the Stylus 1030 features a built-in microphone, the optical zoom may not be used during recording. You can preset the desired focal length before starting to record a movie.

Note: Olympus has announced a new Firmware Update that, when using a TypeM+ or TypeH xD card, you can now continuously record movies with VGA quality (640x480) 30 fps up to the capacity of the card.