Olympus Stylus Digital 800 Review

The Stylus 800 is equipped with an Olympus aspherical glass 3x zoom lens, 8 - 24mm (38 - 114mm equivalent in 35mm photography), 6 elements in 5 groups with 3 aspherical lenses. It has a 5x digital zoom feature. The maximum aperture is F2.8 (W) / F4.9 (T).

The TTL contrast-detect auto focus system covers from 20" to Infinity in normal mode, from 8" to 20" (W), 12" to 20" (T) in Macro mode, and from 1.2" - 20" in Super Macro mode. The lens retracts fully inside the camera when the camera is powered down and is protected by an automatic closing metal barrier.

There is no optical viewfinder, you frame, review and perform menu operations on this large 2.5-inch (6.35cm) HyperCrystal LCD monitor with approx. 215,000 pixels of resolution. It delivers a high contrast image with a 160° wide-view radius.

Conventional LCD screens are difficult to see in the bright light, the HyperCrystal LCD provides excellent visibility. Even in dim light you can see what you are shooting on the LCD and capture bright clear images.

The built in speedlight features Auto, Red-eye reduction, Fill and Forced Off modes. The flash range is 0.7 - 21.3 ft. (W) / 0.7 - 11.5 ft. (T.) Flash recycle time is less than 5 seconds.

When selecting ISO 1600 the Bright Capture Technology allows you to take flash pictures up to 42.0ft (W) or 23.6ft (T).

Two types of Red-eye reduction are offered:

1. Red-eye reduction flash mode ON when taking the picture to reduce the effects of red-eye.
2. Red-Eye Fix menu function after the photo has been taken so you can easily fix the picture even after it's been shot.

On the top is the Power button and Shutter Release.

Controls on the right: The QUICK VIEW button allows you to view the last image captured without having to go into Play mode. The GUIDE buttons calls up the onscreen user's guide to main functions. The DISPlay button selects the amount of overlay information on the LCD image. The bottom button enables self-timer in record mode and is used to delete images in playback mode.

Controls on the left: Top is the zoom lens control which also functions as the magnified playback and index mode buttons when in play mode. The Mode Dial has positions for Program Auto, Blur Reduction, Scene, Shutter-speed Priority, Aperture Priority, Movie, Playback and Album Selection. The 4-way selector is used to navigate menu screens and select images for playback. In record mode the "Up" button changes the flash mode. The "Down" button enables the Macro focus modes.

An optional AC power adapter can be connected to the 4.8V DC IN port. 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 v1.1 port, this port is also PictBridge compatible for direct printing.

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.

Still images and movie clips are stored in the camera's ~21.3MB of internal memory or on removable xD-Picture Card flash memory cards. 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.

Power is supplied by a LI-12B 3.7v 1230mAh Li-ion battery pack. Olympus does not specify the battery runtime. The included LI-10C 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.