Olympus Stylus 1010 10.1MP Digital Camera (Silver)

We were seeking a camera for family photos that was relatively inexpensive, light weight and had some zoom capability. This camera really fills the bill. It was easy to set up and get started. Excellent value for the money. Only minor gripe is a minor delay between photos taken repetitively. We are not finicky about the quality of photos and are strict amateurs. Therefore, this camera is more than adequate. Highly recommend it (bought a 2nd one as a gift already).

My wife just loves this camera. This is the second one I bought for her after I broke the first one by dropping it on the floor. You can adjust the quality of pictures you take by using up to 10 megapixels. The clarity is really good at 10 mp, but the space fills up fast. We generally use 3 mp, which is great for everyday use. The video feature is really cool too.

I purchased this camera in January 2009 to replace a Stylus 710 that I had dropped. It never worked properly. It didn't focus at all on telephoto settings. The second time I used the camera, the lens would not retract. I sent it in for repair. Olympus claimed the camera had been dropped, and, so was out of warranty. Offered me a new cameral in exchange for both the 1010 and 710, along with $100. I said, "no thanks; it was a brand new camera. Repair it". I took it with me on vacation in June. Telephoto focus still didn't work, but, I thought I wasn't using it properly. Tried again on vacation last week. Telephoto still not functioning. I intend to send it back to Olympus complaining that camera doesn't appear to have been repaired, as the auto focus still doesn't work on telephoto settings. I don't intend to pay them any more money; I could buy a brand new camera for what I have already paid on repairs for this nearly new, used only 4 times, camera.

Incidentally, the Stylus 710 works fine.

In the new year I decided to update my camera and buy a new digital. I chose the Olympus Stylus 1010 for several reasons including mp's and video; however, when I got using it I found it to be somewhat complicated to use and not user friendly. I recently took a trip to Italy in which I was hoping to get some great pics unfortunately, despite my careful handling, it just stopped working- black screen, strange noises etc. Needless to say I was extremely upset seeing as I had probably only used it MAYBE 5 times and only had it for about 6 months. Since this time I have been in a battle to get it repaired and when I finally did get it repaired it came back from the authorised repair corp in damaged condition forcing me to return it again and try to explain the current defect. In conclusion, though I have little money to spend, I have even less patience at this point and will probably just take my licks and get a new one. I would say don't bother with the Olympus. In addition to making a sketchy product their "customer service" department is not up to par and their aithorised repair place even less so.
Sorry to be so harsh, but this is what happened.
The End.

I will add my voice to the many positive reviews of this little gem and comment upon some of the negatives expressed elsewhere.

First of all, I must give a standing ovation, two thumbs-up, and any other accolades you can think of, to my absolute, positive favorite feature of this camera: MACRO MODE, and, even better, SUPER-MACRO-MODE!!!! Macro mode lets you focus on a subject down to four inches from the lens, and still allows use of telephoto; super-macro-mode lets you focus down to TWO CENTIMETERS (less than 1 inch) from the lens. I do a lot of EBay and have need for detailed closeups of hallmarks and faded writing on antiques, and this feature is UN-BE-LIEVABLE. Not only can you get 1 inch from your subject, but with 10 megapixels of resolution, you can go into Photoshop, crop a small section of the resulting picture, and blow it up to many times its size while still maintaining good clarity. The result is that you can obtain clear pictures of details that are FREAKING MICROSCOPIC. I kid thee not. This feature alone is worth the very reasonable price. You will find one or two reviews that comment on some kind of "focusing problem" when in macro mode. To those people, I say: RTFM!!! When you hold the shutter part way down, the camera displays a focusing square, and it will be green when the camera successfully focuses. It blinks red if the camera fails to achieve focus. If that little guy is green, you will get a perfect picture every time. If it's red, just move a bit farther away from the subject and try again. When you are operating that close, half an inch one way or the other makes a huge difference. I will repeat: THERE IS NO FOCUSING ISSUE IN MACRO MODE!!!!!

OK, enough of that. Other items:

1) Some of the negative reviews say the picture quality is poor. Those people must have been reviewing a different camera. Or else they were competitors trying to badmouth the product. Picture quality is superb.
2) Many reviews comment that "shadow mode" is the key to taking good pix with this camera. YES IT IS! They goofed a teeny bit by not making it "on" by default.
3) Yes, the 7x optical zoom is sweet.
4) BATTERY: One review commented that the "battery remaining" display is inaccurate. I have to concur with that. It tends to say 4 bars for a long time and then suddenly drop down to zilch. However, in general the battery life is good and par for the course as such cameras go. One review commented that if you use a lot of the optional features of the camera, the battery runs out quickly. I'm sure she's right, but that is true of ANY camera.
5) Personally I like to play around with settings when I shoot pictures and prefer cameras that are less "point'n'click" and more "do-it-yourself". This camera has achieved a good balance between the two. The automatic features of this camera result in good enough pictures that I really don't have much desire to play around (although I do recommend that you read the manual to learn more about how they work and become fluent with them). They do allow you to perform a fair number of manual tweaks if you care to (but not aperature and shutter speed, the two most important ones!).
6) Some reviews have commented that the flash is too strong. I rarely use the flash and this thing takes great pictures without it 95% of the time (and it has several special modes to help you avoid using the flash). However, the one or two times I've tried, the results were less than stellar. Yes, it seems on the strong side and seems to wash out the colors somewhat. I'm convinced there's something I can set on this camera to improve this situation, but I haven't taken the time to figure that one out.

Bottom line: I LOVE THIS CAMERA!!! And it doesn't even cost an arm and a leg. The camera I truly thought I wanted was the Canon Powershot SX10, but I just couldn't bring myself to shell out the $400. I decided to give this one a try and am very glad I did.