Olympus Stylus 710
The Olympus stylus 710 is an attractive digital camera with many enviable features, at least in concept. The idea of using a “weather proof” digital camera is certainly attractive. A camera that can handle all of the elements--come rain, sleet, snow, hell or high water—would definitely come in handy. The Olympus stylus 710 tries to be the perfect weather proof camera. But what did the reviews say about the device's photo quality?

Should You Buy An Olympus Stylus 710 Camera?
The Olympus stylus 710's gold-plated camera case is scratch resistant and very clean. The navigation is easy to learn and use, and the control functions such as the four-way-plus-OK pad and mode dial are easy to reach with one hand. The Olympus stylus 710 guide mode allows you to display a list of common photographic situations and automatically adjusts its settings to accommodate the shot.

The Olympus stylus 710 also features Bright Capture technology, which improves the image's quality not only in the shot but also on the LCD screen. The Olympus stylus 710 has a zoom lens with a 37 to 111 millimeter range and can focus as close as 3.1 inches in the supermacro mode, and 7.8 inches and beyond in standard macro mode. There are also some nice scene modes to choose from, including such specialty scenes as “cuisine” and “behind glass”, as well as common scenes like portrait and landscape. The shoot and select feature captures a series of pictures and then displays all of the thumbnails so you can choose the best one. The Olympus stylus 710 also offers special camera accessories like underwater housing, which is available separately, and video camera capture, which is a special feature on the camera itself.

Problems With The Olympus Stylus 710 Camera For Sale
Unfortunately, the Olympus stylus 710 digital camera has some serious flaws, according to major reviewers. The Olympus stylus 710 digital camera tested poorly in performance, with its standard operation reporting a 2.4 second wait for the camera to power on, a 2.5 second delay between shots and a 3.7 seconds delay when using the flash. It's best performance was the lowest quality “burst” mode which captured 113 shots in about 31 seconds. Other disappointing features including the red eye reduction, the LCD screen, which had some difficulty in sunlight, and worst of all, low quality pictures.

Photographs taken came out were occasionally fuzzy and had noticeable fringes. Colors also were an issue, as some were washed out in certain photographs. It seems unlikely you will get a good print in any size bigger than an 8 X 10. While noise did not affected low speed levels, at the 400 mark some graininess started to appear.

The Olympus Stylus 710 makes for a good vacation camera—provided you're going on a cheap, fun-filled rainy vacation?--but camera reviewers were underwhelmed by the performance. The Olympus Stylus 710 disappoints, especially compared to the model 810 which had higher resolution anyway.