The Olympus Stylus 600 Digital is a digital
camera targeted to Point-and-Shoot photographers.
It has 6.0 effective megapixels resolution on
a 1/2.5 in. image sensor. The Olympus lens is
a 35-105 mm (35mm format equivalent) F3.1(W)-F5.2(T),
3x optical zoom.
We find the overall image quality of the Olympus
Stylus 600 to be above average, but certainly
good enough for 4x6 in. prints, though images
tend to be noisy, on the soft side and lack details
for large prints.
3x
Optical Zoom
Wide-angle
5.8mm
(35mm, 35mm equivalent)
Telephoto
17.4mm
(105mm, 35mm equivalent)
In the above pictures, we show the coverage for
35mm and 105mm.
Super Macro
105mm, Program Auto, ESP,
AWB
1/2 sec., F5.2, ISO 250, Super Macro
The Olympus Stylus 600 can focus in Super Macro
mode to as close as 7 cm (2.8 in.).
Auto White Balance
Indoors
AWB
WB = Tungsten (3000 K)
Since there is no Manual White Balance, you may
have to experiment a bit to obtain the closest
colour reproduction. As expected, AWB works well
in natural light.
ISO
Comparisons
ISO Auto (Camera chose ISO 250)
ISO 64
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
The 100% crops
above (area delimited by the white rectangle)
demonstrate the noise levels at ISO 64, 100, 200,
400, 800 and 1600. Noise is low but slightly visible
at ISO 64. Note that ISO 800 and 1600 are captured
at a reduced SQ1 (1600x1200 pixels) resolution.
Chromatic
Aberrations
CA is visible in very strong highlights situations.
In the shot above, CA is visible at the corner
delimited by the red square at centre right (reproduced
at 100% crop at bottom left). You don't quite
see the purple fringing (more like pink) because
highlights are easily blown.
Long Shutter
Speed
105mm, Night Scene mode,
ESP, 4 sec., F5.2 ISO 250
Macro, Self-Timer (10 sec.), Tripod Used
The Olympus Stylus 600 provides a maximum long
shutter speed of 4 sec. in Night Scene mode. Here
I'm checking out the presence of noise at long
exposure (noise usually increases the longer the
shutter is left open). As usual, I place Bamm-Bamm
under my office desk, in the shadows, to obtain
a long exposure of 4 sec. at F5.2. To eliminate
camera shake, I place the camera on a tripod and
use the self-timer (set to fire after 10 sec.).
Noise reduction kicks in whenever the shutter
speed is 1 sec. or longer, and doubles the time
required to expose the shot.
The pictures in the Olympus Stylus 600 Digital
Photo Gallery page provide a good sample of
what the camera is capable of. I have provided
samples at 800x600 pixels (compressed to Quality
60/100 in Photoshop Elements) as well as the 2816
x 2112 pixels original size (click on the image
for the original version).
You can safely assume that most macro shots and
slow shutter speed shots required the use of a
tripod. Any image that is adjusted for levels
in Photoshop has "_adjusted" appended
to the file name.
I have defaulted the image size to 800x600 pixels.
For those who have their monitor resolution set
to 1024x728 pixels, everything should snugly fit
and you should not have to scroll to see the whole
image. If your monitor is set to 800x600 pixels
resolution, start the slide show and then scroll
to the right to position the image within your
screen width. Then, press F11 (if you are using
Internet Explorer) to switch to full screen mode,
and the image should fill your screen nicely.
Press F11 again at any time to switch your monitor
display back to normal mode.
To return to this page from the Photo Gallery,
click on the animated graphics of the camera.
Please open and download the original size version
only if you need to and only once
to your hard drive -- and save me some precious
bandwidth. Thanks!
