The Olympus Stylus 7000 is a stylish and beautiful digital camera. It's well built and ultra compact so you can carry it in a pocket or small purse. A very elegant touch are the control buttons at the back which are transparent plastic and they light up when you touch them. Some of the screen graphics are nicely animated and give a fun personality to this camera.
Startup time is fast at about 1.5 sec., shot to shot times about 2.5 sec. (4 shots in 10 sec.), and there is no practical shutter lag in good lighting. Autofocus is fast and precise in good lighting, even at long focal lengths (with usual slight AF lag). In low-light, AF is about 1 sec. at wide-angle (3 sec. at full tele) and locks precisely even with low contrast subjects.
At 12M Fine, you'll be able to save about 2 images in Internal memory and 174 images on a 1GB xD-Picture Card. Shooting video 640x480 @ 30fps, you can record about 8s in Internal memory and up to 9m25s on a 1GB xD-Picture card. I recommend you use a 2GB SD Memory Card or a higher capacity one, depending on how many pictures and videos you usually take in one outing.
STYLE
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Colors: Black, Silver or Blue faceplate with chrome accents
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Looks: stylish, fashionable
FEEL
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Comfortable enough to hold
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Controls are transparent plastic an dlight up when touched; beautiful!
DIMENSIONS &
WEIGHT
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Ultra Compact: fits in a pants pocket, coat
pocket or small handbag
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Dimensions: 96.4W x 55.9H x 25.3D mm /
3.8W x 2.2H x 1.0D in.
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Weight: 132g / 4.7 oz (without
battery and media card)
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Takes 1 Li-ion Rechargeable Battery (LI-42B)
SPEED OF OPERATION
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Average startup with lens extending
about 24 mm (0.9 in.) and LCD turning
on and ready in about 1.5 sec.
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Shot to shot times about 2.5 sec.
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AF is fast at wide-angle but can take up to 3 sec. at full tele in low-light
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No practical shutter lag at wide-angle in good or low-light, 3 sec. AF lag at full tele
Included in the box is a Li-ion rechargeable
battery, and a battery charger that plugs directly into a wall electrical socket. It takes approximately
2 hrs to recharge a fully depleted battery.
The top of the camera has only the Power Button
and the Shutter Release Button. All the other
controls are found on the back.
The back is taken over by an extra large 3.0
in. LCD monitor, and the controls are on the right
side. There is
a small Mode Dial: AUTO, iAuto, Playback, Movie, Beauty and SCN.
You can record movies without sound at SHQ (640
x 480), HQ (320x240) and SQ(160x120) all at 15fps,
limited only by the amount of your memory card.
At SHQ (640x480), you'll be able to store approx.
6 sec. of movie in the Internal Memory, or approx.
1 min. 53 sec. on a 128MB xD-Picture Card. You
can zoom during movie recording.
FUNCTIONS ACCESSIBLE
BY CONTROL BUTTONS (clockwise starting from
the Zoom buttons)
4 Way Arrows (Exposure Compensation,
Flash, Self-timer, Macro)
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MENU/OK
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Easy Print
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Erase
SEQUENTIAL SHOOTING
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Normal speed: 1.3 frames per second
up to the full capacity of the memory
in HQ mode
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High speed: 4.3 frames per second up
to 12 frames in SQ1 (160 x 120) mode
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You select a Sequential Shooting mode
on the Camera tab of the Mode Menu.
EXPOSURE COMPENSATION
/ HISTOGRAM
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Exposure compensation is directly
accessible by using the UP ARROW key.
Once it displays, use UP and DOWN ARROW
keys to dial in a value.
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A live Histogram can be displayed
on screen in shooting mode by repeatedly
pressing the DISP button until the Histogram
displays. You can also display the Histogram
in Playback mode.
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Once set, the Exposure Compensation
Indicator conveniently stays displayed
on screen until it is reset to "0"
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Range: -2 EV to +2 EV (13 steps in
1/3 EV increments)
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The screen brightness will increase
or decrease to reflect the value you
use
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Note: the exposure compensation value
selected is retained even when the camera
is turned off (so remember to reset
to "0" after using it or the
next time you turn the camera on, your
shots may be over- or under-exposed.)
In-Camera Panorama captures 3 images and stitches them together to create one panoramic picture by simply pressing the shutter button and slowly panning across a panoramic scene.
The Olympus Stylus 7000 Digital is overall
a well-built digital camera. The camera is light
and compact. Operations are fast and the many
Scene Modes make this a very easy-to-use and operate
point-and-shoot digital camera. More advanced
photographers will welcome the live Histogram.
