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Olympus Stylus 400 4MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Olympus Stylus 400 4MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $499.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you want convenience-
Review: Look, I understand that the pictures won't bring you to tears of joy with their intense colors and riveting detail. If you want that, spend more on a camera that will be much larger and feature laden.

However, if you want to throw your camera in your pocket and run out to a bar, the beach, or wherever (knowing full well that you might not even use it on said trip) it doesn't get a lot better than this. It's stupid easy to use, it's light, to this point it's been indestructible, and about 95% of my pictures, even from dimly lit places have been high quality. For some reason the quality suffers when you DON'T use the flash, but it really doesn't make much difference.

So it's really all about what you're looking for. If you're in college or are a young person looking to document adventures, get this camera. If you're taking family vacations, probably you could do better. Either way, I love the thing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you want convenience-
Review: Look, I understand that the pictures won't bring you to tears of joy with their intense colors and riveting detail. If you want that, spend more on a camera that will be much larger and feature laden.

However, if you want to throw your camera in your pocket and run out to a bar, the beach, or wherever (knowing full well that you might not even use it on said trip) it doesn't get a lot better than this. It's stupid easy to use, it's light, to this point it's been indestructible, and about 95% of my pictures, even from dimly lit places have been high quality. For some reason the quality suffers when you DON'T use the flash, but it really doesn't make much difference.

So it's really all about what you're looking for. If you're in college or are a young person looking to document adventures, get this camera. If you're taking family vacations, probably you could do better. Either way, I love the thing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply Awesome
Review: Looking for a great, compact, high quality digital camera? Look no further, the Olympus 400 is tough to beat.

I'm no photography pro but if you are looking for a great camera to take pictures for the web or to use while on vacation, this is a great selection. It's been to the slopes in Colorado, Utah & South America in (kept in a jacket pocket) snow, sleet & rain. It's taken phenomenal pictures and produced beautiful printouts.

The 16 meg memory card it comes with is a joke; it just doesn't hold anything. If you plan to buy this camera, plan on an extra $150.00 or so for a larger membery card or two. I got a 512 mb card which holds nearly 600 photos that print at high quality as 8x10's. It holds more than enough pictures for an extended vaction but with the 512 mb card it takes a while for the camera to ready itself to take a picture. A 256 mb card is probably the ideal balance of storage space and speed.

The camera is easy to use, looks nice and is comparable to the 35mm stylus series from Olympus that was fantastic as far as 35mm cameras go for the casual photographer.

Bottm line, give this camera serious consideration when shoping for a digital camera and plan on picking up at least 1 256 or 512 meg memory chip if you buy it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pricey & not the best camera!
Review: Nice design and good looking. (Although not yet stylish as Canon Elph's.) Good battery life but the extra battery costs a lot. You can't put in AA batteries in this one.

Average image quality indoors. Good outdoors. Slow to focus and has annoying shutter lag. No manual features and many photos need to be tweaked in photoshop. Video mode is junk.

Uses propreitary xD cards...Back to the camera, its a good attempt by Olympus but still way behind Canon, Sony, Pentax, Nikon and Minolta...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: poor quality pictures
Review: The design of the camera, the metal case, size, weather-proofing are excellent. It's still my favorite. However the quality of pictures both indoors and outside are horrible. The camera over compensates for dark or light situations. A beautiful day with a nice blue sky is captured by either making the sky very white, or the subject (trees, house, etc) very dark. The camera is being returned because of the poor quality. It's a real bummer because I like everything else about the camera.

Updated 10/21/03 -- Purchased the Canon Powershot S400 to replace. What a great camera!!!! The Canon takes excellent pictures right out of the box. About the same size, but no weatherproofing. Much better camera for the money!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What no super bright lense ?
Review: The Olympus Stylus 400 is a nice camera for outside, well lit shots. What is missing is the Olympus milestone 1.8 Super Bright lense. That lense is on the Olympus C-5050 that they are discontinuing, and replacing it with the C-5060. Unlike the 5050, the 5060 has a darker lense. The Stylus 400 has one of the darkest, with a 3.1 to 5 aperture range. That is why their is so many complaints about the inside shots.
What the 1.8 super bright lense means is that it lets in more light, with a larger opening. More light means faster shutter speeds, which means non blurry shots. It is even more important for indoor shots with low light.
I have an Olympus C-2040 which has the super bright 1.8 lense, and was Consumer Reports number one rated camera a couple of years back. It actually outperformed even the 5 megapixel cameras in printed picture results, and in the follow up review, it rivaled the 5's.
When I am indoors, I purposely turn off the flash, and take pictures with just the normal existing light in the room. That way you get warm natural skin tones. With a darker lense, you are totally dependent on a flash, which eats up your battery life, and gives you washed out bright area shots.
Right now with the C-5050 going for less money as a clearance to make way for the 5060, which is also 5 megapixels, but with the darker lense, makes me want to suggest the 5050 is the one to have.
Myself personally, I am keeping my 2040 because of the great results I am getting. I can print out an 8 1/2" x 11" on photo glossy paper, and you can't tell it from a 35mm photograph.
I like the entire Olympus line, but their caveat is that super bright lense. Normally you have to sacrifice some of that to get an increased zoom beyond the normal 3x. In the Stylus 400 you don't even get the additional zoom, while sporting the darkest lense. If you are outside, in sunlit conditions, that is fine. I don't know about you, but I take most of my pictures indoors. That is where the super bright lense shines.
I'm sure the 400 is a great little camera, but I thought the aperture range should be brought to the forefront. A lot of years ago, I bought a 35mm Nikon with a 1.4 50mm lense. It was more money than the smaller ones, and they also had a 1.2 that was all glass in the front, and very expensive. The same rule applies here. Get the 1.8 instead of a 3 plus if you are doing some indoor shots. Nobody knows what is best for everybody, but I hope this helps.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good camera
Review: The Olympus Stylus 400 is a very good camera. It is one of the tiniest I have seen, and the body design feels sturdy. It is the ONLY camera that is all weather, and the menu system is fairly easy. The picture quality is just OK, and I would not recommend this camera for anyone who is a serious photographer. It is a very good point-and-shoot camera for a novice to intermediate photographer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BEWARE _ flimsy media door easily broken
Review: the small peg on the media door
can't handle the "press to open"
action & (on my camera) broke after
maybe a dozen presses.


Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Some good features, but
Review: The Stylus 400 is attractive because of it's 4 megapixel resolution, the weather resistant case, and it's small size. All very attractive if you enjoy the outdoors and want your camera with you.

However, be aware that the low light sensitivity means that you will often be using slow shutter speeds and will need a tripod or other support. You also might expect that a camera with this price and pixel resolution would have some more advanced features. However, this is a point and shoot camera only.

Compare to the Canon S50 at a similar price.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome Camera!!!
Review: This Camera is great!!! I bought this camera right before a trip to Las Vegas and have no regrets. In fact I can't imagine my trip without it. I took over 120 pictures on High Quality resolution and still had 140 shots left with my 256 card. The Camera is so small that I went clubbing with it in my pocket and was still able to bust moves on the dance floor. The display screen is a good size and the buttons are easy to access.The features are easy to access and take about 5 minutes to learn. The different shooting modes come in handy depending on your shooting conditions. Panaramic mode is awesome! I took a great shot of the Las Vegas Strip using the panoramic mode and stitched it using the software included. You have to have an OLYMPUS BRAND MEMORY CARD to use panorama mode. Some people complain about the new Xd card, but there are so many good things about it. It is so small; about the size of a stamp. The size helps consume less battery life. I never had a problem with my battery running low; I just charged it whenever I went to bed. Also, you can get an adapter for the card to make it compatable with compact flash or smart media formats. The quality of the pictures look incredible and you can notice the most minor details when zooming in. In movie mode the movies are crisp and smooth. Length of the movies depend on the picture quality that is set. Some people complain that there is no sound in movie mode. If you want a DV camcorder that can record audio and video, then buy a DV camcorder. Otherwise movie mode is great when you want to capture those little memorable moments. When you are ready to print the photos you can set options on your camera to decide the quantity of each photo you want printed. You can also decide whether or not you want the date or time printed on the pictures. The information is saved on your memory card. When you want your pictures printed out just take your card to the photo lab and the printer will automatically know how many pics you want and if you want the date printed. I just took my card to Costco and was set to go. This camera is a little costly but definitely worth the price. If you want a nice camera that will last for at least 5 years then get the stylus 400. If you want to save money then get a 2 megapixel camera that is bulky and will be obsolete in 2 months. Again awesome camera! Did I mention that it is all weather and can take water sprayed in any direction. You don't have to worry about taking this camera to the beach and getting messed up with sand and water. The Stylus 400 is Stylin'!


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