One tough camera

Stuff Sack

Compiled by Trent Edwards,
Calgary Herald
August 19, 2010

One tough camera

Review - If you're adventurous or clumsy and looking for a tough camera, Olympus has come out with its sturdiest point and shoot yet.

The Olympus Stylus 8010 ($449.99 at olympuscanada. com) is a pocket-sized camera that can take a drop of up to almost two metres. It's waterproof to about 10 metres, freeze-proof and crushproof.

The 14-megapixel camera takes 720-pixel high-definition video and has a 28-to 140-millimetre optical zoom (in 35-millimetre equivalent), dual image stabilization and tracking autofocus.

For all that sturdiness, you pay a price in weight (182 grams, not including the battery).

Our tester liked the camera's fun "beauty" and "magic" settings. The beauty setting focuses on the subject's face and smooths the colour and tone of their skin. The magic setting has four options (pop art, pinhole, fish eye and drawing) that offer interesting photo perspectives for experimentation. You can also merge up to three photographs into one panoramic shot.

The Stylus 8010 is easy to use and has a handy help function that explains how to use functions and offers photo-taking tips.

Via: Calgary Herald: http://tinyurl.com/2dqdsyj