Introduction

The Olympus Stylus 1030SW is a rugged ultra-compact digital camera like no other. Its rugged exterior can be submerged 10 meters under water, dropped from up to 2 meters onto concrete, frozen to -10C and withstand pressure up to 200kg.

The Stylus 1030W packs a 10 megapixels sensor with a 3.6X non-protruding wide-angle lens and a 2.7" LCD in a body which is 0.8" thick. This makes the 1030SW one of the slimmest ultra-compact to sport a wide-angle lens.

Like most ultra-compacts, exposure on the 1030SW is entirely automatic. Aside of the standard plus-or-minus 2 stops exposure-compensation, exposure is always controlled by the camera alone. With a choice of spot or evaluative metering and several scene-modes, this camera shows some flexibility. Like most Olympus cameras, the 1030SW uses xD memory cards and a proprietary lithium-ion battery.

The only other rugged digital cameras are similar models from Olympus, none of which are quite as rugged nor feature a wide-angle lens. For tough and wide-angle, the Olympus Stylus 1030SW is currently the only choice.

Suitability

Suitability for this camera is less about subject than location. This is the take-anywhere camera. Its built tough, so even if you plan dangling from a rope against a vertical stone wall with the wind pounding the camera into the rock, it will take it. Its complete weather-tight design will withstand any adverse weather and allow it to be submerged under water at depths of 10 meters, sufficient for most snorkelers.

The bright 2.7" LCD makes it easy to frame images and the small LED can add light to close-range subjects. Even in a dark cave, you can use the Olympus Stylus 1030SW for macro photography. The only hindrance to taking this camera anywhere is its dependence on a small proprietary lithium-ion battery.

The 3.6X optical zoom with a range equivalent to 28-102mm is great on the wide-side but falls short on the telephoto side. Remember, with a camera like this, you can get closer. This wide-leaning range is better suited for landscape and architecture photography, but will also handle portrait and social photography.

Usability

The Olympus Stylus 1030SW is made for durability, not comfort. The camera itself is a solid metal case with no significant protrusions, only the buttons on the rear, a small frame around the lens opening and an eyelet for the wrist strap. This makes it difficult to hold securely, although all the buttons are placed within easy reach. Unlike most cameras though, this one won't break unless it falls more than 2 meters.

One annoyance that we often see on cameras this size with a large LCD is that the mode-dial ends up below your thumb, the 1030SW is no exception to this. Another thing that often ends up below one finger is the lens, as it is placed on the upper corner of the camera frame. While the first folded-optic cameras had this problem, Konica-Minolta fixed it when it introduced the X50 which mounted the lens horizontally near the middle of the camera body. Pentax later copied this style in its Optio Z10. Apparently, Olympus has not caught up with this improvement yet.

The shutter-release has a distinct halfway point and is easy to use. The power button protrudes enough to be easily activated but not enough for that to happen accidentally. Most other buttons on this camera are quite small but they all feel very solid and respond nicely. Zooming is implemented using two side-by-side buttons, similarly to a typical rocker-switch.

Olympus left more external controls on this camera than on most ultra-compacts. Plus, each direction on the 4-way controller is assigned a function: up is for exposure compensation, right is for flash-mode, down is for the self-timer and left is for focusing mode. The center button on the 4-way controller serves to bring up the function menu which gives quick access to white-balance, ISO, drive-mode, metering, image resolution and image-quality. One additional button gives access to a menu selection screen which means that menus are an extra click away than usual. There is also a button to enter playback mode without using the mode dial. Another button activates shadow-adjustment, more on this later, or deletes images when in playback mode. One more button is for the display more and the LED, if pressed for a few seconds. The final control on the Olympus 1030SW is an 8-position mode-dial.

The Olympus Stylus 1030SW features an excellent 2.7" LCD screen with 230K pixels. It is nice and sharp, with very good visibility in bright light and low-light. The LCD image refreshes smoothly in good light except during continuous shooting. The live-histogram, which can be optionally displayed, keeps up quite smoothly too. The LCD is covered by a sturdy and scratchproof surface to prevent damage.

The front of this camera features a flash and a LED. The flash is typical for a camera of this size. The LED serves to illuminate very near subject. There is a dedicated super-macro mode which activates the LED when the shutter is pressed halfway. The great thing about this is that you can see the illumination effect before taking the picture. As a gimmick, the LED can also turn the Olympus into a very expensive flashlight.

Performance

The overall performance of the Olympus Stylus 1030SW is a mixed bag, with some above average areas and some below average ones. No one really expected this camera's performance to be stellar, given the design constraint of making such a tough one. However, the 1030SW manages quite decently.

Image noise is average for an ultra-compact. From ISO 80 to 200, it is not a problem, although a general image softness in fine details suggest that noise reduction is at work already. ISO 400 gets noisier but a medium size print is still possible. ISO 800 and 1600 are particularly more noisy, more so in the blue channel. At high ISO, subjects are still highly recognizable, albeit very grainy, even on the smallest prints.

Exposure is not entirely consistent with this camera. As seen during the review period, the 1030SW's exposure is usually good but misses by 1/3 to 1 stops more often than most cameras.

Colors are mostly accurate with some over-saturation typical of consumer-oriented cameras. White-balance, on the other hand, ranged from good outdoors to very poor under artificial light. Compact-fluorescent lighting was particularly a problem with a strong yellow cast left in automatic white-balance. Switching to preset white-balance improves things without entirely getting rid of the yellow cast left using artificial lighting.

As expected from a tiny lens, distortion and softness are relatively high. Barrel distortion is evident near wide-angle and so is corner softness. Things do get better as you zoom towards the telephoto position. Given that this is a 0.8" camera with a non-protruding 3.6X optical zoom lens, even this level of performance is quite an achievement.

One area where the Olympus Stylus 1030SW is better than average is in terms of speed. It is ready to shoot in just over 1 second. Shot to shot speeds are under 2 seconds, including focusing, at least in good light. In low light, focusing can become considerably longer, up to 2 seconds. Continuous drive speed is about 1 FPS at full-resolution but goes to 4 FPS at 3 megapixels in high-speed mode. Unfortunately, in both cases the LCD preview does not keep up with the action. Battery-life is shorter than average, even for such a small camera.

Conclusion

Let's face it, those looking for a really tough camera are looking for the Olympus Stylus 1030SW. This camera's tough exterior can take a beating like no other and be taken underwater up to 10m, enough for water sports and snorkeling. Just keep it well attached, because this metal camera does not float.

The second appeal to the Olympus 1030SW is its wide-angle lens which is uncommon for ultra-compact digital cameras. Yet, durability aside, there are several models with a wide-angle lens which are more accomplished cameras.

Compromises had to be made somewhere. So, while the Olympus Stylus 1030SW is outclassed by several ultra-compacts in terms of image quality, it performs reasonably well considering its size and durability.

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