This sexy little Stylus can catch eyes, but can it capture beautiful images? Check out our in-depth Olympus Stylus 1040 review.
Review summary of the Olympus Stylus 1040:
 |
|
Scoreboard » Features » Side-by-side » Gallery » |
 The Olympus Stylus 1040 is a sexy little compact fashion cam that will lure consumers with its glossy sliding faceplate and flat light-up control panel. However, we weren’t too impressed with the functionality of the flat control panel and could have used a bigger screen, perhaps a touchscreen interface. Features are minimal on the Stylus 1040, so Manual Control-hungry shooters are out of luck. This is particularly unfortunate because the Stylus 1040 has a tendency to underexpose its images and without any advanced exposure control, most shooters will be left in the dark. In optimal lighting the Stylus 1040 shines, but you’ll have to rely on the flash for most dimly lit shooting environments. With a 38mm wide lens, you’ll have to back up significantly in order to fit content into your shots. So, we’re looking at style in an alluring compact package with the Stylus 1040, which is great if that’s all you want in a camera. Release: October 2008. Price: $200.
Pros: Compact design. Great style. Decent images in optimal lighting.
Cons: Poor low light performance. Control Panel is difficult to access. Limited shooting features.
| Poor |
Mediocre |
60%
GOOD |
Very good |
Excellent |
|
|
|
Full Olympus Stylus 1040 Review:
|
Design - Good
The Olympus Stylus 1040 is the company's compact style cam, touting a thickness of just over a half an inch and a sleek sliding faceplate that replaces an unsightly Power switch or button. For its diminutive size, the Stylus 1040's metal construction will hold up in most moderate drops and the camera will fit into a small jeans or shirt pocket with ease. The paint on our Stylus 1040 test unit chipped just a bit during our review week, so we would warn against tossing it into a purse or bag filled with keys, pens and other treacherous perils. On the runway, the Stylus 1040 is not a show stopper, but its demure looks will attract shooters who want more than just a plain old compact camera.
Buttons and controls are minimal on the Olympus Stylus 1040 and the zoom toggle is a sunken little tab that digs into your finger, stubbornly shifting left and right. Other than that, it's just a shutter button and an unconventional panel of flat buttons located along the back. We weren't entirely impressed with this interface. The Stylus 1040 has a 2.7" LCD screen and we believe Olympus could have at least made enough room for a 3-incher by eliminating the flat control panel and opting for a more traditional 4-way directional pad accompanied by individual controls.
Interface - Mediocre
There's no Mode dial on the Olympus Stylus 1040 and nearly all control transpires within the flat panel of buttons located to the right of the LCD screen. To power the camera on, slide the glossy flaceplate downwards to reveal the lens. The flat control panel may look as cool as the faceplate, but it's a royal pain to use. You'd better have long, salon nails in order to access the miniscule buttons. Half of the time we found ourselves inadvertently mashing neighboring buttons, which really put us out of the mood. The flat control panel looks hot, especially when it lights up, but style doesn't always constitute stellar navigation. Olympus should have gone with a touch screen, especially since many of the Stylus 1040's competitors are featuring them, such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 and Samsung TL34HD.
We like the structure of Olympus' menu system; it's one of the best in the industry. The Function menu allows shooters to scroll up and down to select an option and shift left and right to toggle between that option's settings. Here you'll find some manual controls like ISO and White Balance, but the rest are located in the Main menu. Each point in the 4-way direction panel doubles as a quick action, such as Macro and Exposure Compensation. The LCD screen lacks sharpness and appears brighter than the pictures it actually takes, so you'll have to review your images at the end of a shoot.
Features - Mediocre
The Olympus Stylus 1040 is a bit understaffed when it comes to image control. Rather than offer a handful of different shooting modes, the Stylus 1040 can only toggle between Program/iAuto, Image Stabilization and Scene Modes. There's no independent Shutter Speed or Aperture Control. The only options for manual adjustment are Exposure Compensation, White Balance and ISO. The Exposure Compensation feature allows the shooter to select between a number of miniaturized screens that vary in exposure level. In our tests, we found it quite difficult to discern the varying exposures levels amongst the small screens and the captured image usually ended up vastly underexposed or too blown out. If you don't use Exposure Compensation, we found that the Auto mode has a tendency to underexpose images across the board. In some dark shooting environments, you might even have to resort to using the flash. There's also a Shadow Adjustment feature that boosts shadowy areas in an image. In our tests, Shadow Adjustment actually boosted the exposure in areas of the image that needed it, so this is another option for difficult lighting.
The Olympus Stylus 1040 has an ISO range of 50 to 3200, which is more impressive on the low end of the sensitivity scale than on the high end. There's no Manual White Balance, so you're forced to use one of the presets. Most of the time the Auto White Balance performed adequately in our tests. The Stylus 1040 has a Burst mode that captures batches of 12 images based on the Shutter Speed. Unfortunately, Burst mode can only be applied in Auto mode, so the capture time will vary and no Manual controls can be applied. For motion, the Stylus 1040 offers Digital Image Stabilization, though we have found Optical Image Stabilization to be more effective. The Stylus 1040 will tend to boost the ISO while using a faster shutter speed in conjunction with the image stabilization to isolate a fast-moving subject. While the subject may seem less blurry, we found the high ISO levels to create a barrage of noise throughout the image.
Scene modes are even scarce on the Olympus Stylus 1040. While most cameras tack on everything from Sunset to eBay, this one is just equipped with the basics, including Smile Shot. The Smile Shot feature performs well, as long as you keep the camera steady. Otherwise, we found the camera's green focus box to dance around a bit, morphing into different size squares in attempt to snag the perfect smile. Also, images can only be captured at a max resolution of 3-megapixels because Smile Shot employs Burst mode. The Stylus 1040 can capture 640 x 480 30fps standard-definition video. Motion is smooth in Video mode, but we found the camera to sputter and cough in low light.
Lastly, the Olympus Stylus 1040 has a great in-camera Panoramic stitching mode that functions in three different settings. We had the most success with the first method, which enables you to capture an image and pan to the left or right, matching a small on-screen diamond character within a target box. The image will automatically capture when you line up the diamond within its target box. Repeat this once more, and the Stylus 1040 will then stitch the three images for you onscreen.
Hardware - Good
The Olympus Stylus 1040 sports a 1/2.3", 10-megapixel sensor, a common imager size. The camera also has a 3x optical zoom with a 38mm wide lens. A 3x zoom is nothing to brag about, but that's what we'd expect on a camera this tiny. The 38mm wide capability is a bit of a bummer, especially on a camera geared toward parties and family gatherings. The shallow depth of field means you'll have to back up significantly in order to fit everyone and everything in the shot. We were constantly taking steps backward while testing the Stylus 1040 in the field.
The Olympus Stylus 1040 runs on a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and uses xD memory cards in addition to Micro SD cards via an adapter. SD or SDHC compatibility would have been nice here.
Image Quality - Good
For a fashion cam, the Olympus Stylus 1040 cranked out some decent images with minimal artifacting in our tests. We found the Stylus 1040's main issue to be lack of a proper exposure level in many images. With only Exposure Compensation to play with, it's very difficult to fine-tune the brightness of an image with this camera. Furthermore, many images that appeared properly exposed on the LCD screen ended up exceedingly underexposed when we actually captured them. This is pretty deceiving, and will require a quick review after you are done shooting a set of images. In optimal lighting, we were happy with the Stylus 1040's performance. However, most low light shooting environments required a flash because the Stylus 1040 just couldn't accommodate the loss of illumination.
Scene Test – Paul Revere
Here we're seeing minimal noise throughout most of this image, but there's an inherent lack of sharpness. Colors are also not as punchy as we'd like to see them. The Olympus Stylus 1040 renders the sky beautifully and does a great job handling the contrast of the trees, as no blooming is present. We do see some slight fringing along Paul and Brown Betty, but it's barely noticeable.
Landscape Test – Hancock Building
Boston's tallest building is proudly displayed here as we can discern bold lines and sharp edges, necessities in architectural representation. Surprisingly, the right side of the Hancock is not blown out, and that's probably due to the Olympus Stylus 1040's lean toward underexposure. You can catch a bit of blooming in the trees along the bottom, but this is a great image, certainly one to keep for the scrapbook.
Color Test – North End Fruit Stand
Here we see a more life-like color display, as the fruit appears vibrant, yet subdued. No colors are bleeding, but the image is not as sharp as we had hoped it to be. The lighting is very accommodating here, so we're seeing an example of the Olympus Stylus 1040 on its best behavior. This is a very good performance.
Contrst Test – Window and Glass
This is yet another example of how the Olympus Stylus 1040's tendency to underexpose will come in handy. Parts of the sky are blown out, but not to a terrible extent. A decent majority of the scene in the window is still visible and the light reflecting on the colored bottles does not explode. Sure, the glare on the bottles is wrought with some fringing and the leaves of the plant are glowing, but for this shooting environment the Stylus 1040 holds up fairly well.
Still Life Test – Fall Table
Let's set aside the qualms we have with the background of this image with all the blowing out and blooming that's going on and feast our eyes on the rest of this image. We're seeing pristine detail within the green bottle and along the surface of the pumpkin. Is this the same camera!? Noise is nearly obliterated and this is one beautiful still life in terms of detail.
Detail Test – Here Lyes Mrs. Silence Eliot…
We could have used more sharpness within the etching of Mrs. Silence's grave, as you can see the entire image is slightly blurred. This is an issue with the Olympus Stylus 1040, and you'll have to have an extremely steady hand if you plan on shooting outside of Auto mode with a low ISO.
Macro Test – Holy Cannoli!
We also had issues with the Olympus Stylus 1040's Macro feature. We just couldn't get close enough, and this is due to its shallow depth of field. Only the mid section of the cannoli is focused, when it was our intent to focus on the chocolate chips in the foreground.
Indoor Test – Painting
Indoors we begin to see the effects of noise, which give this painting even more of an abstract feel. Colors are lacking as well. Inside, the flash is most likely the way to go with the Olympus Stylus 1040.
Sunset Test – Beantown
Night Test – Citgo Sign
Here's where it all goes downhill. In low light, the Olympus Stylus 1040 chokes, as you can see in this image. The colors are nice, but the image is far too underexposed and most of the shadows appear posterized. The Citgo sign looks nice, but Holy Posterization, Batman! for the rest of the image. In the shadows beneath the Citgo sign you can see blotchy patches of pixels. Low light without a flash is not the camera's bag.
Price and availability
The Olympus Stylus 1040 will start selling for $200 () in October 2008.
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
| NEW DIGITAL CAMERA RELEASES | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
_it00.jpg)
|
Archive