The Stylus 1200 is Olympus' top of the line point-and-shoot, packing a 12-megapixel sensor and all the bells & whistles. Does it live up to expectations?
Review summary of the Olympus Stylus 1200:
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 We love the all-weather Stylus 1200's case, which prevents normal everyday spills and accidents from killing the camera. Olympus' software is great, and the interface was manageable, even including a few key features like Smile Shot and the guide mode. We'd still like to see some flexibility from Olympus on storage card formats, as xD isn't as commonplace as SD, and requiring an Olympus-branded card to unlock features is downright bullying. For the top of the line, the images didn't come out as great as we'd like. Release: November 2007. Price: $200.
Pros: Smile shot mode, shooting guide, all-weather case
Cons: Cheap-looking buttons, xD cards only, panorama requires Olympus-branded card
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Full Olympus Stylus 1200 Review:
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Design & Interface - Very good
The all-weather Stylus 1200 follows the standard Stylus design that has been around for a while; the asymmetrical lines don’t do much for ergonomics, but it does make for a sleek, attractive look. It has protective seals and gaskets to keep dirt and water out, but it isn’t completely waterproof like the Stylus SW series.
We liked how the power button was almost recessed into the body, making it difficult to accidentally push the button but not difficult to intentionally depress. The other buttons seemed a little cheap and flimsy, which isn’t normal for Olympus, but we do like the new backlight, which makes the text glow green. It looks great and makes the buttons much easier to see. The 2.7-inch, 230,000 color LCD looks great, a nice departure from the matte screen we saw on Olympus’ FE-300. Much of the Stylus 1200’s features are controlled by external buttons as opposed to menu options, which takes a short while to familiarize yourself with, but is much more convenient.
We appreciated the guide mode, which helped us adjust settings based on simple descriptions of what we wanted to do, allowing us to fine-tune shots without having to worry about what settings to change. There is also a display button that provides descriptions for menu selections.
Shooting Features - Very good
The Stylus 1200 packs a 12-megapixel sensor and a 3x optical zoom, placing it at the top of Olympus’ Stylus line. Resolution on video recording tops out at VGA (640x480), and there is no zoom during video recording. ISO settings get up to 6400 at reduced resolution of (2048x1536), 1600 at full resolution. The 47 MB of internal memory can take 2:18 of video and 7 shots at full resolution. There are 11 different resolution settings, but only one widescreen, the 16:9 1920x1080 that uses every pixel on a 1080p HDTV. The resolution modes range from VGA (640x480) to 12 megapixels (4000x3000).
The camera has 20 scene modes, including all the old standbys like portrait, night, auction and sport, but also some interesting additions like "behind glass" and the smile shot feature that was making its way onto cameras from almost every manufacturer at PMA 2008. Smile shot uses face detection to find faces in the frame, and then automatically takes the picture once the subject smiles. We liked how white balance, ISO levels and hi-speed shooting could all be accessed and changed simply by pressing the OK/FUNC button in the center of the D-pad. Panorama inclusion was nice, but as we’ve previously noted, we hate that it requires an Olympus-branded xD card.
Image Quality - Good
For the most part, we were satisfied with the images we got from the Stylus 1200. The automatic panorama mode was very fun, and worked well especially in scenes with little to no movement. Non-portrait night scenes didn't look as good, but daytime landscapes (even with cloudy weather), still looked pretty good.
Shot taken in Candle modeWe liked the detail on the bubbles and foam of our Egg Cocotte, but there were some jagged edges on our spoon and fingers. We liked the contrast on the egg yolk, even under the yellowish lighting we had in the restaurant.
Shot taken in Sunset modeThis photo was taken not long after sunrise, but the best colors of the morning are completely absent from this picture. Perhaps a filter effect is in order to enhance the sunrise shots?
Shot taken in Panorama modePanorama mode worked as advertised, but we experienced some purpling along the tree line, and lost some detail because of the low light of the early morning.
Shot taken in Landscape modeWe loved the amount of detail we got of the cornices on the building to the right, and the Empire State building looks like it should, like a mountain in an urban jungle.
Image Transfer - Very good
We’ve talked about Olympus’ Master 2 software before, and we like it. It can be set to start immediately upon connection of a camera or card, and upon loading the software, pictures can be imported from the "My Pictures" folder on your computer, or if you have previous versions of the Olympus software, you can import from those as well.
The software has lots of editing options, and we liked that the software worked with Macintosh computers and provided more editing options than iPhoto. It’s a solid and easy-to-use photo editing option, one of the better that we've seen. It would have been nice to have an e-mail option within the program, however.
Transfers with the USB 2.0 cable were fast, especially with at our preferred 1920x1080 resolution. We didn’t like the USB cable’s proprietary connector, especially since there are Olympus cameras that require different cables.
The memory card was again an issue, as we’re not huge fans of the required xD card. More expensive and less ubiquitous than SD cards, the card must also be Olympus-branded in order to access certain features (like Panorama). This is nothing short of shameful. If they want to include special features on their brand of cards, the least they could do is include one with the camera.
Accessories - Good
The Stylus 1200 comes with a Li-Ion rechargeable battery, a charger for said battery, a proprietary USB cable, A/V cable, wrist strap, manual, software CD-ROM and a warranty card. Olympus offers slim leather cases in multiple colors, as well as a kit that includes a leather case, a Li-Ion battery and a braided metallic lanyard neck strap for $50. Everything but the case already comes with the camera, although it never hurts to have another battery.
Price and availability
The Olympus Stylus 1200 will start selling for $200 () in November 2007.
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