Adequate Camera for Extreme Adventures

I purchased the Olympus Stylus 790 SW Digital Camera to take on my mountaineering trips because I was tired of lugging my big and heavy Nikon SLR worrying about whether or not it would be damaged by moisture, cold, dropping, or being crushed in the pack.

The Stylus 790sw on paper seems to meet the ideal requirements for taking along on a mountaineering trip. It is a great size, about the size of a deck of cards, light weight, shock proof, sand and dust proof, water proof to 10 feet, and most importantly freeze proof. The 790sw does not have the benefit of it's more expensive siblings of being 'crush' proof. But, for the size of the camera, I usually keep it in my breast or napolean pocket in my jacket so I didn't feel that the crushability of the camera was important to me.

The camera has a bright 2.5 inch LCD display. It can be a bit hard to see with goggles or glacier glasses on in bright sunlight but easily viewable with the shades removed. The controls are typical of point and shoot cameras. The on off, zoom, and shutter release are easy to access even with gloves (though a bit tough with mittens on). The camera has a built in 3x optical zoom that is built into the body of the camera so there is no external mechanism that can get damaged. Olympus apparently developed a periscope type lens system to achieve this optical zoom ability in such a tiny package. The LED flash is as adequate as an LED can be for a small point and shoot, which basically is not very useful outdoors.

Now for the most important aspect of the camera, picture quality. The 790sw is a 7.1 Megapixel camera. It's on the low end of the megapixel game - at least currently. The pictures tend to be a bit soft especially around the edges and particularly in lower light situations. Since the flash is fairly useless outdoors the environment has to be near perfect to achieve pristine pics. As for myself, I only use the SW790 on extreme high altitude, or bad weather trips and would never even take out or even take my Nikon in those situations so I'm atleast able to now record my trips. The picture quality is actually adequate since I usually print 4 x 6 and post my pictures online only.
The battery life is subpar. In extreme cold weather, the battery lasted a whole five hours. I bought a second for this scenario because most batteries are tested to the max in extreme cold conditions. The batteries also take 2 hours to charge from empty with the included charger. I wished that for a camera that has such potential either the battery life is better or that it could take alkaline type batteries. The Camera also takes the Olympus proprietary xD memory cards.

If your intention is to take beautifully balanced pictures that you want to enlarge greater than 4x6, this camera is definitely not for you. I'm not sure if even the 1030 sw is up to that task.

Lastly, I like the ability to take this little camera to the pool, beach, etc. Without having to worry about it's durability, we take a lot more pictures while enjoying outdoor activities.

Accessories that are a must have for the 790sw are the clear silicone protective case just to add one more layer for protection from scratches and if you're in the water a lot, the floating wrist strap.