Great Cameras Don’t Fall From the Sky

The Olympus 1030 SW is a great point-and-shoot, but I am serious about my photography. Or at least as serious as point-and-shoot goes. My very first digital camera was the HP R707 and it performed so well that I thought digital cameras could only get better. It had an LCD display and an optical viewfinder. It let me point and shoot, but if I had a few seconds to spare it let me adjust the settings for my liking. I was amazed at what digital photography could deliver and could only wait on the edge of my seat at what would come next. In the mean time I lost my R707 and quickly purchased its closest sibling, the R827, thinking that would be the next step up in my world of digital photography. As it turns out, newer is not always better. In fact, so much so that only after about a year I almost wish I had lost my R827, but to no avail it’s still kicking around here somewhere. I think my girlfriend may even be using it. Again, I set off to buy the next best thing that caught my eye. I have always wanted an SLR, but with its rugged looks, durability specs, and underwater capabilities, I ended up coming home with the Olympus 1030 SW instead.

I did my research, but research can never replace firsthand experience. And without going much further, I can’t help but gripe, complain, and wonder why the optical viewfinder is next to extinct on today’s digital cameras. I know all about the LCD being more precise, but what do you do when your battery is so weak that it is unable to power the LCD screen anymore? I can tell you that in the R707 I switched to the optical viewfinder and the camera was good for several more pictures, at least. Even with a flash. My experience with the LCD is that if the battery is full it works like a charm, but without warning you’ll find yourself staring at a flashing red battery icon in no time and you’ll have yourself a wonderful paperweight to carry around in your pocket. Unless you buy an additional battery and then you’re talking more money. The 1030 SW is no different. And what’s worse is that the battery appears to have two increments of displaying the charge: green and completely full, or a flashing red ¾ empty icon. Pick your poison. I have yet to see it drop in increments other than the two just mentioned.

For the most part (subject to availability) you’ll have a silver body with your choice of one of the three available face colours: Green, Black, and your classic Silver. To me silver is just too bland and too typical. Green is perhaps a bit too wild. The black on silver combination is so sleek it almost looks more expensive. Good thing it isn’t. *UPDATE* After using this camera over an extended period of time, it doesn't matter what colour you pick.  They all eventually wear off revealing the silver body underneath.  Soak it underwater for a few hours or buy the protective rubber case and you may see what I mean. In the box everything came neatly assembled with no missing accessories. But I did have to pick up an xD-Picture Card. Another thing which drives me absolutely nuts. The HP took SD cards so I had a few kicking around. Why does Olympus have to be different? To its credit, an adapter for micro-SD cards was included.

The supplied charge in the battery was enough to power on the camera and make sure it was working, but I followed the recommendations in the manual and gave it a full charge before using it. The initial charge took about two hours before the juice was full on the battery. I have never let the battery run out completely, so all subsequent charges take anywhere from fifteen minutes to about an hour. What is interesting is how the battery charges. I was expecting to leave it in the camera and just hook the camera up to AC power. But the camera has no way of being able to do that. Instead, you plug in a flat, square like charger into a socket and slip the battery out of the camera and inside this charger. This charger is just over two centimeters (3/4”) thick, so it sits flat relatively flat against any wall, but because of its size, if you plug it into the top socket, the bottom one will be inaccessible. Once the yellow light went off, indicating a full charge, the battery was ready, and so was I.

My first battery of tests was just general point and click shots. The camera mode was set to Auto, I pointed, and clicked. The pictures came out looking great in daylight, indoor light, and dim light. Have few expectations and you can’t be disappointed. Act as if this were an SLR and you’ll walk away unhappy. The first-shot delay is about two to three seconds, but if you’re using a flash then the next-shot delay could be as much as five to six seconds or even slightly more. I’ve clicked off a picture using a flash and had to face a blinking red flash icon as it charged for the next shot. Keep this in mind. You may find yourself pressing the shutter button as opportunity passes you by in the meantime.

As with your typical camera you will find an abundance of settings. It’s worth noting that the Macro setting has three stages. You have your regular macro setting, followed by a super macro for extreme close-ups, and super macro with LED. The last setting utilizes a built in LED light on the front of the camera that illuminates the subject at close range. It omits the flash altogether and helps you get a better sense of the picture you’re about to take. This same LED is quite bright and can double up as a small flashlight for about 30 seconds, but up to 90 if you perform an operation while the light is on. This works when the camera is both, on and off, by simply holding down the “Disp.” button on the rear of the camera and is referred to as “LED Illumination” in the camera’s manual. A handy feature, even if you just need a bit of light on occasion to find your car keys. Unfortunately, the self timer only has two settings: on and off. I wish there was another setting that allowed for a two-shot delay for those times you weren’t quite prepared for the first shot, but know that the second is a second or two behind. One other great feature that I 'remembered' by accident (it IS documented in the manual) is that if you just press that same button you get the time and date displayed on the LCD screen. Handy if you don't have a watch or just want to see what time it is. I guess the camera has to keep track of time for the alarm function. That's right. I said alarm. I don't know how it works yet as I have never used it, but I'm guessing it doubles up as an alarm clock? I have no idea, but it's there and perhaps I should study the owner's manual a tad longer.

The camera allows you to take a bit of control over your shots, but it doesn’t allow for manual focus, something I miss from my HP R707. It does however have an abundance of preset settings from portrait, to landscape, and a combination of both, to various types of lighting, underwater settings, and night shots. Unfortunately, most of the night shots that I’ve shot either came out too dark to be useful, or too grainy to make me want to keep them. The night setting would most likely be ideal for a setting downtown where ambient lighting is present. Try and take a night shot in darkness, such as on a beach, or in a park and you may find yourself looking at what resembles an outline of whatever it is you were trying to take a picture of. I couldn’t get the shutter to stay open long enough, regardless of the setting. I also tried a few other settings, including the “Sunset” setting and again, it wasn’t all that great. For the most part, I find that the camera takes the best pictures in the Auto mode and find myself skipping the fancy-shmancy “Scene” settings. Quite unfortunate as there are so many available. Perhaps I’ll try them all eventually and change my tune, but for now, Auto is the way to go. And unless you’re attempting to take absolutely the best quality shot time will allow, you may skip fiddling with the scene-specific settings and go with the Auto setting.

Last, but not least, is the reason I got this camera in the first place. It’s not for the quality of the pictures, which are good, but for the durability of the camera itself, which is quite impressive. Drop it, kick it, dunk it, freeze it, and it keeps on clicking. This camera was built for someone passionate about capturing memories, no matter their surrounding environment. I threw this camera in the freezer and it worked flawlessly upon reentry into a warmer world (not easy to test for cold in the middle of summer). I dipped it into my sink, then my bathtub, then a small lake, and then I dropped it into a marsh and probably even stepped on it while trying to pull myself out of the mush I was sinking into all while trying to turn my kayak back upright. Although that last ‘test’ was not intentional and it took almost 30 minutes to locate the camera in the murky waters underneath all the sand, it worked flawlessly the moment I located it. Which brings up something else worth mentioning: since this camera is designed to be submersed into water I wish it didn’t go down like an anchor once released. Seriously, if you’re in a lake or somewhere deep, you may be shopping for a new camera because your last one slipped out of your hands. The optional buoyancy strap (Floating Foam Strap) was $20 and at last check it was not in stock. Really think about this one if you love your Olympus 1030 SW. And I haven’t had a chance to test the one hour underwater restriction suggested by the owner’s manual. Not sure what happens after one hour. Do the seals break; does the camera’s resilience to water diminish? I don’t know. But I haven’t had the chance to go past the ten meter (33 feet) restriction to be unable to resurface fast enough to find out, nor have I dropped it past it’s two meter (6.6 feet) height, being only 1.89 meters tall (6.2 feet) myself.

I just purchased the optional silicon clear skin case. I wanted to protect the body of the camera. Sure you can drop it, but did you ever consider what the sleek, sexy body of the camera is going to look like after a drop or two of six feet on a hard surface? After only a couple of minutes I quickly came to realize that the USB and the battery compartment are located on the ‘wrong’ side of the case. Instead of peeling back the thin side of the silicon case, to the left of the LCD, I must uncover the thickest part of the silicon case, on the right side, housing the controls and the wrist strap, just to get at the USB connection or the battery. The only reasons I would want to peel back the case in the first place. It’s a nuisance. I guess the case was an afterthought in the design process.

With a plethora of settings, this camera attempts to be the jack of all trades, but masters none. I can’t drop it from too far, can’t dunk it too deep, and can’t freeze it too much. What’s worse is that the pictures that result are comparable to those of cameras half its price. What’s great is that I can abuse this camera more than I could had it not been designed to take some abuse — not that I’d want to abuse it intentionally in the first place.

It’s also worth noting that there is no option to have the date and time printed on the face of the photograph, though it is remembered in the picture information. The time is recorded in the 24-hour format, and I love that. Unfortunately, and not related to the time and date, is that if you have a Type-M xD card you can only record up to ten seconds of video at 30 frames per second (you can record up to the card’s capacity at the reduced 15fps). Anything more at 30fps and you have to have a Type-H xD card, which I’m sure, costs more. All are captured at up to 640 x 480 with sound. But one cool feature that this camera has is the on-screen manometer which can display and save the air and water pressure to calculate the altitude and depth of your photos. I have yet to go so high or deep enough to fully take advantage of this feature. More of a gimmick to me at this point.

If you have ‘butterfingers’ and like to take your camera, literally, everywhere you go, or just like a bit of toughness on your side then this camera has your name all over it. If you are careful about what you do, where you go, and how you treat your camera, you’ll find yourself looking at cameras that are hundreds of dollars less. And if you are really serious about photography you will get a digital Single-Lens Reflex camera and treat it like gold. For the adventurous type, like me, your best bet is the Olympus 1030 SW, with the optional Floating Foam Strap. And even then, treat it like it’s the last time you’ll see your camera if you let it go.