Olympus Stylus 770 SW (mju 770 SW Digital)

Opinion: In my opinion, this is a piece of cr@p!

It is very slow and image quality sucks big time. Images are very noisy, especially in low light. Full of bells & whistles, but the least liked camera in my line-up.

Opinion: WARNING FOR all OLYMPUS "Tough" Camera's

Olympus only does warranty for 12 months following purchase of camera. Even if

after that time issues arise which are related to manufacturer defect. "waterproof",

"tough" and "shockproof" should be taken in context of use for 12 months.

I received an estimate of $135 + $25 shipping (from manufacturer) to repair water

leaking into the frame of a 18 month old $400 camera. It is noted on my repair

form that this camera is not scratched, dented or shown any signs of misuse, other

than water damage to the LCD screen, fogged flash, and water inside camera. My

lesson on this is unfortunately not to purchase perceived quality and instead buy

cheap and re-purchase often.

Opinion: I’ve had this grunty little workhorse for over a year and have exploited it extensively around half the world under various conditions. I come from an SLR background, so I lowered my expectations for image quality and control. I really just wanted an all weather camera I could carry on me at all times, go swimming with, use in the moshpit or take photos/movies with off the back of a motorbike.

Over the years I have used an array of cameras by different manufacturers, so I didn’t bother reading the manual and still found the menu easy to use. Though I agree that the semantics are ill considered. It takes too long to change functions/modes, and as a consequence, I missed many a great shot.

I carefully followed care instructions and always cleaned and inspected the camera after use in salt water, etc. I did come across some leakage both in the battery and USB compartments. As soon as the warranty expired, I found that none of the lower buttons work, which means it takes longer to scroll between modes, and the timer, the menu and the delete function are inaccessible. I hate to think how much it will cost me to fix it.

Considering the weight of the camera and its intended underwater use, it should come with an adjustable strap to prevent it from slipping off your wrist. A floater isn’t ideal, as buoyancy is something you try to avoid when shooting under water. I made a special elastic wrist band to tether the camera to.

The flash is very hot at short range, but useless for anything more than a metre and a half away. I found that the best way to counteract the first problem is to stand further away and zoom in on the subject.

I don’t regret buying this camera, and will pay to repair it. Hopefully, once I can afford the latest incarnation, Olympus will have the problems resolved.

Opinion: Confermo: non comprare (DO NOT BUY).
Pessima scelta: colori falsati, manca un mirino ottico, in controluce il monitor LCD è invisibile.

Opinion: I loved the camera untill I lost in in the ocean while in Mexico. DO BUY the floating strap if you are planning any activities in any depth of water over 10 feet. Its an easy to use, quick responsive all around all weather camera. I'm in the army, infantry and the camera was tough enough to carry in my tact vest. I have replaced it with a 790 SW that I hope will live up although it does not have as many features as the camera it replaces.

Opinion: Do not buy, I have had this camera for only 13 months and used it very little.
It is in for repair and I am told it will cost $250.00.
I had a search on the internet and found quite a few people with the same problem.
Olympus deny that it has problems.

Opinion: Bought the camera because I'm a passionate tramper, and need something that would happily survive pack-floating and river crossings. So far I didn't have an opportunity to test the water-proving of the case, but I dropped the camera several times, and had a heavy pack fall onto it w/o any damage.
The image quality is lacking in many situations, the default settings tend to over-expose (something it shares with my other Olympus, the C-8080), and depth of field is sometimes not satisfactory.
The menu-system is somewhat convoluted, and even though I've been using the camera for a few months now I still have trouble finding some of the settings.
Overall I'd say it's good value for money - I really was after something small and robust, and this is what I got. It's still a usable camera, and I can pretty much operate it with one hand which is important at times.

Opinion: I bought this as a quick and easy - don't have to lug my SLR around camera. I am a firefighter / paramedic have the opportunity in my position to take cool pictures once in a while. The case is very strong and impact resistant, the ability to withstand bellow freezing and water make it very practical to use as a "turn out" camera. Meaning I can place this camera in my turn-out gear, perform my job, and when the opportunity comes - pull the thing out of my bunker coat pocket, snap a few shots, and put it back without having to worry about being to rough on it. The many sizes (resolutions) the camera takes is also very useful. Overall picture quality is good, however not as good as my SLR - but I wouldn't expect it to be. The features on the camera are also very good and gives a ton of extra control to the user. It does lack manual control of shutter and apt but, thats why I have my SLR. The "ease of use" I marked average because of a couple of things. The menu takes some getting use to. Its a little different than other cameras in its class, but once you learn it its ok. The other thing is the small buttons. The shutter button isn't to bad but it would be nice if it was bigger. The menu buttons are small and require you to press them a couple of times to get to the menu you want. Shutter lag is ok - it's no SLR but it's quick enough to get the pic you want. The upper ISO settings do have some noise to them, but are not bad for this class of camera. The flash is good enough for about 8 - 10 ft away. Battery life for me has been about 200 pictures with flash and occasionally the LED (which is bright as hell). Overall I am pleased with this investment. This Feb I'll take it up north for a snowmobile trip - I'll let you know how it did in the cold.

Opinion: Not very confident with the 770SW claimed features... Like other buyers I bought this for water sport purposes. I bought this in Nov. 2007 and mainly for the 10M depth feature. I already knew from reading alot of articles that this camera did not take very good pictures just average and I have to agree. My Nikon Coolpix 4500 4MP camera takes better pictures and has better macro then the 770SW. But my main reason for buying this camera agian was for the waterproof feature and that is all. Well... it failed on me not once but twice at the local swimming pool that has a deep end of 10 feet. Yes, Olympus Canada on Telson Rd replaced the camera twice and now I have a third replacement 770SW. I gave it a test in the sink and so far so good, no water leakage... yet. The true test will come when I head back to the local swimming pool to test it out. Crossing my fingers as we are planning a Cancun trip in Feb.

Forgot to mention that the main area for water leakage on my last two is the battery compartment lid. As soon as I put the 770SW in the sink full of water I saw a string of bubble escaping from the battery compartment lid then I gave the camera body alittle squeeze and more bubbles came out. I dried off the camera and open the lids and did find traces of water in the battery compartment. But like I mentioned earlier the true test was at the pool and they failed, completely flooded to the point that you can see the water moving around in the LCD screen.

I did some asking around after getting my 3rd replacement 770SW and it was recommended to me that I should condition the rubber gasket with silicone grease that can be bought at any scuba dive shop as they use this product to condition the o-rings for underwater cases.

Final thoughs for this camera even though it has been discountinued and replaced by the 790SW is that it's over priced for a camera that takes average qaulity pictures and has failed the waterproof test not once but twice.

Update... My 3rd replacement 770SW is finally waterproof at least down to 9ft at the local swimming pool and I feel pretty confident that it should hold up down to 33ft as Olympus claims. I did however greased the rubber gaskets and have over the 770SW the silicone skin that you can buy for it and maybe that help keep the water out of the battery compartment. Either way I'm currently happy that my 770SW is waterproof.