Olympus Stylus 850 SW

Opinion: Handling is good and start-up time is quick so it should be great for snapping action shots, but... like so many other "robust" cameras... there is no control lock. You _will_ bump the macro button or similar and spoil the shot if you are wearing gloves and moving fast. Disappointing.

Image quality is so-so, even when it is being used in an ordinary handheld manner (scenery, people).

Some very good prices now that it is discontinued, so it could be a good buy if the waterproof aspects are the primary concern.

Opinion: my cuz buy one of this unit and we test it to a scuba diving here in Negros Island, Philippines last december 2008..

We go down to 26 feet or 8m... the unit works and the picture was nice i shot more 200 pictures... until now the unit works...

to get a good image quality, just play with the manual setting like ISO, exposure, white balance etc...

Now I buy one too... :)

best buy for an under water camera...

Opinion: I've had my camera about 6 months now and shot ~ 1000 photos (including ~ 50 underwater shots - all less than 5 feet deep) and overall I'm very happy with it.

Pros:
The most obvious - it's water proof, so all those pool / beach photos you didn't take in the past can now fill your hard drive like all the dry ones!
Sharp, clear pictures
Convenient in camera panorama mode - no need to stitch photos in computer software (although you can, if you want to) - subject to limitations (see cons below).
Fairly fast startup and reasonably fast (~2 sec) shot to shot times (no flash)
Very bright LCD screen - still washes out in super bright sunlight, but better than most in more forgiving (but still bright) conditions
Powerful flash (can also be a con if your subject is too close - blown out colors).
Battery life good for 200-300 shots, plenty for a day's worth of shooting.

Cons:
Photos tend to be overexposed with the default factory settings - gotta use exposure compensation for a lot of shots.
Menu structure somewhat cumbersome (might just be me - I'm spoiled by Canon)
Lens position in upper corner of camera results in fair number of shots with a finger in the upper left corner. The finger probably covers less than 1% of the entire image, so it's practically impossible to see in the camera LCD, but it's very noticeable when viewed on the computer. Thank God for cropping software!
Video quality is poor - almost a watercolor effect.
Video limited to 10 seconds. Firmware upgrade can extend this to card capacity - IF you have a "M+" or "H" xD card. Of course, the card that came with my camera is just a M "standard", so this firmware is useless to me unless I spend more cash for a proprietary card format - not going to happen!
Video sound is also more muffled than other cameras - I suspect it's due to the need to make the microphone waterproof.
In camera panorama stitching software sometimes dos a poor job and deletes 1-2 degrees of the view between shots; exposure setting between shots varies too, so the sky will often have different shades of blue with a very abrupt transition. Other times the in camera stitching software does a superb job - seems to be hit and miss. Difficult to evaluate in camera LCD, but flaws readily visible on computer.
Battery takes a good 4-5 hours to recharge - much longer than other cameras I have.

Despite these shortcomings, the camera delivers what I expected - clear, sharp all weather (and usually wet) snapshots. If this were my only point and shoot, I'd have mixed feelings, but as a dedicated wet / casual camera, it fits the bill perfectly.

Enjoy!

Opinion: The image quality is about average for a $250 point-and-shoot, maybe even a little better than average and everything else about the camera is excellent: it's small; it's fast: and it's easy. (No image stabilization, but it's a cheap camera.) What makes this camera an extraordinary value is that you can jump into the water with it (including salt water) and even under the water (though not scuba diving) and it works as well as on dry land. If the movie feature works at all (I haven't tested it yet) it will be even more valuable. I'm completely satisfied.

Opinion: I can drop it! I can swim with it! I can ski with it! Ok, the images are a little soft and color is a little off. I can fix that in Photoshop. If I take my Canon SD850 under water, there isn't a thing Photoshop can do for it.

Opinion: I can drop it! I can swim with it! I can ski with it! Ok, the images are a little soft and color is a little off. I can fix that in Photoshop. If I take my Canon SD850 under water, there isn't a thing Photoshop can do for it.

Opinion: I have used this camera heavily for 3 weeks now.
It is just magic being able to take the handy point and shoot to the beach (in to the rock pools and surf) it has opened a whole new world of snapping.

image quality, bit noisy, no more than the pentax v10 I trialled.

flash is very bright - but this is the case with other pentax and casio cameras in a similar class. This 850SW has a nice soft LED flashlight feature which overcomes the bright flash problem in close or macro shots.

I'm really pleased camera manufacturers are starting to standardise on a common battery type.

This has the fastest power-on to shoot time i've used, and it really helps to have a physical function dial rather than being totally menu based this is quicker and helps in bright sunlight when its hard to see the screen.

Opinion: I am currently using this camera until my Fuji F10 (hopefully) gets repaired.
It's an ok camera for someone who likes to shoot most of their photos on auto.

I must say the camera is very fast, and the flash recharges quickly enough to satisfy the need.