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My experience with the Stylus 1

Started Mar 3, 2014 | User reviews thread
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Jay_B Regular Member • Posts: 447
My experience with the Stylus 1
1

I purchased the Stylus 1 to complement my two Canons - a G1X and an SX230HS - with the hope of replacing my SX230HS and giving it to a relative as a gift. I tested the camera alongside my SX230 over the weekend in various shooting situations. Unfortunately, the camera did not meet my needs/expectations and I am returning it.

I am going to keep this brief and to the point. What I liked about the camera:

  • Beautiful bright LCD
  • Very nice, useable EVF
  • Nice feel to the body and controls
  • Smooth, workable zoom
  • Quick focus and operation

What I did not like:

  • JPEG Images too soft for me, for the investment - even after making suggested settings (mostly eliminating noise reduction), which did help, but not enough
  • Video quality insufficient - video is not the top priority, but I do use it consistently and expect it to perform reasonably well
  • Unnecessarily complicated menu system

Obviously, I could get used to the 3rd bullet above. In short, the JPEG stills produced, even after I made some significant adjustments to the Stylus 1, were roughly equivalent to those I could produce with my SX230HS, a 3-year-old compact. The video quality was not nearly as good as what I shot with the Canon. I really had high hopes for this camera, but at $700 USD, I am not getting the value I need in terms of output. It needed to be somewhat better than my current camera, but it wasn't for my intended uses.

-- hide signature --

Jay B.
"No...really...my camera made me do it..."

 Jay_B's gear list:Jay_B's gear list
Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EOS M6 II Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM Canon EF-M 15-45mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM +1 more
Olympus Stylus 1
12 megapixels • 3 screen • 28 – 300 mm (10.7×)
Announced: Oct 29, 2013
Jay_B's score
3.0
Average community score
4.2
bad for good for
Kids / pets
great
Action / sports
okay
Landscapes / scenery
okay
Portraits
great
Low light (without flash)
great
Flash photography (social)
good
Studio / still life
good
= community average
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