Though it can’t be immersed in water, the Olympus Stylus 300 handles wet weather, such as in Seattle, above, with aplumb.
Olympus calls the Stylus 300 "all weather," and an early spring visit to Seattle put it to the test. It passed easily, through rain, hail, snow in the mountains and heavy spray from a waterfall.
Picture quality was very good, even in the rain and snow. It's important to note, though, that while the camera is designed to handle wet weather, rainwater on the lens leaves white dots on the images. (And the Stylus is not designed to be immersed in water.)
I prefer cameras with more bells and whistles, but my technophobic wife is more comfortable with point-and-shoot models that don't require a lot of fiddling. The Stylus 300 easily met her needs.
The 3.2-megapixel camera is light and small enough to fit in a pocket or purse (2.2 inches high and 1.3 inches thick). A nice metal case gives it a solid feel, and a sliding lens cover turns the camera on and off, another nice feature that helps conserve power and protect the lens.
Battery life was excellent, allowing us to shoot a lot for two days before recharging. A colleague was impressed that he left the camera turned on for hours before it required a recharge. A charger is included, but the battery can't be recharged while in the camera.
We shot photos in a variety of settings and found the camera responded well even in low light (it has a built-in flash). While the camera turns on quickly, we noticed a bit of a shutter lag when trying to do rapid shooting.
The camera will capture up to 40 seconds of video, but that has never been an important factor for me in digital cameras so I didn't try it. The LCD can be hard to see in sunlight (yes, we saw sun in Seattle, too), and my colleague was frustrated because the camera returned to the default quality setting after the camera had been turned off.
But my wife liked the camera. That's not a small endorsement, though she leaves most of the photo-taking to me.
- Times staff writer William Lampkin contributed to this report.
