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We clicked with:
Genuinely rugged camera
Waterproof, without the padding
Elegant body shape
Guide mode is like a photo-tutor
Well-saturated low ISO images
Shots in the dark:
Rugged wins over performance
Underexposure in low light
Over exposure with flash
Blotchy high ISO images
Price Comparison:
Olympus µ [mju:] Stylus 790 SW
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Photographers are, by nature, a hardy bunch. Getting up before dawn to nail that 'magic hour' photo, walking desolate miles in poor weather to find the perfect location, even taking their lives in their own hands in the dirty city to take the ultimate night photo. A pity, then, that most cameras are not as sturdy. The Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW perhaps being the ultimate exception to this.
Some compacts are splashproof, some are ruggedised - but this particular 7.1megapixel compact takes these properties to the extreme. It's waterproof enough to pass IEC 529 IXP8 standards (which means it will survive being up to 3m underwater) and shockproof to MIL-STD-810F (which means a US soldier could drop it from a height of 1.5m onto the roof of a Humvee and still salute it). The battery/xD card slot and the USB port are all hidden behind weathersealed - but not double-locked - doors too.
All of this means, if you are worried about getting your camera wet, if you are concerned about carrying a camera for those 362 soggy days the UK gets every year, or if you are frightened about getting sand or snow in your parts the Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW is the only option this side of an underwater housing. On a more down-to-earth level, this is the one camera that you can take everywhere, put in the same pocket as your keys and know that your keys will come off worst. It also doesn't feel like a camera deliberately designed as a rugged model; it just feels elegant. Okay, the limited edition lime green finish isn't to everyone's taste and the 2.5” LCD might be a bit small by today's standards, but it doesn't feel compromised for the sake of the build.
Side-stepping the robust nature of the camera, the functionality and basic operation is standard current Oly compact fare. This means the thumbwheel control has a 'Guide' option to allow the user to perform 14 'out of the ordinary' photographic tasks, such as compensating for backlighting or reducing red-eye effects. Okay, all of these 'guide' options can be addressed from the conventional menus, but it takes the onus off the user to know when to use these functions. It's like having a little photo instruction book built into the Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW. There are also 23 scene modes - for everything from Portrait to Undersea Macro.
Image stabilisation is also an option, as per most current Mju models. Usually, this is accessed from a button on the top of the case, but to keep the camera extra butch, this is also on the rubber-edged thumbwheel. One thing to note, because of the anti-shock, anti-sploshy design, the lens does not extend from the body when powered up. This has two downsides; it seems to limit the lens range to a humble 3x optical zoom (38-114mm equivalent) and makes the Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW wide angle setting not wide enough. It also means it's surprisingly easy to end up waggling the smaller fingers of your left hand in front of the lens.
You can abuse this camera… you can treat it like a tortilla chip and dunk it in a pot of salsa and then wash it off under the tap if you like. You can just about try to play keepie uppie with it and still nothing will go wrong with it. But, how does that affect the picture performance of the Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW? Well, the good news is you can take images like this one without any concerns about coming home to a dead camera…
The bad news is that in other settings, what makes the camera so rugged seems to get in the way of the picture quality. We can't help wondering if the protection in front of the lens is softening the image it makes, because the picture is not as crisp as that of its peers. That said, the images do sharpen up in post-processing. Exposure is a bit tricky, though; underexposing in low light and over-exposing flash. Also, the colours seemed washed out when using fill-flash, which is entertainingly ironic given the Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW is the one camera that can survive a good washing out.
High ISO performance is not that remarkable either, with the camera doing fine at the lower ISO regions from ISO 80-ISO 400, but beyond is beset by blotchy colours and above ISO 800 is a very noisy place.
On the one hand, the performance of this camera as a run-of-the-mill point and shoot puts it low down the list of products to commend. One the other, it can perform where other cameras, er, die… and die quickly. It depends on what you are using the camera for; if your photography never once strays outside the comfort zone, you don't need anything more than splashproofing, if that. If your life is one long advert for feminine hygiene products (horse riding, rollerblading, windsurfing… ) and you want a camera to document your active lifestyle, the Olympus µ [mju:] 790 SW fits the bill perfectly. Just one question remains - why does the special edition have to be lime green?
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