Olympus 1200 Review

The Olympus Stylus 1200 has a clean, pocket friendly chassis, and includes both an twelve megapixel CCD image sensor and Olympus-branded 3x optical zoom lens - a typical zoom range for most digicams. The 1200 also sports a 2.7" LCD display with a higher than average resolution of 230,000 pixels. The LCD is the sole method of framing images, given that the 1200 offers no form of optical viewfinder. The Olympus 1200 packs its features into an all-weather metal body that can handle rain, sleet and snow.

Other features include a whopping 20 scene modes, an ISO range of 64 to 6400, a reasonably generous 47MB of built-in memory, and an xD-Picture card storage slot. The Stylus 1200 also offers face detection autofocus and auto exposure, Shadow Adjustment technology which compensates for extreme contrast where the shadow areas are underexposed and lack visible detail, and an in-camera panoramic stitching mode which is performed simply by pressing the shutter button and slowly panning across a panoramic scene.

Power for the Stylus 1200 comes courtesy of a proprietary Lithium Ion battery. Connectivity consists of USB 2.0 (high-speed), A/V out (NTSC/PAL switchable) and DC input, via a multi-terminal connector.

The Olympus Stylus 1200 ships from October 2007, priced at around US$350.