Olympus 830 Review

The Olympus Stylus 830 has a clean, pocket friendly chassis, and includes both an eight megapixel CCD image sensor and Olympus-branded 5x optical zoom lens - a more useful range than the 3x zooms in most digicams. The 830 also sports a 2.5" LCD display with a higher than average resolution of 230,000 pixels. The LCD is the sole method of framing images, given that the 830 offers no form of optical viewfinder. The Olympus 830 packs its features into an all-weather metal body that can handle rain, sleet and snow.

Other '830 features include both hardware image stabilization and software anti-blur, a whopping 23 scene modes, an ISO range of 80 to 1600, 15MB of built-in memory, and an xD-Picture card storage slot. The Stylus 830 also offers face detection autofocus and auto exposure, and Shadow Adjustment technology which compensates for extreme contrast where the shadow areas are underexposed and lack visible detail. It does not have the in-camera panoramic stitching mode found in the Stylus 820 and 1200 models.

Power for the Stylus 830 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 830 ships from October 2007, priced at around US$330.