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Olympus today rolled out the toughest digital camera in the Stylus series: the Stylus 770 SW. Built for active lifestyles, the 7.1-megapixel ultra-compact camera is designed to take great photos in nearly any environment, including in water down to depths of 33 feet (10 meters) and in winter weather as frigid as 18 degrees below freezing (14 degrees Fahrenheit; -10 degrees Celsius). It can also survive falls up to five feet and heavy loads up to 220 pounds of pressure. Within the camera’s rugged exterior is an array of innovative technologies to ensure clear, sharp images in the roughest of shooting situations. 

The new Olympus SP-550 UZ Ultra Zoom offers the ultimate in power and versatility with a compact, best-in-class 18x optical zoom lens (28-504mm equivalent in 35mm photography), which gives users the ability to shoot telephoto, wide-angle and macro (as close as 1cm) all in one. Crisp, clear images can be captured far and wide with Dual Image Stabilization and the broadest focal range available on any digital point-and-shoot. 

Despite its extremely compact format and light weight, Olympus has not had to make any concessions in regard to operating ease. The camera can be operated easily and the menu’s structure is very straightforward. The compact format is no barrier to joining the high resolution segment. The new sensor developed by Kodak gives a resolution of 10 Megapixels which is currently the highest resolution for a FourThirds System digital SLR camera.

While the Olympus FE-200 has the ability to capture nice photos, includes several user-friendly exposure modes, and offers a 5x optical zoom with a nice wide field of view, shooting performance is comparable to the speed of a snail at full sprint, which really turned us off. I was disapointed to see that there were not more advanced controls offered for novice users, however this model is aimed more toward the complete novice. 

Olympus is honored by PC World with a “20 Most Innovative Products Award” for the Olympus EVOLT E-330 digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera. The EVOLT E-330 is the world’s first interchangeable lens digital SLR to feature a true “Live View” image on the LCD screen, in addition to the optical viewfinder. PC World will present the award to Olympus today at the ShowStoppers Media Reception at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas during 2007 International CES. 

While the SP-510 UZ offers good image quality and OK shooting performance, I still feel Olympus needs to revamp their storage media (xD.) Even the new H (High-speed) xD cards, like the one we used for our tests, are extremely slow when compared to he average “fast” SD card sold today… But, with an MSRP of about US$329, I feel it still offers a good value for such a versatile and affordable “super-zoom” model, as long as you don’t need the fastest camera on the market.