Olympus Stylus 6000 10MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Wide Angle Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Yellow)

1 Reply to “Olympus Stylus 6000 10MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Wide Angle Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Yellow)”

1. Thomas E. Tweedel says:

   August 21, 2011 at 9:20 pm

   319 of 325 people found the following review helpful:

   
   A great go anywhere camera and worthy upgrade., March 6, 2009

   By 

   Thomas E. Tweedel (Austin, TX United States) –
   
     
   
     
   
     

   This review is from: Olympus Stylus Tough-6000 10 MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3.6x Wide Angle Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics)

   The Stylus Tough 6000 is the second Olympus waterproof camera I’ve got. I got the original 720SW, it survived quite a few adventures and continues its faithful service with a friend. I was ready for an upgrade.

   There were two main reasons I upgraded from the 720sw. One was the wide angle lens 28mm vs 35-38mm on it. The other was hopefully longer battery life. I found the 720sw’s battery life to be anemic at best.

   I considered the 1030sw but decided to try out the new generation of sensor, CCD image stabilization and tap control. The Stylus Tough 8000 was also a contender but I didn’t need the extra hardened casing or expense. This has the same rating as the 720SW which survived everything I threw at it and now comes in three attractive colors. I got the blue one.

   Overview

   Pulling the camera out of the box and playing with it there were several notable improvements over the previous generation. It’s not quite as heavy and uses more plastics than the 720SW, more similar to the 760SW. The lens has a larger more reinforced housing probably to accommodate the wider angle.

   The buttons have been improved. They stick out more from the surface and have a very positive “click” to them. There is much more clearance with the shutter release which is nice. Your less likely to turn the thing off instead of trying to take a picture.

   There is the welcome addition of the control wheel. It is quick access to major features. Starting from the blue triangle (play) and going clockwise you have:
   iAuto – Intelligent auto, camera attempts to guess what scene mode (if any) to use or just use the automatic modes.
   The picture of the camera (which might be mistaken for play) is now the traditional automatic mode which oddly enough gives you more controls (like the tap control).
   SCN – Lets you select from a variety of scene modes
   Beauty Mode – Takes longer to boot up, mainly used for portraits. Requires face detection to work properly. After you take the picture the camera spends about 10 seconds processing the image applying a smoothing and contrast routine to make skin look nicer.
   Movie Mode is next and that brings us back to play.

   The other buttons are pretty standard, looks like you have three ways to access your playback now. The play setting on the dial, the play button on the back and the tap control (more later).

   The DISP button has been beefed up, you can now access basic shooting info (WB, FSTOP, Shutter speed), push it again and you get the histogram.

   The screen is vastly improved. One of the real weak points on the 7xx series was the screen wasn’t sharp. You could take a great picture but couldn’t tell if it was sharp or not. This was especially maddening because you really didn’t know before you took the shot what your shutter speed was so you didn’t know if it was just the screen or really a blurry picture. With the new screen its much better. For a bonus your shutter speed and Fstop get flashed when you do the focus lock.

   Tap Tap
   Something new is the Tap control. If not in iAuto mode you can change commands by tapping on the camera. Tapping on the left hand side brings up the macro options, macro, super macro or super lighted macro. I didn’t think people did serious macro photography with sports cameras…

   Tapping on the side again cycles through the settings. Double tapping saves the setting you have selected.

   Tapping on the right lets you control the flash (auto, fill, none, redeye).

   Tapping on the back lets you enter play mode which is cool. You can then tap left or right to scroll through your pictures. Tap the back again to get out of play mode. Very nice.

   Easily accessing flash controls (to force a fill flash or cancel a flash for ambient only) and play by tapping is a excellent feature.

   Going Diving
   Not in the pool (though you could) but menu diving. Olympus has improved the menus to a degree. At the end of the day they are pretty much set up the same, they just now have pretty 3D icons and transitions between screens. On the old OLY you had the impression the processor was not current generation, now you have the impression they have CPU cycles to burn.

   One area that is notably different is the panorama function. It now has its own icon in the main setup. There are several new options for shooting panos to have them combined in the camera as well as a new onscreen guide. When you use the new in camera 1 feature you get a dot and crosshairs to line up to guide your picture taking. In camera 2 and in PC modes still give you the old horizon and boxes as your guide.

   Get your Light On
   A nice feature is the inclusion of the LED flashlight. If you hold down the display button for a few seconds it kicks on a LED light about the same as keychain lights…

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