Olympus 720sw Waterproof Pocket Camera
Pocket digital cameras are the way to go for the portable traveller. The problem is most of the cameras available are not waterproof. You know the problem, you’ve got a week at a tropical area, you want to see everything, your agenda calls for buzzing around the shopping zones and the beach afterwards.
Well, taking snapshots while shopping is fine but what happens when you head to the beach, slip into your trunks and dash into the water trying to grab a shot of your friends messing about? Are you going to forget about the shot or mince about like the pink panther with your hands held up to avoid any drops of water from touching your precious new toy?
Both Pentax and Olympus have recognized the need for ultra compact cameras that can be used in all vacation situations. What good is having a small pocketable digital camera that’s perfect for vacation when you can’t take it with you half the time?
Olympus’ latest entry into the small and waterproof category is the 720sw, a little unit that is both shockproof and waterproof up to 10 feet with the now pretty much standard 2.5” screen and digital image stabilization features. Really, the only thing that makes one notice are the drop proof and waterproof features.
Frankly, I hope all pocket camera makers make waterproofing a standard feature on all pocket cameras.
Some key specs:
- 7.1 Megapixel (effective), 7.4 megapixel gross, 1/2.33” CCD
- Lens 6.7 - 20.1mm (38 - 114mm equivalent in 35mm photography)
- Zoom 3x Optical + 5x Digital; 15 Total Seamless Zoom
- Aperture Range f3.5 - f5.0
- LCD 2.5” (6.4cm) Color LCD, approx. 115,000 pixels
- Focus System CCD Contrast Detection
- Focus Range Normal mode: 19.7” - infinity (0.5m - infinity)
- Macro mode: Wide: 7.9” - infinity (0.2m - infinity),
- Super Macro Mode: 2.8” - 19.7” (7cm - 50cm)
- Focus Mode iESP Auto, Spot AF
- Shutter Speed 1/1000 sec. - 1/2 sec. (up to 4 sec. in Night Scene Mode)
- ISO Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 (equivalent)
- Metering Mode Digital ESP Multi-Pattern, Spot Metering
- White Balance Auto, Pre-set (Daylight, Overcast, Tungsten, and Fluorescent1, Fluorescent2, Fluorescent3)
- Exposure Compensation ±2 EV steps in 1/3 EV steps
- Recording Modes Still Image: JPEG
- Movie: QuickTime motion JPEG
- Adjustment Resolutions 3,072 x 2,304, SHQ/HQ max.
- 28 Shooting Modes:
- Up to 10 frames automatically stitchable with OLYMPUS Master software when using Olympus brand xD-Picture Card
- Sequential Shooting:High speed: 3.7 frames per second up to 11 frames in HQ mode
- Normal speed: 1.1 frames per second up to 6 frames in SQ mode
- Self timer upt to 12 seconds
- Flash
- Internal memory:19.1mb
- xD Picture Card support
- Size: 3.6” W x 2.3” H x 0.78” D (91mm x 58.7mm x 19.8mm)
- Weight:5.3 oz. (149g) without battery and media card
- Li-Ion Battery
Suggest retail is $499.99