Olympus Knows What You Want – Stylus 720 SW

My wife and I were swimming in Florida last year with our then two-year old son who knows we like taking pictures of him. The scene I am about to describe would have been less stressful with the Olympus Stylus 720 SW.

While sitting next to the steps of the pool our son wandered over to throw his toy stingray back in the pool. As I went after it our pride and joy grabbed our latest 5.0 megapixel camera and tossed it in the pool before I could say a word. I did my best to dive for it only to keep going into the 4-foot deep water to the bottom of the pool to retrieve the camera. One word, “ruined.” The Olympus R&D folks must have had a similar experience, and then developed a great camera, the 7.1 megapixel Olympus Stylus 720 SW.

Here are some reasons why I like this feature rich camera: The shock-proof feature (the camera can withstand a drop from five (5) feet), and ability to shoot pictures in up to 10 feet of water will make this camera a favorite for many. There is a 3x optical + 5x digital creating 15x total zoom feature. Bright Capture Technology is great for me as I don’t like using a flash with every shot. This feature — unique to the Stylus line — even works in the lowest of light conditions. Your blurred shots are now in the past with the Stylus Digital Image Stabilization Mode (another awesome feature!). The fast shutter speed is another reason why you can count on this camera taking clear shots every time. In addition to all of these features there are 28 shooting modes, a 2.5” LCD screen, and one-touch PictBridge printing (print straight from the camera). The Olympus Stylus 720 SW was officially released in March 2006 with an estimated street price of $399.

With the consumer in mind Olympus R&D also included 19.1MB of internal memory. And with built-in image editing you can easily fix your photos before you upload the pictures to your computer. The Olympus Master software will allow you to create very large photos by stitching up ten (10) frames together. There is also the ability to create movies in QuickTime format.

The Stylus 720 SW does not look as tough as it is, and will amaze you with its features. Read more about this great camera at www.olympusamerica.com.

by Jeff Heeren