I am surprised by some of the negative reviews of this camera. I have a suggestion to those reviewers: READ THE MANUAL! One common complaint - slow start-up time - can be easily fixed by following directions in the manual: Turn "PW on Start-up" to off, this will keep the camera from loading the logo and the camera is immediately ready for use. Another common complaint is the time it takes in order to shoot the next picture. Some people incorrectly refer to this is "excessive shutter lag." This is not the case: The default setting for this camera is to display the photo just taken for about four seconds after pressing the shutter button so the user can view the image. This is a handy feature I appreciate, but if I am taking fast moving action shots, this feature can be turned off in Shooting menu 2, "REC VIEW." Once performed in accordance with the manual, photos can be taken immediately after one another. All of my photos taken with the 6020 are perfect, unless I do something wrong. I am amazed by the number of people who do not comprehend the basic concept of digital focusing: Press the shutter button halfway to focus the subject (focus box turns green to confirm proper focus,) compose your shot while continuing to hold the focus halfway, then complete the photo taking process by pressing the button fully. Read the directions and anyone who buys this great little camera will love it and have great success with sharp, clean, well colored photos! By the way, I have successfully used the 6020 in my community pool for testing underwater and I am looking forward to my upcoming vacation to Aruba this month. Olympus Stylus Tough 6020 14MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Black)
I have had the camera for a few days now and really put it through the paces. It is by far one of the best little point and clicks that I have had and I have had at least 5 in the past 5 years. It's built well and has a exceptional battery life (275 picks per charge on average with 14 meg pictures) and the recharge is fairly quick. I added a 16gig memory card for the video recording aspect and I love it. I can record 5 hours and 50 mins of 720p on the thing which is way nicer than the Flip that I was looking at. I used to get an occasional blurry shot with my other cameras from them not focusing well on moving objects (kids) but with this one I haven't had a bad shot yet on the kids running in the yard. It truly is amazing.
All in all it's a great little camera for the price.
And don't let the other guy scare you off from this camera. He more than likely put the card in before he hooked the camera up to his computer. By the way, make sure you hook the camera up to your computer BEFORE you put your memory card in. But if you screw up and put it in first all you have to do is clear out your pictures, eject the card and then plug it up to the computer for a fresh install.
So let me start with the positive. The HD video is excellent. It's as good or better than my Panasonic HD camcorder puts out. Now if I was only using it for video, that would give it 5 stars. But we take pictures with it as well, right? So there in lies the problem. The picture quality is average at best. I took 30 pictures at my 3 year old's birthday party (at a water park) and I had to edit every single one when I downloaded them to my computer. Colors were washed out by the aggressive flash on any close-up pics. Far away pictures looked soft and lacked any detail. Now granted this water park was indoors but it was fairly well lit so that's not an acceptable excuse. I also saw the same issue with poor focusing on anyone/anything moving.
Pros:
Superior HD Video (Why video is so crisp and accurate on colors amazes me when the pics are so average)
Rugged Design and feel
Cons:
Picture quality leaves a lot be desired. Olympus should've done much better
Needing to hook up to a PC to "initialize" the camera
Slow, slow, slow (from boot-up to picture taking. Just takes too long for someone with kids)
I already had a Sony DSC-TX5 on order (from Amazon) when I got this one for Father's Day. Although the Sony is $100 more, it's worth it to me to have crisp and accurate photos out straight from the camera. I believe I will have to keep the Sony and return this Olympus. We want to be able to have a portable camera that we can rely on for everyday activities as well as the beach and pool events. And this Stylus Tough just isn't up for the task.
One small update: I found out that you can cut down on the start-up time by turning the "PW" setting to OFF. You can find it under the menu settings. Cuts start-up time down to about 3 seconds or so. You can also cut down your picture to picture time by eliminating the picture review. Still doesn't help the picture quality however. I haven't found a fix for that. :(
I just bought this camera at best buy in Miami on vacation. I took it to the beach multiple times, went snorkeling for a couple of hours, and use it for everyday shots. The pictures are crystal clear. The 720p HD video looks awesome, especially on your HD tv. No issues with this camera. No problems with hooking it up to the computer. Just plug it in and there it is. Charges fast. Takes a sd card for extra memory. I don't know what happened with these others peoples' cameras. Probably user error. Don't let the 1 star reviews scare you away.
All in all, great camera. Battery life was long. Took a ton pix at highest resolution, video, and editing on the camera, and it lasted all day. About the same size as my regular didital camera. Nice features. Best buy has it on sale for 269. Go for it - Olympus Stylus - Digital Camera - Waterproof Digital Camera - Olympus Digital Camera'
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