Olympus Stylus 1050 SW Review

Olympus Stylus 1050 SW Image Quality
Image quality is not the Olympus Stylus 1050 SW’s strongpoint. That’s not really a problem particular to the 1050 SW – I’ve yet to use a waterproof digital camera that has great image quality. At this point, buying a waterproof point-and-shoot should be a conscious compromise between image quality and durability. You don’t buy the Olympus Stylus 1050 SW for the image quality. You buy it because you want a camera you don’t have to worry about dunking or dropping on the rocks.

For those of you who want the specifics about the 1050 SW’s image quality, here we go: Images are flat and noticeably under-saturated with noise visible at all ISO settings. ISO 80 and 100 are pretty good, but at ISO 200 the noise starts to become apparent – although it’s not really unpleasant until you get over ISO 400. If you keep the sensitivity at ISO 400 or less, expose properly (use the exposure compensation and shoot dark to preserve highlights) and invest in a little post-processing effort, you shouldn’t be disappointed. Pump up the contrast and saturation of the 1050 SW photos and most of the time they end up looking pretty good.

There are also some lens issues with the 1050 SW. There’s noticeable softness around the edges of many of my photos as well as some chromatic aberration. And even photos that should have no problems with focus or motion blur appear softer than I think they should. For really sharp photos you need plenty of light and you need to keep the camera at ISO 80. The contrast problem might also be a lens issue. With digital cameras it can be hard to sort out what’s a lens problem and what’s a sensor or processing issue. In this case, I’m suspicious that the flat, undersaturated image quality might be an optical problem. Like I said in the last paragraph, it’s something that can be dealt with. But it would be nice if you didn’t have to do as much post-processing.

The bottom line is, if you’re really picky about image quality, you may be unhappy with the Olympus Stylus 1050 SW – or any other waterproof camera for that matter. On the other hand, I find that even when I have cameras with better image quality available, I often choose the Olympus Stylus 1050 SW because I don’t have to worry about it failing or getting broken. Sometimes, a rugged build and reliability are more important than noise-free images.