OLYMPUS STYLUS 1030 SW- Editor's Pick - September 2008 ** STORY LINE** Amazingly, the latest in point-and-shoots from Olympus is waterproof all on its own to a very respectable 33 feet. KEYFEATURES Not only is the Olympus truly an underwater camera, it's also shockproof — drop it from 6 feet up, and it will never know the difference. And — a bonus for ice hounds — it's freezeproof to 14°F. All this brawn is balanced by sophisticated imaging features, such as 10.1-megapixel capability, a 3.6x wide-angle lens for increased field of view and digital-image stabilization to reduce motion blur. Of course, if 33 feet isn't quite deep enough, Olympus makes a polycarbonate housing suitable for sport-diving depths (see online). DIVER IMPRESSIONS I went tubing down one of Florida's river springs with my kids. We shot under, above and through the surface of the water. I used the camera's scene modes, both underwater wide 1 and 2 (with and without strobe), underwater portrait and macro 1. I found the images came out best when I shot with an Exposure Value compensation of -2. It was great not fiddling with a housing or carrying the extra bulk. The camera delivered consistently nice images when in scene modes, and there was little shutter delay. Not only is the 1030 SW fun to shoot, but it's extremely easy to use, going instantly from out of the box and into the water.

MSRP $399.99

CONTACT olympusamerica.com — Diver impressions by Sport Diver Editor Ty Sawyer