Home > Consumer Reviews > Olympus Stylus 840 8.0MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

I too, paid full blown retail at BB. I knew the price would drop soon, but I wanted the camera at the time. No regrets.

This camera is actually a darker shade of (cobalt)blue than the photo shows. IMHO it is a much nicer shade. I get a lot of comments on it's good looks.

BTW, this camera DOES take SD memory, the Micro kind. I returned the weird Olympus memory once I found out the camera takes a MicroSD chip. I bought a 2GIG for 15 dollars. The nice thing about the MicroSD is that you do not need to tote your camera to an internet cafe to DL pictures when you are on vacation.

Just slap the chip (with the supplied adapter)into a Kingston Data Traveler Reader (20 dollars, and it is a stand alone 2GIG thumb as well!). No need for any software. Just use Windows. Microsoft has a cool free (and small)utility called Power Toys Image Resizer that installs on any PC with XP. Just right click on any image (or hold shift key and click for a series) and "Bob's Your Uncle", all your pix are resized to email to friends or blogs.

I love the camera and the extra optical zoom available. The Super Macro mode is incredible for a compact camera. Extremely close and sharp images that can be made even much closer digitally on a computer. You can zoom in a shot after it is taken on the camera to see just how well the image holds up. Amazing. Note:Beware of camera shake for macro work. The image stabilizer does not help much here.

The camera is advertised a "splash proof". This may be so for the controls, but the battery compartment has no rubber seals. Still, it was a consideration for me purchasing this camera. I vacation in Thailand where it can be wet at times. Olympus does makes a water proof/shock proof (resistant, really) camera for much more money with out all the 840's features.

The controls are intuitive for anyone in the digital age. I have not even cracked the manual open yet. I expect to read it sometime to explore all the features. But so far I have been able to access so much just on my own with the easy to navigate menu. I have not yet bothered to load the software on my PC yet. So far all my needs are being met by Windows. I'll get around to it eventually. The point I am trying to make is that you can pretty much charge the battery, take some pictures, DL them to your PC,and email them with out having to read the manual or mess with Olympus software. I like that. The camera syncs right up with windows using the supplied USB cord.

The Olympus charger takes 5 hours which is dismal. But not to worry,do a search here on Amazon and you can find DIRT cheap spare batteries and 1 hour quick chargers (even with a cigarette lighter adapter).
EDIT: They lied. The charger takes the same amount of time, but it is more compact, so not a total loss. Spare battery seems fine.

I highly recommend the type of soft case I bought. A Lowepro Rezo 20 soft case with a pocket for spare battery. It has a snap and Velcro belt loop that can be attached to any back pack strap or fanny pack as well as your belt. Very handy and inexpensive. Make sure you get the newer, improved model with the extra security of a snap as well as Velcro on the belt loop.

For the money I believe you may find a better camera image wise, but only if you intend to make huge prints. And the other cameras don't come in cool blue either! Nor do they have the combination of the Super Macro mode, 5X optical zoom, and splash resistance.

Coming out right about now, is Olympus's other Stylus cameras with 7X optical zoom. More money, slightly bigger and heavier. But worth a look.

Even though I paid about 30 dollars too much I am very happy with this camera and expect to be for some time.

This is my first review on Amazon. i hope you found it helpful.

I have been looking for a camera like this for a good while and have done research on top of research before I settled on the Olympus Stylus 840. I read all sorts of reviews and this camera had a 100% satisfaction in all aspects. And well it should. It takes great pictures, is so very easy to use and is just a great compact little camera. I have had 2 good Kodak cameras during my search for the perfect camera and this camera far out performs both of the Kodaks I have had, and one of them was 12 megapixels, but this Olympus with 8 megapixels takes better photos. The Kodak AA battery life is not good but the Olympus LI-42B battery lasts a long time and are rechargeable on the charger that comes with the camera. I bought an extra battery to change out when one runs down but you will find they last a good long time. I also like the Olympus XD picture cards and it will hold all the photos you will need on a long outing. I bought the 1GB card which is more than sufficient. This camera has a lot of nice features that you will like and enjoy and you will be amazed at the photos you will be taking. You can set this camera to take photos in different sizes and I like to use the 640x480 size as they are great for emailing. Also you get an instruction manual which is rare today, but truly I have scarcely used it as the camera is user friendly. The 5X optical zoom is quite sufficient as much higher than that and you can't hold a camera still to take a sharp photo without a tri-pod. This camera is small and has all the features you will want. The only thing I would like to see on it is a view finder you can hold up to your eye and look through as well as the monitor screen. But in all honesty I have had no trouble using the screen even in bright sunlight. Oh yea, wait till you take a Super Macro picture of something close up. They turn out great. Trust me, this is a great little camera. I have tried to describe this camera accurately and hope you found this review helpful.

PROS: 8.1 megapixel, 5x optical zoom, neat editing features on the camera, good flash recovery
CONS: sleek (can slip out of big fingers), battery has to be charged OUTSIDE of unit

My girlfriend saw this at Best Buy and fell in love with it, which is good because she spent full blow retail on it ($250).
It takes XD memory, so we had to buy a new chip because all my other devices use SD.
So far the pictures I have been taking are excellent. It has a browse feature that lets you scan through "typical" shots (portrait, landscape, night, through glass, fireworks, and a couple others and combonations).
The action shots are good with no blurring and the colors are very vibrant, the image stabilization helps.
You can get a camera with similar qualitites for a couple bucks less, but the name and style is why you are paying a little more for this one.

I had a hard time justifying buying this camera because I already own a couple of very nice cameras. However, I often find myself wishing I had a camera that was compact enough to carry with me where a full blown camera and bag was just not practical or outright difficult. When the impulse side of me won out, I went to the store and started comparing small compact cameras. I wanted as much zoom and quality in as small of a package as I could get. The sales person and I ended up on the floor with several cameras out of the boxes comparing the different features. The Olympus Stylus 840 won out for several reasons but the surprise was when I got it home and got to play with it for a few days. Photography was my father's hobby and he spent many years trying to teach me the ins and outs of f-stops, shutter speeds, etc. I understand the concepts but was never any good in practice. When it came to shooting a real event (not just playing with the camera), I always went back to the automatic mode.

The Stylus 840 has the Automatic mode, which is great, but it also has a set of Scene modes for shooting in different settings. This is nothing new, but my experience has always been that getting to those modes (without some preplanning) was difficult and I seldom, if ever, used them. The Stylus has made them very easy and quick to get to. No digging. The Guide mode guides the user to make decisions about the settings. This is kind of a cross between having the camera do all the work and the user knowing what they are doing. Then there is the option of changing the exposure by pressing one button and choosing from the previews the best exposure to use. I LOVE this camera. The picture quality is great, it has a very quick response to pressing the shutter button (a big problem with my older camera), and it is so easy to use the extra features.

By the way, about the memory card. I was annoyed that it did not use a SD card because that is the card most of my toys use. There is now an adaptor that is included with the camera that will allow the use of the SD Micro card. Great... except you can use the Panorama feature ONLY with the Olympus xD card.

Olympus Stylus 840 8.0 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom (Pink)

I purchased the Olympus Stylus 840 for my wife's birthday in anticipation of an upcoming vacation. It is a replacement of a Cannon Powershot that was purchased in 2002. While still functional and taking better than adequate pictures, the Powershot was getting long in the tooth.

Before purchasing it, I consulted with the husband of one of my colleagues who happens to be a professional photographer. When I detailed what I wanted: small form factor, high quality lens, optical zoom, and quick image capture and recovery, he immediately pointed me toward Olympus.

Since giving the camera to my wife, the camera has made a trip out to Seattle. It's size proves to be one of it's greatest strengths as it easily fits into one's pants pockets or into my wife's handbag. This was something that neither of us liked to do with our old camera. Because of this, I think we are far more likely to take the camera with us and will be far more likely to take pictures (as evidenced by the 70 some shots that we took during a few day trip to the Pacific Northwest).

Image quality is considerably higher than our previous camera. The camera's image capture speed is fast and even when using the flash, recovery between shots is quick. The stabilization features are a nice touch. My only complaint is that the charger doesn't have a built in wall plug, instead relying on a cord.