Customer Reviews
Does everything it says it will 
2008-06-23
Bought this camera to be used in extreme conditions. We live by the Atlantic Ocean, ICWW, and the Cape Fear River, and have other higher end digital cameras, which never see much use near, and never "IN" the salty water we boat and play in frequently. The Olympus 770W is to fill that gap, and it does what it claims! Took some guts to go UNDER salt water the first time! Cleaning, by rinsing it out in a bucket of fresh water and by turning the unit on and off "Under Water" was a VERY new and exciting ( Read as "Scary"). Through it all, now 3 months in, it has taken remarkable photos, and performed amazingly well. Half of the photos I have taken have been in or under the water. My only minor criticism is that the large, flat, glossy screen is a bit hard to see underwater in bright sun...this can be tamed somewhat, with a non-glare screen protector. I Love this Camera, and even bought one for a friend ! Oh yeah, "Crush Proof"... I weigh 185 ish and stood on it the first day to test... like I said 3 months and going strong!
Mediocre at best 
2008-06-18
We purchased this camera for our honeymoon in Hawaii, and used it on 5 or 6 snorkeling/boating trips. In general the results were very disappointing. The camera is rugged enough to stand up to drops and salt water, but picture quality is poor in my opinion. It is also very slow to take pictures, which made it nearly impossible to catch photos of fish, sea turtles, etc.
Outside of the water, the picture quality is equally disappointing. I am sticking with my 3-year old Canon Digital Elph for normal usage and will just rent a digital camaera for underwater use.
Good on land - floods in water 2008-06-17
I bought this camera last Fall for snorkeling. Played with it at home - iked the pictures that I took on land...Loved the small size that I could take anywhere and not worry about the weather.
Took it on a snorkeling trip, took some nice photos and was happy with it until it flooded on the 3rd day.
Returned it to Olympus when I got home, they replaced it right away.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago - I took the new one on another snorkeling trip. First snorkel, IT FLOODS AGAIN! I have returned it to Olympus and am waiting to hear how they deal with this. I have had cameras since I was 15 (lets just say I am a fair bit older than that now!), and have never had a problem with a camera till now. I followed all the instructions for care and cleaning. I am VERY disappointed.
I will not use this camera unless I have the U/w housing for it....the good thing there is if the housing floods, the camera should still be ok, but that is not the issue here.....
All in all I would say it is a decent camera for the outdoors person who wants a tough little camera that is easy to fit in a pocket or backpack but the camera has not held up to the claims for it's abilities underwater.
Great camera for snorkelers 2008-06-16
I just got this camera for a trip to Playa del Carmen and it is awesome! This camera really isn't for everyone, but if you like to snorkel or get wet on vacation and have need for a general point and shoot digital camera, then this is a must have.
It's not perfect, and it doesn't have all the latest features that some cheaper point and shoot cameras do, but the benefit it provides to snorkelers and beach goers on vacation is unbelievable. Prior to this camera the choices were something in a bulky underwater case or throw away cameras that provided unusable pictures, in addition to your "regular" digital camera. It was great to have a digital camera that I could take everywhere, not just snorkeling, but even going into the ocean or the pool. I used to have to chose between beach time and picture time. There's nothing I hate more than having to go back to secure things in the hotel room because I'm afraid of valuables getting stolen from my beach bag. The 770 goes where you go which means less worrying and less planning on vacation. You can't beat that.
If you snorkel, or even regularly get wet on vacation and it's time to replace your older point and shoot digital camera, stop reading, you need this camera. The only real decision is whether to pay $100 more for the newer model (1030 SW I believe) with a few more megapixels (10 vs. 7) and a few more of the latest digital camera features like face recognition.
For those wanting some usage details, there are lots of useful scene modes, behind glass and food were two I used that worked out well. I really didn't get to experiment much between the 4 different underwater modes but I found the wide/landscape mode that expected fish movement to work well. I found the screen a bit hard to see underwater depending on the lighting conditions, but it's digital so just point in the general direction and keep snapping. The camera is also a bit slow between shots, although I bought this right before leaving and could only find type M xD cards. If you can, try and get an Olympus type H xD card. I'm not sure what the real world performance would be in this camera, but in general they write 2 - 3 times faster than type M cards.
One thing you will need to do is work with your underwater pictures in a program like Photoshop. It's not a fault of the camera, just the nature of underwater pictures. There are plenty of tutorials online, but adding some red back into the pictures really helps them out.
olympus stylus 770sw 7.1 2008-06-08
I love this camera! I have 2 little girls and they distroy camaras! One in the toilet, one in the sand, one juice all over it. I've had the olympus for a month now, and it still is going! (dropped in kiddie pool, thrown from deck!) The pictures are quite good. I love it, and would recomend it.
Food Porn without Pain 
2008-07-15
I suppose I could easily do a video review and really show off the camera - but I'm in writing mode at the moment. At any rate, we bought the camera to take underwater photos on a snorkeling vacation - where it performed perfectly - but I love it for food blogging. The macro feature takes perfect food porn pictures effortlessly, and if you get a bit of bechamel on your lens, it washes or wipes right off. I'm neither a trained or talented photographer, but I've been very happy with this product, which we've had for a year.
Undependable and No Support 
2008-07-14
I bought this camera in anticipation of a long planned trip to Hawaii. On my fourth snorkeling trip,(no more than 15 feet deep) the camera quit. Went back to the boat to change the battery and water poured from the inside. Sent Olympus an e-mail seeking help and got no response from them until five weeks later giving me their standard warranty BS.
Not very waterproof and hard to take pictures with 2008-07-08
I had this camera flood once although it may have been user error. Olympus fixed it and returned it. Then the next time I used it anywhere near water the screen stopped working. Well it comes on for a couple seconds but then goes black. This doesn't seem like a water issue but I don't know what else it could be. So I am not sure whether to send it back to Olympus or forget about it. Also, in general while the pictures are OK for what it is, it's really hard to take pictures with. You can't see a thing on the screen in daylight or under water and the screen illuminator feature doesn't seem to do anything. I got lots of pictures of fish going either into or out of the picture, not fish nicely centered on the picture. When the picture does come out it is nice, but it is not easy. Perhaps I am spoiled by DSLR but I was hoping for something a little better and more reliable.
Horrible Experience!!?!! 2008-07-05
I read all the reviews before I chose to buy this camera. Having three kids, a shockproof and waterproof camera sounded unbelievable and perfect for me. At first it was great. The pictures came out great and the camera was very user friendly. I love to take pictures and had the camera in my purse at all times to never miss a golden opportunity of the perfect picture. Then after using it one day with no problems, two days later when I went to use it again and the camera would not stay on. I tried a new battery, but still nothing. So much for this camera, its was supposed to be shockproof and waterproof yet it broke in its case inside of my purse.
Rock solid adventure/theme park/pool/boat/ companion 2008-06-23
After a lot of research we bought the Olympus 770SW to have a camera we could take snorkeling, hiking, and many places/activities where I would not take my Nikon D80 or our beloved Minolta (RIP) point and shoot. I was concerned about reviewers who mentioned soft images and image quality. I'm fairly critical when looking at images, and I believe there is little to worry about for 90%+ of users on that score. We used the camera over a week in Orlando, through swamp boat rides, log flume rides, swimming pools, snorkeling, and pretty much everywhere and are very happy with it and our results.
Pros: Solidly built and appears to stand up to the dropping, submersion, and crushing Olympus claims. Fit easily in velcro pocket of cargo shorts. Good feel in the hand (balance, button placement). Picture quality has been well above expectations (see comments under cons below for caveats). I found the menus to be easily learned and intuitive (some reviewers don't like the menu set-up). Others mentioned battery life, but in fairly heavy use (over 100 exposures per day, many with fill flash, and lots of "power on time" reviewing pictures on the LCD), we never ran the battery to zero (we did charge every night though). The LCD is bright and clear and just excellent.
Cons: There is a notable delay from shutter press to firing, even when pre-focused. The delay is about the same as a 2003 era point and shoot, and we were easily able to overcome this by anticipating most of the time. The only place this was an issue was snorkeling after fish and trying to get them in-frame and in focus. They do not like to stay still, so the delay was a bit tough in that pursuit, but I still got some good shots with persistence. The flash is quite anemic. Very weak. Much much worse than a typical p&S flash these days. There is no viewfinder, which is an issue when trying to shoot using the LCD in bright sun. A few times we'd try to cup our hands over the LCD to try to line up a shot. The lens is in a position where one might inadvertantly have a finger or two in frame, but this is again easily resolved with some practice on hand position. Images tended to lack deep black tones and may appear somewhat washed out. This is easily fixed in Photoshop by hitting control L and bumping up the black level (moving the left-most triangle slider to the right) on images. Image quality with some light Photoshop work was excellent. Even the anemic flash can be somewhat overcome by brightening in the "level" function of Photoshop (moving the right-most slider left). Also, the camera is not buoyant AT ALL, so if you are in deep water, maybe you should get one of those floaty straps. In snorkeling, the included wrist strap worked for me, but I can see how in open water one might want something more floatable or more firmly attached to the diver.
The cons list is long here because I wanted to give a full honest appraisal of the camera, not because I'm trying to be critical. None of these cons stopped us from getting the pictures we hoped for with this camera.
The short version of this review is that this is a seemingly bulletproof camera that has worked great, and helped my family get a lot of great images of things we never would have had otherwise. The joy on our 2 year old's face as she leaps into daddy's arms in the pool (from the splash zone), our ten year old son's snorkeling adventure, the grandparents getting drenched on various log flume rides, a squirt gun fight, everyone getting soaked in a tropical downpour. We look forward to many more years of getting these kinds of shots that we wouldn't have otherwise. Great, tough little companion. I recommend it for any outdoors person.
