Claim Check: Olympus Stylus 1050SW

This camera taps a new technology to help you shoot in the cold.

We know cameras can freeze action shots. But which one do you reach for when it's freezing outside and you've got mittens or gloves on?

According to Olympus, it's new, 10-megapixel subcompact, the Stylus 1050SW, $300, is "great for extremely cold temperatures where gloves are a must." That's because the 1050SW lets you operate various functions by simply tapping the camera body. (The feature is also said to be useful for underwater photography.)

Here's how it works: To access various functions, you tap different sides of the body—left, right, top or back. For example, striking the right side of the 1050SW once lets you access several flash options. Then, tapping the right or left side scrolls through four flash options: auto, red-eye, flash on or flash off.

In shooting mode, you can tap the camera to control, among other things, flash settings and a shadow adjustment feature. In playback mode, tapping the camera lets you scroll through images.

We tested the tap controls three ways: wearing thick mittens, fleece gloves, and barehanded. Here's what we found:

Highs

• As you would expect, it's easiest to use tap controls barehanded. Using them with gloves was more difficult and with mittens was the most difficult, since four of your five fingers are jammed together. This makes it hard to simply hold this slim subcompact and be precise when striking it. For example, when I tapped the top of the camera wearing mittens, it was easy to accidentally hit the power or shutter button.
• When our testers wore gloves or mittens, the feature worked, although they sometimes needed to repeat tapping to activate the setting.
• Tap controls are also useful if you have big fingers, since some of the regular controls on the 1050SW are small and a bit hard to operate.
• The ability to capture a photo with the self-timer function in snow-scene mode by tapping is a handy feature. (However, you can only turn on snow-scene mode using the regular controls, which might be difficult with gloves or mittens on).

Lows

• The tap feature didn't control enough functions or settings. For example, it couldn't scroll through any of the exposure and scene modes, or operate the zoom as a manual dial, toggle, or button can.
• The tap feature isn't well documented in the user manual. For example, it's not obvious from the documentation that you can take self-timer photos by tapping the camera in snow-scene mode.

Bottom Line
The Olympus Stylus 1050SW is useful for shooting in the cold, provided you don't need to change a lot of settings and have the patience for its idiosyncrasies. We've fully tested and rated the 1050SW (check our full Ratings later this month) and, while it's a good camera overall, we found its first-shot and next-shot delay both somewhat sluggish.

—Terry Sullivan