The new Olympus Stylus 810 is an 8-megapixel compact with a sleek stainless steel weatherproof body and 3x optical zoom. As one of the smallest cameras in its class it comes with a choice of 20 scene modes covering a wide range of familiar photographic situations, a helpful Guide function and an effective ISO range of 64 to 3200 to deal with most image situations. One of its strong selling points would have to be the unique Digital Image Stabilisation function which prevents blurred images at the capturing stage and corrects images that are blurred as a result of camera shake.The versatile, water-resistant 8-megapixel Olympus Mju 810 adapts to dim environments as readily as it braves damp ones. Thanks to a combination of high sensitivity (up to ISO 3,200), digital image stabilisation, and Olympus’s Bright Capture pixel-pooling technology, the Mju 810 can take and display acceptable pictures in low light. Unfortunately, this camera doesn’t do as well in fair weather — its LCD tends to wash out in bright sunlight.

The Olympus Mju 810′s sleek, 145 gram stainless steel body is easily pocketable and less than an inch thick, with its 35mm-to-105mm-equivalent lens fully retracted. Unlike its resilient brother, the Tough Mju 720 SW, the Stylus 810 isn’t submersible, but it has better sealing and gasket coverage than a typical camera, which allows its weather-resistant body to keep shooting despite a bit of dust or precipitation.You can easily manipulate most of the camera’s controls with your right thumb, so the Mju 810 is well suited for one-handed shooting. Besides a power switch and a shutter release on the top panel, all camera controls are clustered on the back panel, next to the 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. These controls include a zoom rocker and a simple mode dial with only five settings: movie mode, scene selection, playback, recording mode and Guide.The latter can be used to call up image info, a rule-of-thirds grid for help in composing images or a live histogram to evaluate exposure levels. The camera menu, which provides control over all camera functions is clearly laid out with a mix of pictograms and text. A handy shortcut is that pressing the OK key in recording mode opens a sub-menu with direct access to the most frequently used shooting options such as white balance, ISO, drive and metering, thus avoiding the need to enter the elaborate camera menu.