I keep getting suckered by the Corporate Marketing Departments. Why do I say that? My search for the small camera with a bright lens has me purchasing things that sounds good on paper but not really living up to my expectations in practice. The Olympus Stylus 1 is one such camera. Maybe I got a bad sample but it was perfect for what I was looking for. Long reach at a constant f2.8. It also takes the same batteries as my other Olympus cameras. Great. No need for another charger and no spare batteries purchase.

In practice. What I saw in the viewfinder isn't exactly what I was getting as an image. Reason? It's that very small sensor again. They really do lose foliage detail as you will see in the following images. My lens looks like it's decentered somewhat so that one side is rather soft. The more I use the larger sensors the more I realise how much better they really are and with cameras getting smaller and smaller the need for these small sensored cameras diminishes. I think the market is realising this too as the market for these compacts is dying, and fast too. Manufacturers stop producing them as there is no profit to be made and most are now switching to the 1" sensor. That is the compact segment of today.

Last famous words. I will never ever again purchase one of these small sensor cameras, there really is no meed for it in todays world.

I will however post some images from this camera, if not for anything else but as a warning to all out there about any dreams they might have of the perfect small sensor camera purchase.