By WILSON ROTHMAN
The first digital camera I ever really loved was an Olympus, the Brio D-100 with a single megapixel of resolution and no optical zoom lens. The digital equivalent of the 110 Instamatic I discovered in my Easter basket in 1982, the D-100 took decent pictures, and only gave me trouble when it ran low on battery juice. In the intervening three or four years, camera technology has gotten more complex, and many subsequent Olympus models have proved less than reliable. So, it's a relief to say that, at long last, Olympus has a camera that's as steady as its original crop, yet as modern as anything from the competition.
What is the Stylus Verve, if not a fashion statement? Olympus paid a lot of money to tout it at New York's Fashion Week this fall, but its looks would have earned it a place on the runway even without the sponsorship: smooth lines, a subtle angularity, multiple colors (silver, white, blue, black, copper and red — collect all six?) and the funky selector wheel that reminds me of a vintage cigarette lighter designed in an era when smoking was cool. Mechanics such as the retracting circular lens hatch and the whoosh start up sound effect add to the flavor.
None of that would mean much if the Verve didn't take good pictures, but it handles its primary function well, particularly in two areas where other point-and-shoot cameras suffer: low-light shots without flash, and up-close shots with flash. The autofocus on previous Stylus models was slow to lock on, but the Verve is quick on the draw, and passed beautifully in most real-life tests.
Every camera-maker seems to include a few software gimmicks in their wares these days, and the Verve's even turn out to be somewhat useful. They include a mode in which two shots can be combined in a single split-pane frame for side-by-side comparison, and post-shooting effects such as sepia, black-and-white, fisheye-lens distortion and a Barbara Walters-style soft focus.
The Verve's most glaring shortcoming is its 2x optical zoom lens, a low magnification for a compact camera selling for over $300. (Olympus just announced one that's thinner with a slightly larger zoom lens, the AZ-2, although its design lacks a certain joie de Verve.) A less annoying but possibly more insidious failing is that if you want to shoot a panorama — several shots side by side that you stitch together later using the included Olympus Master software — you have to use an Olympus-branded xD memory card. At this point, only Olympus and Fujifilm use xD cards, although they are supported by third-party card readers; it's a second-class citizen next to industry leaders such as SD and Compact Flash. But even if you have an xD card made by Fujifilm, you're locked out of some Verve features. The quick tip is that when you go buy a new card for the camera (the included 16 MB card just isn't large enough), stick to Olympus. In the future, though, for everyone's sake, I hope companies that support the same second-tier memory card format will learn to get along.
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