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my birthday, Beth gave me a wonderful little camera – an Olympus Stylus 720sw. It’s a point-and-shoot camera with a few extra features, which is what I really want. I’m more about getting the picture than fiddling with setting to create the perfect shot. The killer features on this camera are the rechargeable battery, the huge dispay, and the fact that it’s incredibly tough, sealed against dust and sand, and waterproof (!) down to 30 feet.
I was a little worried about the size – it’s bigger than the (disontinued) Sony DSC-U50 it’s replacing. But it turns out to be just as pocketable. I took a few shots at the beach with it, and I have to say that it’s nice to be able to hand the camera to the kids and not have to worry about it being damaged. The kids actually took some of these shots.
Battery life is pretty solid, at least for my type of usage. It’s a bit of a bummer to not be able to buy batteries and drop them in – it uses a custom-size Lithium Ion rechargeable, requiring a special plugin charger, but I’ve yet to run out of juice, even with that huge 2.5″ screen. It includes AV-out cables so you can share the pictures on the camera with others via a TV screen. Being the clever lady that she is, Beth also included a 2-gig memory card, so even at the 7.1 megapixel resolution I can store about 200 pictures on the camera before needing to tether up to my mac. Works great with iPhoto.
Overall a great addition.

Pictures from the Olympus 720sw