Olympus Mju 790 SW

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By Philip Ryan, CNET.com, CNET Asia
Oct 22, 2007

Do you like to drop your digital camera on the floor? Dunk it in water? Bury it in snow? Who doesn't? But usually, that can cause some problems, since most cameras hate water, won't operate in freezing cold temperatures, and don't take well to falls.

However, Olympus' Mju 790 SW, like the Mju 770 SW before it, is tough enough to shoot in 3m of water and withstand drops of up to 1.5m, so if you're klutzy, you won't have to worry quite as much. If you swim deeper than most, the 770 SW might be better for you than this model, since it can operate down to about 10m. Other than that, a slightly different body design, and a new feature or two in the 790 SW, the two cameras are basically the same.

Design

If it didn't say so on the front of the camera, you might not think that the Mju 790 SW is a waterproof camera. While last year's 770 SW's body design screamed rugged, with its all-metal construction and tougher-than-nails look, the 790 SW has a softer look, with plastic accents on the top, side, and front. Also, the 790 SW is lighter and comes in five bright colors, while the 770 SW only had three, more-muted colors.

For more details on the 790 SW's in the ice, click on the image.

Features

All of the camera's buttons are on the right side of the camera back, except the shutter and on/off buttons, which are on the top. The mode dial, also accented with black plastic, is on the back, and in my opinion, a bit small. The plastic has little notches in it, though, so it's thankfully not all that hard to turn.

Menus are separated into the shooting menu, accessed by pressing the OK button in the center of the four-way rocker, and the main menu, which you get to by pressing the Menu button. The main menu lets you activate the silent mode quickly, but makes you choose a submenu before proceeding to anything else. This slows things down a bit, but Olympus does organize the menus well, and the shooting menu and four-way rocker let you quickly change anything you need while shooting.

Performance and Image Quality »