Camera Review: Olympus Stylus XZ-10!

I’ve always been an Olympus fan girl, ever since the first time I got inducted into the Olympus cult with my first serious camera: the Olympus E-P1.

That was donkey years ago, (at least 3-4 years!) and ever since then, my love for Oly has been undying!

When it comes to cameras and gadgets, I can be rather geeky.. I love playing with cameras, and it’s always thrilling to take pretty-looking pictures. I almost never leave home without my camera.

As some of you know, I’ve been using the Olympus E-PL5 for the past year or so, and it’s a really amazing camera! However, there are times when I have to leave it at home, simply because although it isn’t as hefty as a huge DSLR, it is certainly not the smallest camera around and I don’t have space for the extra bulk and weight.

For some time now, I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a smaller, more compact camera for days when I just want to travel light.

Thing is, I’m so used to using Olympus cameras, with their signature warm color tones and beautiful image quality, their idiot-proof P mode as well as familiar graphic user interface that I’ve gotten used to over the years, that I actually find it difficult to use other cameras now -.- Plus there’s just this appeal about Olympus cameras, they have that classic gorgeous old-school charm like no other!

For me, it’s a case of “Once you go Olympus, you’ll never go back“! HAHA. Tested and proven.

So back to the compact camera: I think I may have found that perfect companion to slip into my pocket for days when the bigger cameras stay at home 😉

This camera is none other than.. The Olympus Stylus XZ-10!

I got hold of this nifty little machine last week, and have been test-driving it for a few days already.

The best part is that it’s so tiny and light that I sometimes even forget that I’m carrying a camera out! It’s very compact too, and fits into my smallest clutch. That makes it suitable for all occasions, even when I’m going for a nice dinner and only want to carry a teeny tiny clutch 😛

Surprisingly enough, image quality isn’t compromised too. Despite its portable and compact size, the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 still packs a punch with so much awesomeness!

One of my favourite functions of Olympus cameras is the Art mode, where you can pick different art filters that instantly makes any photo look tons better, without even having to do any post-processing/editing! Much to my pleasant surprise, the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 comes with all these super cool art modes, and even more!

Don’t be put off by these Art Filter, thinking they’re just the regular ugly art filters you get on some other cameras that you’d never touch. Trust me, Olympus Art Filters are just astounding, so much that many professional photographers actually use these Art Filters for professional shots that look award-winning!

I brought this amazing little camera for a lazy Sunday out at a cafe, and check out the beautiful shots the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 produced! 🙂

For a vintage feel, the Pinhole mode is the best! It gives a vignette to the photo, and makes the colours look really old-school with lots of feel!

Diorama is another really cool filter, it blurs out the surroundings to make the photo look like it’s been “miniaturised”! But I think it does really good macro shots as well, because of the blurred effect.

One of my favourite filters, EVER! The Grainy Film filter that I use frequently on all my Olympus cameras. It produces AMAZING black and white shots that are reminiscent of film pictures!

Another old favourite, Pop Art mode! This filter really helps to bring out colours, enhancing the vibrancy of every picture. I love it best for object or landscape pictures, because the pop of saturation instantly makes the photo look good.

Dramatic Tone, which makes everything look instantly…. dramatic. Hahaha. This is great for taking mood shots of skies, landscapes and objects! It makes the photo extra contrasty and punchy!

I didn’t have this on my oldest Olympus cameras, but I’m glad it’s available on the Olympus Stylus XZ-10! It’s the Cross Processed filter, and is another filter that gives every photo a special colour tone that looks like it came out of a film camera roll! Love this filter 😉

Gentle Sepia filter gives a really smooth brown sepia tone that’s really pretty! Sometimes, photos just look better in sepia, don’t you agree?

Another new and fun filter I’ve never tried before, Key Line! It turns a photo into an almost graphic representation that looks sort like a 3-D rendering. Much nicer than I expected it to be, honestly.

Soft Focus is THE filter to use for portraits or people shots! 😀 It just makes everyone extra dreamy, while the soft blur smooths out all imperfections! Best filter ever for self-portraits! 😛

There are a couple more filters that I didn’t showcase, but as you can see, I love the Art Filters on the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 very much! It makes photo-taking so much more creative and fun. One of the many things that makes Olympus stand out from other brands for me.

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The Olympus Stylus XZ-10 also has a brand-new mode/function that’s really fun and ingenious! It’s called Photo Story, and allows you to choose from a few different frames, that lets you combine multiple shots together to tell a story!

It kind of reminds me of photo collaging apps on my smart phone.. except now I can take this shot with my Olympus Stylus XZ-10 straight away, frame by frame! This makes composing the different frames together a breeze!

FAVOURITE Photo Story mode! It’s under the “Fun Frames” section and has a little instant photo look-a-like embedded into another picture, and shows the date as well! This would work so well for blogs or other social media platforms!

This is the standard “Split-Framing” mode, You can combine a few pictures together to form one entire collage!

Another favourite one is the “Zoom-In” mode, it’s split into two frames, of which one is zoomed in to better show the details! Awesomely fun!

The Photo Story mode will give you endless hours of creative out-of-the-box shooting, without needing to do any post-processing and editing! Though it was my first time trying out the Photo Story mode, I was really impressed with the ease-of-use, and the kind of results it produced.

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Of course, you can take normal photos that are just as good as well. HAHAHA. For when you don’t want to have any art filters or special photo story effects, the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 has got a really good lens too (i.ZUIKO DIGITAL lens and it’s f1.8-2.7 okay!!!)

Here are some of the other shots I captured on the same day, with the Olympus Stylus XZ-10! I usually use P mode, which actually stands for “Idiot-Proof“.

Just kidding, P mode stands for “Program” mode, which basically means you don’t need to do much because the camera will pick the aperture and shutter speed for you! I sometimes adjust the exposure depending on how bright I want the photo to be. But really, it’s almost idiot-proof! 😉

I think the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 takes excellent portraits! Very flattering skin tones, and trust me when I say that it’s so much easier to take a selfie with a small compact camera than a big and heavy camera!

Don’t tell me you’re still not convinced with the prowess of the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 yet.

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What I love about the Olympus Stylus XZ-10:

1. It is SO LIGHT and small that I can’t even feel its weight in my bag!
2. It focuses and takes photos really fast!!!
3. Touch-screen LCD just like my other Olympus camera, which makes it very easy to tap and focus (like smart phone!)
4. It takes bright photos even under low-light settings (It was quite dim in the cafe, but the photos still turned out fine!)
5. The art filters and photo story modes that’s unique to Olympus and the XZ-10. Too creative and fun!
6. Last but confirm not least.. I can wifi the photos straight away to my phone!!!

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YES! Olympus Stylus XZ-10 is capable of wireless file transfer with the Toshiba FlashAir card, and it is extremely handy for uploading photos instantly from the camera to my smart phone! 😀

You just have to go to the settings and enter “Connection to Smartphone”…

You also need the Olympus Image Share app on your smart phone!

Once you connect wireless to the phone, it’s easy peasy to access all your photos, to pick the ones you want to download and save into your phone 😉

Saved to Camera Roll and now I can edit it with my phone and upload onto my Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Dayre!!!

This is seriously the BEST camera function ever for social media addicts like me. I can’t live without wireless file transfer function in my camera anymore!

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A few more random shots from other days/events when the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 also did an admirable job snapping marvellous photos for me!

Back-lit photos are notoriously hard to capture, but this photo managed to turn out pretty good with minimal loss of details! (And this was at the Nuffnang Insights Launch Party with Valerie, Qiuqiu, Xiaxue and Huiwen!) 😀

A selfie with my favourite beauty queen, Valerie!

I also brought the handy little Olympus Stylus XZ-10 along for my nail appointment at The Nail Artelier.. It can be very hard to capture all the tiny details of the intricate nail work Jenrine does for me, but again, the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 did well!

Just a beautiful bouquet of flowers I was presented with during the Nuffnang Insights Launch Party. The vibrant colours were captured vividly and accurately! And you know what, the depth-of-field is amazing for such a tiny camera!

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It certainly doesn’t hurt that the Olympus Stylus XZ-10 is just as functional as it looks good! I really love how it looks like in white, and Olympus sells additional accessories like the red leatherette sticker that’s on my Olympus Stylus XZ-10! 😉

The Olympus Stylus XZ-10 is really a fashion statement on its own! So different from the boring black and plain-looking compacts out there. This is one camera that has heaps of personality and style!