Since I'm trying out P&S cameras these days, I thought I'd add some Epic photos to the ones that already appeared in the thread on the original Stylus started by Phil McFarland. I bought an Epic new around 2004 to use on a trip. As often happens, afterwards I found another one for a few dollars at Goodwill with a defective battery compartment latch --that was easily fixed with some electrical tape--so I have two. One winter when we were watching a friend's dog, I took this one along to pass the time during the dog's walk. The results really surprise me now when I look at them; the camera handled difficult conditions and quick shooting very well. Here are a couple of examples.
Here are a couple photos of colorful scenes in winter (February) light.
- Mural at Sherburne-Snelling WEB.jpg (214.7 KiB) Viewed 16939 times
Discussions of the best P&S cameras are almost always positive about the Olympus Stylus cameras: good picture quality, ease of use, and reliability. There are a few minor negatives that I can mention: they're really small so sometimes I have trouble figuring out how to hold the Epic; there's also kind of an aftershock of noise when the exposure is made and I wonder if I've moved the camera before the shutter has closed (it hasn't been a problem so far); for B&W I need to keep experimenting-- I find the look of B&W from the Epic to be a little severe so I like the Minolta HiMatic AF2 better for that.
The Epic seems still to show up at thrift stores, though the number of P&S I see is smaller than it used to be. It's pretty likely that you can still get a working example at a good price.
(Photos were commercially developed and scanned. The two murals were photographed with Fuji 200. Details on the winter snow photos are lost.)
Bill Delehanty
