questions about the olympus 720 SW

[TSBRN]

I'm afraid I may have made a rather costly mistake. I bought this camera before reading any reviews and now I think I may regret the purchase. I thought it would be a good first digital camera for myself and two teenagers to use (seemed very sturdy) but now am concerned after reading more about it.

Excuse the stupid questions...but I have never had a digital camera.

What is "fake" image stabalization?
What is the difference between the memory card this camera takes and most other cameras use?

Thanks in advance for any questions you can answer!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

fake IS: instead of the optics moving to counter the vibration of your hands, it's simply boost the ISO higher to obtain faster shutter speed. This affect the effect of the picture you're taking. Also the high ISO of any Olympus p&s I've played with (this one included) is not as clean as the Canon. But if you want something that's shockproof and waterproof, this is the only option you have.

The memory card on any Olympus and Fuji P&S (not including dSLR and bridge-camera) is XD card. They tend to be more expensive and seemingly maxed out at 1 Gb. At least based on the stock I've seen in Canada.

If you want just waterproof, Pentax Optio W10 gives a stellar result and it uses SD card.