I bought this camera when it first came out about 2 years ago. It has gone to the river, the beach & everywhere I go. My grandkids use it. It's been underwater many, many times. I've dropped it. Still does a great job. I keep it in may purse for those times when you say "I wish I had my camera". I am always recommending it to people. Sorry so many have had bad experiences but my has been great!

I bought this camera as a graduation present for my daughter in June 2007. January 2008 we took it on holiday and when we returned water had made it's way into a supposedly waterproof camera. When taken back to Future Shop they replaced it. January 2009 taken on vacation again. This time the camera totally stopped working. Will not power on. Customer Service absolutely of no use. This is now thrown in the garbage

I have been snorkeling in Belize; St. Thomas, USVI; Samana, DR; and at Coco Cay in the Bahamas since I purchased this camera; and the only thing I have done beyond the initial purchase is to supply it with 2Gig memory cards and to purchase two additional batteries so that I could continue photographing without having to wait to recharge a battery. I increasingly use it for land photography, as it is so easy to use, light, and portable, and takes such excellent photographs that my older "professional" cameras aren't so much fun to carry around and set up anymore.

I did also get a supplementary underwater flash from Olympus, and this helps with light levels and modeling in most situations; but in fact "as is" the camera performs very well underwater. MOST of the time I would recommend leaving the camera in "P" mode rather than attempting to use the preset underwater modes, as they have a way of taking control in ways you may not expect.

This is an automatic camera, intended for "point and shoot," and overriding the automation is somewhat complex. But of course that makes it pretty easy for almost everyone to use every day and under all conditions!

Camera consistently overexposed so I always had to dial exposure down for outside shots in normal daylight. Carrying in goretex parka during rainstorm left it full of condensation. And about 15 months after I bought it, all my photos turned out as pink smears. I've had far better luck with low-end Nikon CoolPix and that's what I'm going back to. This is my first and LAST Olympus; if this is typical thent his company is wayyyyyyyyyyy overrated.

I have several Nikon and Olympus slr cameras, digital and film, but needed a small camera for easy carrying and rough conditions.
I am very happy with this camera: the picture quality is very good and I found the macro settings to be excellent and easy to get in and out of. I have taken some of my favorite small flower photographs with it. It has not been in the water yet but that will happen soon....

We bought this camera for our sailing trip in the Grenadines and found this camera to be easy and fun to use. We took this camera snorkeling with us everyday, twice a day, for 7 days and our pictures are phenomenal. We have shots of huge schools of fish and colorful coral reefs that are super tight and sunset/sunrise pictures that will make you weep.

Just so everyone knows, there is a learning curve to using this camera. The more you shoot, the better your pictures come out. READ THE DIRECTIONS first (critical for underwater use) and use the appropriate setting for your pictures. Some pictures came out crappy at first, but we found it to be user error rather than camera technology.

This is also an amazing, lightweight camera to use backpacking.

I got this camera for my birthday last year and i thought it worked really well. I took it underwater in swimming pools and at the beach and had no problems with it leaking. Then I went on Vacation and half way through my trip it leaked, the lens fogged up and the corners of the screen fogged up too, and it wouldn't turn off. I looked in the Battery compartment and there was no water, and I checked the USP port and there was no water there either. Needless to say I was very angry about not having a camera for the rest of my vacation. Also the camera didn't take the greatest quality pictures. I got faded white circles on a lot of my photos. I have sent it back to be repaired so we'll see how good the customer service is. All in all I wouldn't recommend this camera.

I bought this camera for under a year, and I went to Bora Bora with it. Its water pictures weren't really good but they satisfied me until I took it onto land....trust me you cant take any pictures on land aswell the processer is SO SLOW that I can even look at all of the pictures in slideshow mode some are just BLACK. My son has a sony L1 thats a old sony 4.1 mp and this the olympus is almost 2x its megapix and the old sony's pictures are 10x as nice. But if you need a underwater camera here it is... just dont expect anything else

The camera was great until i dropped about 5 inches off the ground. Olympus customer service has been horrible to me. They want me to pay for shipping and insurance so I did, still under warranty. Got camera back today sounds like a garbage disposal, something on the inside sounds horrible. It's having hard time focusing not sure what the problem is, neither do they. They want me to send it back more $ out of my pocket. The girl on the phone said they are hand made and they all sound different, never heard of that one. By the way the shutter is the only moving part it's a digital camera why would it make noise when i take a pic? Over all I love the camera would buy another one if I didn't have to deal with Olympus.

There is nothing more gratifying than wading out into the ocean with your camera in your hand to snap pictures while on vacation, without having to worry about ruining a $300 piece of equipment. It's not the camera I would use for portraits or still lives, but it's unbeatable for grabbing and throwing in your bag while doing sporty stuff where any other camera would likely get damaged beyond repair. I don't have any kids but if I did I imagine you could let them go to town on this thing, I don't think they'd be able to break it. You just don't have to worry about this thing. Amazing.

This is the first Olympus Ihave owned in a while. My camera LCD was not functioning properly. It was easy to return, I mailed it with receipt and it was returned within 15 days. Hassle free! For the record, I also own a Pentax and was given the run around and did not feel Pentax stands by its product.
If you are looking for a company who stands by their product, I highly recommend Olympus.

This camera is very durable. If you're crazy enough to throw it around, the SW 770 can take it. It's 7.1 MP so pictures look real GOOD. Also, it has a super macro feature with light. I can take pictures real close and it's so clear that i can see dusts! GREAT CAMERA/

It's worked great for me so far. I take it on me every time I go scuba diving (in it's protective case of course) and it takes EXCELLENT macro pictures underwater. I saw some pictures some of my friends took during a recent boat dive we went on and theirs seemed so much more colorful, the only reason I can't give this a 5/5. Overall amazing camera just wish the underwater color would show up more on non-macro pictures.

If you're expecting slr-like quality pictues from this camera(seems that some of the reviewers here were expecting it), don't. This camera was meant as to be a 'go everywhere and abuse me' type of camera. Those are who very active will app-riciate this thing so much. I've used it to go scuba diving in Hawaii and it held up like a champ. If you're not that active and want to take better quality pictures, look somewhere else.

Do not buy this camera. The picture quality is horrible. A representative at Olympus actually said, "This camera is meant for underwater pitcures so the lenses are great out of water." They keep on trying to repair the camera and it turns out the same every time. Just buy a disposable whenever it might get wet and save a ton of money.

I love this camera due to its unprecedented durability; I used it to film myself playing paintball, sonwboarding on snowy hillsides, and swimming underwater in my pool. I dropped my first digital camera just inches above the ground and it got screwed up, but this baby can be dropped, thrown, and drowned and it will eat it all! The only thing I am not fond of this camera is that it is complicated to prepare the perfect shots (many nice ones I have missed because the shutter speed was too slow or the camera just acts wierd sometimes). Funny thing is that when I need to take a really good shot it does ok clarity wise indoors, but the camera is AwESOME outdoors. Overall, this is the coolest cameras out there on the market which I love and recommed to thrill seekers and adventurers alike!

I studied the book and thought I had it all figured out but I have not had any luck getting nice pictures from this camera. One of the main problems with it is there is not view finder and when you are taking pictures outdoors the bright light prevents you from being able to view what you are taking a picture of. Also it seems like you have to change the men for any different kind of picture taken. I also have had problems with the zoom as it doesn't always zoom in or out when I want it to. Of all the pictures I have taken in the few months I have had it only a handful have actually turned out, which is very disappointing since I lost all those pictures. It is very hard to tell by looking at the screen if the picture actually turned out, so you need to load it on the computer to tell for sure, and that is too late.
I am hoping the store will allow me return it.
I do like the size and he thought that if I drop it or get it wet it won't hurt it. but that is not worth losing all my pictures!

After a few days of using this little guy, I have a good feel for it. The menu is easy enuf to learn. Not as fast to learn as a Cannon, but once you get it you are in control of a great camera. I did a series of hi speed burst shots at party recently. On a dance floor. It caught the light & action beautifully. I dropped it 3x that nite, stepped on it 1x... Still working great. I dropped it into a cocktail, for a laugh &... of course, still working great. I plan on freezing it next season in Colorado. Its a great all around knock about camera, that takes a good picture. IF you are wanting to take portraits, I am sure there are lots of other pieces to evaluate.

I bought it 3 days ago and as soon as I got home immediately started reading the users manual. For me, a person that is not too savvy when it comes to technical terms the users manual was confusing, too confusing. For some reason i could not just get the breakdown of it. I was able to learn more from actually using the camera on trial and error tactics. I do agree with most of the professional reviews and say that the image qualtiy is not what a camera this price should be putting out, BUT, it has everything an outdoor, theme park, roller coaster, adventure loving enthusiast could ever dream of!! I have the annual passes to several theme parks in Orlando and I will be putting it to the ultimate test. I know i will enjoy this camera more than anything in the world and suggest it to anybody with children, and that travel to the beach/theme parks/scuba diving, mt. climbing, etc...