Olympus Stylus Verve

For a few months my mother has been teetering on the idea of buying a digital camera. This made sense: A digital camera would allow her to quickly and easily share photos with me in Europe.

My first thought was to buy her a new camera, but I decided to have a little fun by giving her my old Canon A70 and replacing mine with something new. My requirement was easy: The camera must be compact for hiking and biking.

My decision was with the Olympus Stylus Verve (mu-Mini in Europe). The main selling points was the compact size and the weatherproof casing. After getting the camera and using it for a while, I concluded that I should have purchased something else. Here's why:

1. The first grief is that a proprietary USB cable is required to connect the camera to your computer. You must then carry the cable with you if, say, you wish to transfer the photos at a friend's house.
2. Not all configuration options are automatically saved when you turn off the camera. This means reconfiguring the settings each time you turn the camera on!
   
3. The movie mode (video clips) quality doesn't come close to matching the quality of the Canon A70.
4. The panoramic mode is clumsy and the stitching software sucks.
5. The proprietary battery has a poor life.
6. There is a lot of noise in low-light situations.
7. The zoom is only 2x.
   

[Update: I sold the Olympus and replaced it with a Canon A520.]