*Updated: April 5, 2009

I bought this camera as a replacement to my Stylus 1010 which I owned for a year. The Stylus 9000 has pretty much addressed all of the issues I had with the 1010. Here are some comparisons.

Physical features: Put side by side the stylus 9000 is definitely bigger and heavier than the 1010, but that's no deal breaker especially since the 9000 has a sturdy metal body vice the plastic 1010 body. The 9000 is also not as sleek looking as the 1010 but it fits better in your hand and the buttons are raised further so you can find them with your fingers more easily.

Lens: The lens is a big improvement over the 1010 which most professionals will tell you is more important than having higher megapixels. Besides offering extra zoom the 9000 lens is much beefier and offers wide angle shots.

Media Card: It seems that Olympus has finally gotten over their proprietary high horse when it comes to XD media cards. Both the 1010 and 9000 come with adapters to allow the use of Micro SD cards. The problem with the 1010 was that if you wanted to take a panorama picture you had to have an OLYMPUS brand XD card. This is not an issue with the 9000 as it allows you to take panorama shots with any card or even just the internal memory. The 9000 also recognizes the higher write speeds of Class 4 and Class 6 Micro SD cards. Which has solved one of the major head aches associated with VGA videos on the 1010 and its predecessors.

Video: Both Cameras' offer VGA video recording size of 640x480 at 30 frames per second. This feature is normally limited to 10 second clips with regular media cards. The only way around this with the 1010 was to ensure your camera had the 1.1 firmware upgrade and to buy a more expensive XD type M+ card or type H card. But because the 9000 recognizes the higher write speeds of the class 4 and 6 Micro SD's you can now record up to 20:00 min videos without having to purchase one of those high speed XD cards.

Screen: The 9000 comes with the 3rd generation hyper crystal display which is much brighter and gives you a clearer picture than the 1st generation display on the 1010. I was very impressed with the visibility of the screen at high noon on a cloudless race day; I had no real problems taking or reviewing pictures. Though this screen is much better than that 1010 screen it's still not perfect especially considering the lack of a view finder.

Battery life: Both cameras utilize the same LI-50B battery. I do admit that I haven't done any scientific side by side testing, but it seems as though the battery life on the Stylus 9000 is a bit shorter than the 1010. This can be expected with a brighter screen and is kind of a tradeoff I guess. It's hard for me to put an estimate on the battery life here because everyone uses their camera differently, but I would say you could comfortably shoot all day with the 9000 without needing a spare battery. (Unless of course you leave you camera on all the time, take hundreds of pictures ect, ect.)


Operating software: The 9000's menu looks different on the 1010's however the software interface is almost identical. The 9000 does have a built in "beauty" feature, but it takes a lot of time for the camera to process the image, and it's something that is more suitably done on your computer with photo editing software.

A note on camera cases: I had an Olympus brand leather case that I could fit my Stylus 1010, a lens cleaning cloth, and a spare battery in with no issues. Because the Stylus 9000 is bigger only the camera fits in that same case so the $30 camera case had to go the way of the old camera. I also tried the Olympus Premium leather case with the same results. So I am on a hunt for a quality case that I can fit all my accessories in. I'll keep you posted.

Overall: I am very happy with this camera as a basic compact point and shoot. It takes awesome pictures and is small enough to carry around even if you don't know if you'll need a camera. I personally think the price is a little high on it right now, and it would be a great camera if you could get it for under $300.00. Which I'm sure will happen sooner than later.

I dropped my last Olympus Stylus in water and ruined it. I had bought it about 4 years ago and loved it. I was looking for the same thing, but found that cameras have advanced a lot since then. My old one only had a 3X zoom and 8 MP. The new Olympus Stylus 9000 has a 10X zoom and 12 MP which you can change to many lower MP settings to increase the number of photos the card holds. The battery is slimmer and the recharger is much more compact. I'm still getting used to using this camera, but so far I'm enjoying it even more than my old camera. Nice new and more compact dials. The photos are excellent!!

Finally a compact camera with a great zoom. I've had it a few days now and the photos on the automatic settings are wonderful. The camera also lets you adjust most all parameters to "be creative." This camera will be perfect for travel. The LCD is bright and the controls are intuitive. No more carrying my larger Sony with the bulky (10x) lens. The software is just ok, but I generally use third party applications anyway. I am not a pro, just someone who travels a lot and takes photos to share with others. I'll be taking this camera to Europe next month so I'll update the review if I run into any issues.

Loved the features the Olympus Stylus 9000 has. I really liked the 10x zoom, it's panoramic photos processed right in the camera, super macro mode and many others. Unfortunately, the one I would use the most was a hit-and-miss for taking good photos. In AUTO mode you really have no control on what the camera focuses on, thus causing many blurry images. It was not camera shake nor zooming that caused the blur. I had the camera for 3 weeks and after testing it on many shots I finally gave up and returned the camera. Bummer, I really wanted that camera!

I gave the camera a 3 star rating as half the photos came out clear and the other half blurry.

Love the camera!

Its important to note what I was looking for when I purchased this. I wanted: 1) COMPACT, 2) High Optical Zoom, 3) Shooting Modes, 4) Ease of use 5) CHEAP ( I bought this camera for $300, $175 of it with gift certificates I already had, so I ended up paying like $125 all in all. I wanted an IDIOT-PROOF camera because I am NOT a professional photographer and have neither the time, nor the inclination to learn about aperture or shutter speed and one that I could travel with easily (put in my pocket). I wanted something that would be fast, simple and effective and this little guy hits all the marks. The pictures are clean and good and its super easy to use.

Im gonna make it super easy. Pros and cons . . .

PROS:
Zoom: The zoom is fantastic. It does exactly what I expected it to: The 10x Optical is rocking good! Clarity is awesome and Im very satisfied with the lack of pixillation.

Size: I love the fact that, in accordance with Olympus' other 'pocket-sized cameras,' I can put it in my pocket, no problem.

Panorama and Shooting Modes: Ive had three previous Olympus cameras and Im in total love with the shooting modes. The in-camera panorama is great and I find myself using it a lot. Beauty mode is quite useful, too, I find.

CONS:
Olympus has a few bad marks against it in my mind. First, its customer service sucks - just TRY to get your camera serviced or a question answered and youll see what I mean. Second, these cameras are delicate, to say the least - my first cameras' flash broke irreparably after the first year and a half and the second one ate it when a little water splashed on it. Just handle them carefully. Finally, Olympus compacts are notorious for taking AWESOME pictures in the daylight hours (dawn and dusk included) but you really have to focus on what your doing at night. If your using the flash, no problem, but if you wanna take pics of anything without it at night, youll have to work for it.

Other than that, the only major con that I can come up with is the size. The size IS good for fitting it into your pocket (which is why I listed it above, too) but its a little bulkier than I would have hoped. Its just bigger than Olympus' FE line cameras, for those who are familiar with them.

All in all, Im very satisfied and would recommend this camera for those who have the same photographic purposes as I. You may want to wait for the price to come down, though :)

When I bought this little compact camera I was expecting to later have to buy a bigger more powerful one, but when I used it, I discovered that this little camera does a BIG job! The range from 10x optical zoom to the closest of close ups is remarkable! I can get it to focus on the inside of a flower at 1/4 inch away. That's right, 1/4 inch away. I can't believe it, but it does it!

I have problems seeing up close and I thought that I'd have a hard time seeing the LED screen for shots, but again, I was surprised, I can see it pretty well!

I find it to be deserving of the phrase "Packed with Features". From the "Beauty" setting that softens wrinkles and blemishes, to the timer, to the settings that allow you to create just what you want if the "Auto" setting isn't creative enough, this camera fills the bill.

The battery life seems good to me, but I bought two batteries and chargers so that if one goes dead I have a backup.

I'm very impressed and would highly recommend this camera.

Well once again I am very very pleased with my new Olympus Stylus 9000 camera. I used their trade up plan and traded in my Olympus Stylus 840 which was a great camera also, but I wanted the better features on the Olympus 9000 such as the 12 megapixels and the 10X optical zoom lens. Also I got a fairly decent price when I traded in the 840 model. My Great Niece got married in an outdoor wedding in Pa. a few days after I got the new camera and I had little time to try out the new features on the new Olympus 9000 camera before I went to the wedding. But I had totally no problems. Olympus cameras are totally user friendly and unlike many cameras they come with a printed hands on instruction manual. I love that feature but truthufully if you know anything about digital cameras you will have little trouble operating the Olympus brands. One thing I was totally surprised about and was amazed at was that we were all seated quite far away from the actual marriage ceremony. The wedding was on a little island on a small lake and the guests were on the shore of the lake. I held my little camera above the seated folks heads, with my arms extended straight up as far as I could reach, and was still able to see the screen and took some really really great pictures at 10X zoom. I was almost certain I would not be able to hold the camera steady at 10X zoom but the double stabilization did great and I didn't get one blurry photo and I am a shaky 64 year old man. I could go on and on about the different features on this camera but trust me, it is loaded down with nice and easy to use features. The price and size of this camera are great too. It is a true shirt pocket sized camera with big camera features and qualities. And remember when it comes to seeing the viewing screen in bright sunlight or any light, Olympus wrote the book on being able to see the screen in all light conditions. The only thing a few folks complain about is that Olympus still uses the XD cards. I don't know why this is a problem to some people as it matters not to me. They are readily available at many places and you really only need one 2 GB size card or at the most 2 cards. The battery life is also senstional and they came out with a new charger without a cord which is great. You will not be disappointed if you decide to buy this camera.

I just bought the 9000 and used it at a church wedding. I also brought along my Canon A95. The Stylus-9000 photos were grainy, the colors looked harsh and the background area was dark. By contrast, the Canon photos were very clean and sharp, the colors looked more pleasing and the lighting was even throughout the photo, even in the background. The two cameras were used from the same location, same church lighting. I also tried using the 9000 without flash, and the pictures looked much better (than with flash) except I usually could not hold it steady enough so the photos were either slighty or very blurred, even with the stablizer on.
The photos of the 9000 taken outside in bright sunlight were fine.
I'm returning the Olympus 9000.

I am a semi-pro photographer - I own a Canon Rebel SLR - I wanted a decent point and shoot camera so that I didn't have to drag my SLR to family outings and such - After many camera reviews - I decided on the Olympus Stylus 9000. I picked it because it had auto settings but it also had settings that I could change and control myself. I got it today and tonight after looking at the images on my computer, I am returning it.

Overall the camera is very easy to use. It's a bit slippery in your hands. I think that it could be easy to drop. There is no viewfinder window - just the LCD monitor. Another thing I don't like is that the memory card you put into it - is a xd card - you have to buy Olympus brand xd card - and the largest size xd card they sell is 2 GB. With the highest picture quality setting set - you won't be fitting that many images on it -

The camera does come with a rechargeable battery and battery charger. It also comes with a microsd converter.

It is very stylish - most of the functions worked well - I noticed when I was taking pictures that the shutter speed was a little sluggish - I am used to my SLR though - I also noticed that the time to record the images was slower than my SLR - Someone used to point and shoot cameras might think it faster than their current camera.

Auto mode - I would stay away from this - the camera doesn't know what to focus on and so you end up with a lot of blurry pictures. Camera shake is not due to this.

The reason I am returning this camera is that when looking at the images on my computer - there is A LOT of noise. Noise is kind of a grainy quality to the pictures - You really don't notice this until you look at the image at 100%. Just looking at the images in the preview mode - because they are not viewed at 100% - you don't notice it as much - but when you look at your image in full size - its horrible. I was so disappointed. I had the camera on the highest quality picture at 12 mp - at higher ISO's the noise gets worse. Night shots and shots that have low lighting are really bad - shots with plenty of light - you don't notice this as much - but it is still there.

I won't put up with this kind of quality. Back to Amazon it goes.

Love it:

A beautifully put together, substantial and versatile point and shoot digital camera. And it is so much more with a little forethought about what and where you are going to be shooting. The pictures, so far, have been everything I could possibly want. The zoom is amazing. The clarity and brightness of the image on the screen is unbelievable compared with my old Olympus C5000.

Hate it:

The instruction manual is almost as clear as mud - however, I suspect that to a young person familiar with all kinds of joy stick operations that it might likely be as clear as a fresh mountain stream - and possibly never needed. Also, the physical travel distance between wide angle and telephoto is very short so it is hard to get just the right length for the composition desired.

It's also going to take time for a died-in-the-wool SLR user to get used to no view finder. The physical position required to hold the camera to the eye is a very stabilizing one. It is good for composing as well as for stabilizing the camera. The 9000 takes care of the stabilizing, but waving that heavy little gizmo at arm's length trying to get the composition exactly right - and for long enough to take the shot - is going to take a lot more practice.