Its tough but its not great

I have owned many Olympus cameras in the past but this is my first camera I have purchased from their "tough" line. As advertised this thing looks and feels very sturdy. The seals on it look like they will hold out any kind of moisture and dust and the lens has its own protective shroud and cover to protect it from scratches or damage. The lens also does not extend or retract so dust sand and dirt cant jam it up (which is a problem I have had before). It also has a minimum of buttons to break or stick and it has a very soild body construction. So on a toughness scale of 1-10 the Stylus tough 8010 gets an 11. This camera really is in a class of its own on when it comes to durablity and it is the only camera I have seen my colleagues take with them into combat zones.



On the other hand it looks like Olympus tried to cram all the wrong things into this rugged camera. The first thing you will notice when operating this camera is how slow it is between pictures even with a class 6 SD card in it its write speed seems painfully slow. Don't get me wrong I am very happy Olympus finally got ride of the XD card but it doesnt seem like they've fixed their write speed problems. Picture quality also isnt that great but thats not a major hit given the small lens they are working with.



One thing you find on the camera that shouldn't be there is all kinds of picture editing or "Beauty" features in the camera. This software does an okay job but take way to long to proccess. In my opinion Olympus should leave photo editing to photo editing software on a computer and instead focus on making this camera take better pictures with less lag time between shots.



Another grype is that this camera does not come with an external battery charger you have to plug the camera in to charge it. Why??? For those of us who like to have multiple batteries we now have to buy another charger in additon to the battery. It is also a much bigger pain to leave you camera pluged into the wall/computer than just throwing a battery in a charger.



Over all this camera is great if you plan on going to a very rough part of the world or even swimming with it. But if your just an average person looking for a camera to take good pictures this is not for you. Instead buy a cheaper camera with a better lens and get a good camera case to protect it from everyday life.More detail ...

Finally a "full service" waterproof camera for all those fun-filled vacations let the kids go crazy!

So many of our family's vacations are at beaches lakes water-parks or hikes and bringing along the sensitive digital camera has always been a problem. If I carried it then I could not get in water and I spent more time worrying whether the sand would damage it than taking pics of my family. I lost a camera on a Disney Park fun ride when water suddenly splashed into the ride and we were miserable for losing all our pics. With this camera you can drop it in water and not worry about your pics unless you lose the camera (happened to me another time when I fell overboard and dropped a camera in the open sea). I have other cameras that I have been too lazy to review but I am excited about this one so I sat down to write this review.



This is like a regular Canon Camera with all the features and the added waterproof feature. It can be compared to the new SD780 IS which sells for fifty bucks less. The features are similar except that this one is waterproof and bulkier and does not have a viewfinder (not that you can see much through a fogged up viewfinder in humid conditions).



Some great features:

- Good looking waterproof camera "cuteness" is very important I disliked those clear cases that you have to screw on your camera and as one reviewer reported they can still get fogged up

- Rainproof/Waterproof up to 33 ft good for most pools or waterparks

- Freeze proof lens up to 14 deg F

- SMART Auto mode that detects the right scene mode for each shot (works great)

- Digic 4 processor auto shots are nicer than some older Canon cameras optical image stabilization and motion detection to prevent blurring of images

- 2.5 inch extra bright LCD that's covered by a protective surface to prevent scratches and looks good in bright sun

- 3X optical and 12X digital zoom

- Face detection

- "Blink" detection - the camera gives a blink warning if someone's eyes are closed in the picture

- Contrast correction - Can be set while taking picture or even afterward to correct darker areas

- Continuous shooting lets you capture the perfect water shot

- Scene modes - The auto mode does a good job of sensing the conditions but if you want to set a mode you get the choice of - Night exposure Panorama (stitch together shots in one) programmable mode portrait sunset beach fireworks aquarium underwater snow indoor kids and pets foliage long shutter color accent (keep only one color in a pic so the water and jeans will be blue while the people black and white) and color swap (change one color to another swap the color of your boat from beige to red).



Negatives:

- Slightly bulkier than your typical Canon SD it's built for water beach and rugged use and it's rounder shape with no hard edges can take a fall or two

- No threads for filters

- No RAW mode

- No lens cap but the glass shield is scratchproof



The back panel is pretty intuitive and you probably won't need the manual to figure it out. The buttons have been designed for waterproof operations and the zoom in and out is done through buttons on the back of the camera rather than with the shutter button lever like with other Canon cameras. The photo and video mode is toggled through a round button next to the shutter button.



The best thing about this camera? You can give it to your 6 year old to take underwater pics and not worry about it how many other "real" cameras can you do that with?! Now I can float down that lazy river at the water park with my family and take some nice shots rather than running along the edge trying to capture the perfect moment. And the best thing is that this camera works just as well on land. It's the perfect no-nonsense take along everywhere (really every where!) vacation camera.

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