Olympus Tough TG-810 camera hands-on impression.

Posted by Evan Haussmann on 18 June 2012

It would be difficult or expensive to really test the potential of the Olympus Tough compact camera. Take a look at this things spec sheet…

Waterproof to 10m

Shockproof to 2m

Crushproof to 100kg

Freezeproof to -10°C

5x wide optical zoom (28-140mm in 35mm)

Built-in GPS & Electronic Compass

3D photo shooting mode

720p HD Movie and HDMI Control

For a full spec sheet visit Olympus’s official site.

See what I mean? This thing is built to be just about everything-proof. I didn’t think it appropriate to trash the test unit I was sent so I hunted around the web to see if I could find anyone who’d actually put this thing through a stress test and disappointingly found very little to speak of. I’d have thought some wiseass out there would have driven over it or tossed it out of a speeding car or something. Nothing. What I’m getting at here is the jury is still out on the actual limits of the Olympus Tough’s robustness. So if you come across any video proof or feel comfortable sacrificing yours, please let us know. Otherwise, if Olympus want me to I’ll happily find it’s limits to make the case for these claims…

So, for lack of dramatic OMG footage of the Tough TG-810 surviving something spectacular… I thought I’d do the next best thing… see what it’s like as an everyday camera.

In the hand

It feels like a very high quality piece of gear, solid with a fair amount of heft for a palm-sized compact camera. The build quality is really good and goes a long way to convincing one that this camera could handle the knocks and scrapes it’s purported to withstand quite easily.

I found the buttons a little fiddly and imagine it would not be easy to use if you were operating it while wearing gloves.

The interface

Olympus have a very simple approach to user-interface and it is really good. There’s very little that you can’t work out just by fiddling through the menus and in some cases there’s even a pop up that tells you what the currently selected function does or can do.

GPS and Compass

This camera has a built-in GPS and compass which activates automatically and puts a location readout on the screen while you shoot. It also drops the coordinates into the EXIF information of the image which is pretty cool if you need that sort of info. In Lightroom (my default image editing software) there’s a GPS tab that becomes active when the GPS info is present. Clicking the tab opens up Google Maps at the exact location of your geo-tagged image. This feature is excellent for travelling and adventurers, sure. Much less so if you’re loading photographs of your family at home. The GPS also impacts heavily on the potential battery life of the camera, another perhaps more compelling reason than paranoia not to use it for everyday snaps.

Manometer

The Olympus Tough accurately assesses and reports on the testosterone levels of of the person holding it giving a reading on a scale of 1-10 with ten being the most masculine… Okay so I’m BSing but it’s actually not that far from the truth. What the manometer does is record air and water pressure and as such would provide an adventurer with proof of altitude and/or depth attained. (I can’t see this info anywhere in the file but will update this post when I find out how it’s accessed/presented.)

Images and quality

This is really what I’m most interested in. So we know the camera is easy to use, will survive the apocalypse and tell you where you are when the dust settles but the image quality is most important to me. What’s the point of conquering a peak or transecting a jungle only to bring washed out grainy files?

The Olympus Tough has quite the bag of tricks when it comes to the image modes and scene settings. In addition to the usual Program and Scene modes found in these compacts the TG-810 offers iAuto which is basically a smart Scene mode. The camera uses complex algorithms to work out what it’s shooting and ‘intelligently’ applies the setting. There are also the following mode settings:

Panorama mode

A very cool Panorama mode that is quite possibly the best I’ve used and turns out excellent results with little or no evidence of ‘lens warping’ or irregular overlaps. It only allows three frames but setting the lens to it’s widest (28mm) returns acceptable coverage. If you needed more it wouldn’t be too much of an issue to stitch together two or three of these panoramas later if you really wanted to.

Magic mode

This Magic filter/preset mode seems to be a favourite with the Olympus developers but in my opinion, in this highly evolved market where free phone apps deliver incredible and customisable results, offering eight mediocre filters falls very short. It’s fun to play with for five minutes but I’d advise staying away from it and processing images in software on the computer later. At least that way you still have an original file to revert to should you so please.

Pinhole ‘Magic’ filter

Pop Art magic filter…

Sparkles?… Seriously?

I shot an image in each of the eight ‘magic’ settings and the results aren’t not too bad. I won’t post them all however as I think ‘Punk’ and ‘Soft Focus’ actually undermine the camera.

3D Mode

Yep, you read that right, this camera can actually shoot 3D and if you have a 3D TV or monitor you’d most likely be happy to have this function. It’s pretty new tech so I wasn’t suprised to have had issues with .MPO attachments that come with the 3D files. Lightroom didn’t know what to do with them. If you’d like me to forward the files to you for viewing on your home screen drop me a mail. I’d love to hear your thoughts and even better, see these pic in 3D action.

Quality?

Overall for the special functionality this camera brings to the party, I find the file quality quite acceptable for a compact.

Conclusion

The Olympus Tough TG-810 is clearly built like a tank and while it’s not necessarily going to bring home the absolute best image quality the files are more than acceptable. The sexy-looking Tough will bring home images from far off places few other camera’s would survive but, I think it’s a mistake to presume it’s only built for hardcore adventurers and the like. There’s a lot of hammering to be had at the bottom of your wife’s handbag or in the hands of a couple of three year olds. If there was a compact camera I’d trust to keep on clicking either in the steaming jungles or on a night out on the town, the Olympus Tough TG-810 would be it.

Olympus Tough recommended retail price is R3999 from Tudortech

Watch this hands-on Olympus Tough TG-810 feature review video from butterscotch.com