How do you know Olympus Stylus Tough 3000 Digital Camera

Olympus Stylus Tough 3000 packs the lowest MSRP in the Tough family, is waterproof to 10 feet, functional in temperatures down to 14 degrees F and can survive a 5 foot fall. Our review model came in a snappy blue two-tone color scheme , but just as I was about to start grousing over the lack of a detailed user’s manual in the box, it turned out that no matter the color of the body, all Tough 3000s are green.
Olympus Stylus Camera Charger
has built in 1 gigabyte of internal memory and included the manual in-camera in lieu of a paper manual or CD-ROM.

The camera covers the 28 to 102mm focal length range and offers one-button video recording. The metal body seems well-built, a good thing for a camera with submersible and cold weather capabilities. One question that’s already come up is whether the battery will hold on long enough to let you glean anything from the manual. I fully charged our review sample’s Li-ion battery before shooting, but after 50 shots a flashing red battery icon in the upper left of the monitor got my attention.

Olympus recommends recharging the battery when the message reads “battery empty” and this one indicated I had one segment left, but given that Olympus rates the Tough 3000 for 160 shots per charge power consumption looks to be high on our list of things to monitor closely with this camera. Image quality and color reproduction look good, and default images seem to be satisfactory right out of the
Olympus Tough Camera Charger
. Autofocus acquisition time seems OK in good conditions, but has shown some tendencies to be a bit slow as light gets dimmer. Shutter lag seems to be not overly quick, but not molasses slow either. At the nominal ISO sensitivity of 64, flash range suggests the built-in flash is not particularly powerful. The camera didn’t leak on its voyage to the bottom of the pool and grabbed a shot of my trusty Nikons sitting in a couple feet of water.

That won’t be the only water the Tough 3000 will encounter before the final verdict is rendered. The camera is easily shirt-pocket portable and seems to produce a nice quality image. We’ll firm up our first impressions one way or the other and have a complete review of this Olympus compact in the not too distant future.

Olympus recognizes that harsh conditions are not ideal for manipulating camera menus, so they’ve brought their Tap Control function back for these new Tough cameras
Olympus Battery Charger
. The camera can be controlled by tapping one of its sides thanks to an internal accelerometer.

Olympus Stylus 1030SW Digital Compact Camera