Olympes Tough 1030SW Waterproof Digital Camera Most of the time, waterproof digital cameras are quite hard to find. To make a waterproof digital camera costs more and not that many people need the feature. For those who absolutely need a waterproof digital camera, the usual solution is to get waterproof housing to protect the camera underwater.
The Olympus Tough 1030SW is a camera that is an underwater digital camera as standard. The camera itself looks pretty much like a standard digital camera, with the usual LCD screen on the back and set of buttons. I’m most impressed at how elegant a camera intended for underwater use can look.
Here are some of the standard features of the Olympus camera
10.1 megapixels
3648 x 2736 maximum picture resolution
640 x 480 movie mode
xD picture card support
3.6x optical zoom
5x digital zoom
Focus: 50cm to infinity
2.7 inch LCD monitor
Firstly 10.1 pixels is plenty for most pictures, not enough for professionals, but you might yourself using less than this for pictures of holidays, trips away and family photos. The picture resolution goes pretty high.
An added bonus is the video mode, that can shoot 640 x 480 movies. This saves having a second camera for taking movies and expands the capabilities to movie making. The picture quality of the movies is not that great, but good enough for anything that is uploaded for viewing on the internet, and can even be tolerated when played back over a TV.
There is a long list of shooting modes, which should satisfy most people’s tastes and you can just flip through the modes till you find the one that suites the environment or just looks the way you’d like the picture to look.
The batteries are custom and need the included recharger to charge. Not a bad thing, just make sure you take the charger along for longer journeys or an extra for a long day of snorkeling.
At a touch under four hundred dollars, the price is not bad. The feature set is above the average, and being a waterproof digital camera just tops it off.