Olympus Tough 3000 Review

The shockproof, waterproof and freezeproof Olympus Tough 3000 is an affordable solution to capture all of life’s surprises.The Olympus 3000 offers [ib] software, an integrated photo browsing and organising software.

The Olympus Tough 3000 shoots gorgeous 720p HD videos using a dedicated one-touch button, so you’ll always capture the scene. Playback is also a breeze.

Now, you’ll be the hit of the party or any family function when you proudly display your brilliant images and videos on high-definition televisions. Simply connect the camera to an HDTV with an HDMI™ cable, which can be purchased separately at any consumer electronics store. With HDMI Control, you can use your HDTV’s remote to control playback functions and navigate the camera’s menus from the comfort of your favorite couch.

Olympus Tough 3000 AF Tracking for Friends and Man’s Best Friend

AF Tracking technology locks your fast-moving subject in focus, and continuously adjusts focus and brightness. This enables you to keep in focus fast-moving and unpredictable subjects like snowboarders on your favorite mountain, tropical fish while snorkeling or children at play anywhere in the great outdoors to capture the perfect shot. There’s even a specially designed AF Tracking “Pet Mode” for animal lovers.

Express Your Inner Artist with Magic Filter

In-camera Art Filters debuted on Olympus E-System DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras last year. Similar technology, called Magic Filter, has been developed for the new camera. The Magic Filter enables the user to enhance and customize images as they’re being captured. This translates into more fun and flexibility as customization is no longer limited to using expensive and time-consuming computer software.

The new Magic Filter includes:

* Pop Art – Enhance and saturate colors to create vivid, high-impact pictures that express the joyful, lighthearted feeling of the Pop Art style of the 1960s;
* Pin Hole – Reduce the peripheral brightness of an image as though it were shot through a pin hole, connecting the viewer intimately with the subject at the center;
* Fish-Eye – Emulate the wide-angle of a fish-eye lens by taking extremely wide, hemispherical images and magnifying the center of the frame; and

* Drawing – Turn your image into a sketch outline for children to color.

Nothing Can Shock This Tough Camera

Afraid the mountain wind might sweep a camera out of your hands and dash it on the rocks below? Never fear, the camera, available in fun and sporty red, pink, blue and green, can withstand a five-foot drop thanks to the Stylus Tough series’ shock-absorbing technology, which minimizes the impact on the lens and circuitry.

Good:
•    Compact design
•    Relatively stylish for a rugged camera
•    Very bright LCD screen (both a help and a hindrance though)
•    Wide-angle lens
•    Shockproof, Waterproof, Freezeproof

Bad:
•    Image quality not fantastic
•    Still a little expensive for what you get
•    Very bright flash

Point-Dunk-and-Shoot Cameras

Stylus Tough series cameras perform as well underwater as they do on land because their lightweight, yet durable exteriors are matched with interior rubber gaskets and O-rings to seal out the elements. The camera can be submerged up to 10 feet underwater. The inclusion of four preset underwater scene modes makes this camera perfect for taking photos while swimming, snorkeling or simply having worry-free fun in the pool. It can also capture HD movies underwater. The camera features a water-repellent lens coating to prevent water droplets from forming on the lens and enabling you to get crystal-clear shots no matter how wet the shooting environment.

Freezeproof for Arctic Adventures

Whether you’re in the arctic tundra or building a snowman in your backyard, the camera can still perform when the temperature dips well below freezing (14 degrees Fahrenheit; -10 degrees Celsius). Stylus Tough cameras continue to enable you to capture great images in freezing situations where most traditional cameras would fail.

Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Captures It All

The camera features a 3.6x wide-angle optical zoom (28-102mm equivalent in 35mm photography, f3.5-5.0) so that even more of the subject makes it into each shot – perfect for underwater photography. The lens does not protrude from its body so it is further protected from harsh conditions.

Cut Out the Blur with Dual Image Stabilization

Dual Image Stabilization combines two technologies – mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization – to provide one powerful anti-blur solution for capturing great images whether the photographer or the subject is moving. Olympus’ mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization keeps images sharp by adjusting the internal image sensor to compensate for camera movement, even in low-light conditions when shutter speeds are slower. Additionally, Digital Image Stabilization freezes the action with high ISO sensitivity and fast shutter speeds that prevent blurry images often caused by a moving subject.

Hit Them with Your Best Shot: Tap Control

The Stylus Tough cameras can be controlled with a simple tap on their top, back or sides, which is made possible thanks to their internal 3D accelerometer that detects the direction of the force on the camera’s body. In adverse climates, Tap Control ensures fast adjustment of settings even if you are wearing gloves that make pressing traditional buttons nearly impossible.

12 Megapixels for Superior Image Quality

The camera offers a 12-megapixel image sensor enabling consumers to achieve consistently sharp and vivid images when producing large-format prints or cropping/enlarging a portion of an image.

Can’t Hide with Face Detection!

Portrait and group shots make family reunions live beyond the short event, and with Face Detection you’ll capture even the shyest relatives. The camera detects up to 16 faces within the frame and automatically focuses and optimizes exposure to capture sharp, brilliant portraits and group shots. Thanks to the unrivaled durability of the Stylus Tough series, you’ll capture amazing photos even if your next family reunion is at a national park, a water park or a ski slope!

Intelligent Auto Thinks for You

Skating at night? You won’t be the last one on the ice setting your camera. Intelligent Auto Mode automatically identifies what you are shooting (i.e., Portrait, Night + Portrait, Landscape, Macro and Sports) and adjusts the camera’s settings to capture the best quality results. First-time users can jump into this quick and hassle-free feature that does the thinking for them and produces incredible images.

Broaden Your Horizons with In-Camera Panorama

The places you can take Stylus Tough cameras – the rocky terrain of the Grand Canyon, the arctic glaciers of Alaska or the volcanic sand beaches of Hawaii – are locations where you want to capture as much of the scene as you can. In-Camera Panorama mode makes it easy by capturing three images and stitching them together to create one amazing panoramic picture. Simply press the shutter button and slowly pan across a panoramic scene. The second and third images will be captured automatically and stitched together with the first image – resulting in one seamless panorama-size picture. To create the ultimate panoramic picture, consumers can use the OLYMPUS [ib] Software to stitch up to 10 images together.

TruePic™ III Image Processor

Olympus developed its exclusive TruePic III image processor for the demanding performance of digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras. Olympus’ enhanced TruePic III Image Processor produces crystal-clear photos using all the pixel information for each image to deliver superior picture quality with more accurate colors, true-to-life flesh tones and faster processing speeds. TruePic III also captures crisp, clear images at high ISO settings, which are traditionally associated with increasing image noise or producing grainy photos.

Cnet writes:
“The Olympus mju Tough-3000 can go places other cameras can’t, yet it doesn’t cost a great deal more than an ordinary digital snapper with similar specs. It’s smart, practical and tough, but its drawbacks are its slightly clumsy controls and below-par image quality.

Photographyblog writes:
“This camera is an all-action camera that ultimately suffers from being built to a budget price-point. If you can stomach the user interface and so-so image quality, it still makes a very versatile family snapper, but we’d advise spending a little more to avoid the Mju Tough 3000′s problems.”

Photoxels writes:
“The camera is a point-and-shoot digital camera that is ideal for those who spend lots of time at the pool, on the beach, on the ski slope, on the boat, scuba diving, surfing the waves, trekking the rough outdoors, or on other less than ideal environmental conditions where you would normally leave your digital camera at home.”

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