Olympus Tough TG-1 Digital Camera Review

The Olympus Tough TG-1 digital camera can survive any summer adventure with its 12 megapixel, waterproof, shockproof and dustproof design, full HD video recording and more for only $400. Matt Mira and Neal Brennan check it out on Gadget Pr0n.

What You Need To Know

• The Olympus Tough TG-1 has similar specs to the Nikon CoolPix AW100 but with the added crush-proof and dust-proof features.
• The digital camera is pretty light and weighs about half a pound.
• The buttons are a little cramped on the back.
• The doors for the battery and ports are rubber sealed to make sure no liquid or dust gets in.
• The TG-1 is waterproof up to 40 feet, can be dropped up to six feet and can survive up to 220 lbs of pressure.
• Even after these extreme conditions, the camera is not phased one bit.
• That said, the ruggedness is pretty much on par with other rugged cameras we've tested.
• There's not much more you can do to make it more rugged, short of an external housing.
• Overall, it's as rugged as advertised.
• The camera really sounds out in picture quality.
• The lens has a maximum aperture of 2.0, which is the first for a rugged camera.
• This basically means more life can come in and the result is some really good low light photography.
• The ISO sensitivity is a lot higher than its competition, which helps with the low light as well.
• The sensor is 12 megapixel, which is pretty low.
• The lens has an adapter to add different lens attachments like telephoto or fisheye, which is another feature we haven't seen on rugged cameras.
• All the lens attachments from Olympus feature the same ruggedness as the camera.
• The camera has a really good shooting performance.
• The time from turning on and your first shot is about 2 seconds.
• After that, you get about one shot every second and just a hair longer for photos with flash.
• While shooting burst mode, you can get 5 frames per second at full resolution.
• If you down-res to 3 megapixels, you can shoot up to 60 fps.
• The built-in GPS worked really well and is a great feature for cameras like this.
• The downside is that it's buried a little bit in the settings so you can't easily access it.
• The GPS stays on when you turn the camera off to keep tracking you.
• We wish you could switch it off to save battery.

Price

• $399

Rating

• 4 Seals of Approval out of 5. (How do we rate gadgets?)
• The Olympus Tough TG-1 is one of the best rugged cameras on the market.
• The low light photos really make it stand out from the rest.
• The ruggedness is as good as you're going to get.
• That said, it's on the high end as far as price goes, so it's hard to recommend this when the Nikon AW100 is only $250.

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