OLYMPUS Tough TG-810

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Olympus Tough TG-810 - PhotoComment

About Olympus Tough TG-810

The idea of having an almost unbreakable camera you can take virtually anywhere appeals to me greatly. It opens up so many possibilities of getting a shot that would have been restricted by the elements otherwise. The Olympus Tough TG-810 is the top of the range camera in the Tough range and is dust proof, 10 meters water proof, 2 meters drop proof, resistant to temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius and 100kg crush proof. So when given the camera to test, my imagination immediately went wild with ideas I’ve long wanted to recreate with my DSLR but was unable to because of it’s “allergies” to water. Shooting underwater with an SLR can be done with underwater housings, but often, those housings cost as much as the camera inside them making them a lot of money spent on a type of shooting I only want to experiment with and rarely do. Waterproof compacts are quite affordable considering the strength you’re getting and so I thought would be a great alternative. Unfortunately I was quite wrong, but I’ll get to that later.

First Impressions

When first holding the Olympus Tough, you notice how the build lives up to its name. It’s heavy for it’s size, no doubt a result of the strength of its chassis. The LCD is covered in a very think layer of scratch proof glass. Everything about it says “abuse me!” I was sad to see a higher amount of plastic in it’s construction compared to Olympus’ previous Tough range topper, the 8010. Virtually the entire outer structure of the 8010 was made of metal. On the 810, many of the panels are now plastic. But despite that, it still feels strong, but one can’t help but feel that the previous model would be more resilient. There is only one opening to the internals of the camera, where you can access the battery, charger port and SD card slot. This was done to minimise the entry points for water into the camera, and would do a great job keeping water at bay with two rubber o-rings to create a tight seal.

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