Review: Olympus Stylus Tough 8000

© Paul Mozell 2010

A descendant of the Olympus 1040 SW, the new Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 features the camera manufacturer’s expertise in rugged design. It is likely that Olympus has done everything possible to protect the  inner workings of this point-and-shoot camera from water, shock, and pressure; save encasing it in thick rubber. On one vacation day with the family, for example, you could drop this camera from a maximum height of 6.6 feet, dive underwater to 33 feet, absentmindedly leave it in mini-freezer in your hotel room, and run it over with bellman’s cart full of 220 pounds of luggage and still —  be able to make  snapshots and movies.

Design

I tested a gleaming stainless steel model; a black model is available and likely to be less conspicuous. It protects a 12 megapixel camera with a 2.7 inch crisp bright screen, and a lens with 28 – 102mm equivalent in 35mm photography. If given the option to choose between a wider or a longer lens on a compact camera, I’ll always vote for the wide angle. The lens does not protrude from the camera body at any time, and the lens door is a solid piece or material, rather than a leaf-type design, which no doubt contributes to its durability.

There is no optical viewfinder and I would call this an unfortunate omission if not for the fact that the LCD screen is so bright that it can actually be seen in full sunlight. The control buttons, all placed on the back, right side of the camera are tiny, but not so small that someone with average-sized fingers can’t touch the buttons accurately. With the exception of the black lettering on the control dial, all the other printed text is white. On the stainless steel body these graphics are barely visible. The shutter release is positioned just where my index finger wants to go but there is no real gripping surface on the camera. A thin wrist strap is included with the camera and if used, adds some stability.

I have liked Olympus’s user interface/menu design for some time. Each of the Scene menu choices  display a thumbnail photo of ‘landscape’, ‘night scene’, ‘sports’, etc as well as one or two sentences of descriptive text for each preset. The 8000 does a good job of selecting the right combination of F-stop, shutter speed and white balance for each selection. You easily over-ride the flash settings (Auto, On, Fill, and Off), white balance, Display, Exposure Compensation, and Shadow Adjustment. Display mode turns on or off a very useful grid which is great for getting horizons level. I was very pleased to find a live histogram.  Camera mode (selected on the control dial) gives you the most control of  settings. However, most users are likely to be satisfied with the Scene settings day in, day out.

Underwater

When I received the test camera I was most interested in trying out its underwater capabilities. My 8 year old daughter willingly volunteered to serve as a model, and we headed for the swimming pool at the local YMCA. Olympus is careful to warn you about the importance of checking the integrity of the doors to the multi-connection port, and the battery/memory card chamber. Any hairs or detritus that disturbs the seal on the o-rings of the doors could doom the camera.

We made a number of still images and short movies and the results were very pleasing. White balance was about as reasonable as I would have expected, given the mixed light sources in a big swimming pool. Zoom is disabled for movies when the sound recording is on. If you want to shoot at full resolution of 640×480 @ 30 frames/second, use a large capacity xD card. The 1 gig card that I used offered a max recording time of 9 minutes and 23 seconds for a continuous take. You can shoot again immediately, after the memory buffer is cleared.

Image Quality and Test Images

Still image quality is very good from ISO 64 to 400 (selectable in Camera mode) The noise levels at ISO 800 and 1600 are high, but acceptable if you don’t make prints larger than 4×6 inches, and you are content with just capturing an image to record an event. Shoot at the lower sensitivity settings, and you’ll be able to make fine quality prints up to 12×18 inches. I did find some blown out highlights. The following slide show includes images taken at a variety of camera settings. See the captions for details and make your own comparisons. Click the icon at lower right for a full screen show.

Who Is This Camera For?

Rugged as it is, if you have recently wrecked a point and shoot camera by dropping from a modest height, or drowning it, you’re a great candidate. (By the way, no camera is impervious to beach sand.) It would make a great all purpose family camera, as tested by my 8 year old, who easily used it in the swimming pool and outdoors. Planning a rafting trip down the Colorado River or a backcountry skiing trip in the Colorado Rockies? This camera is likely to stand up to a fair amount of abuse. As a day-to-day camera, it is compact enough to easily fit in most purses and jacket pockets, although it may feel a bit heavy in a front pant’s pocket. Image quality is easily on a par with other cameras in this price range.

The free editing and downloading software that comes in-box is similar in many ways to iPhoto, and lets you do image adjustments on the fly on Mac or Windows platforms. The Stylus Touch 8000 cannot take the place of a full digital camcorder on your vacation, but its video image quality and ease of use makes it perfect for grabbing those once-in-a-lifetime shots. In its class of ruggedized point-and-shoot cameras, the Olympus Stylus Touch 8000 is the best I’ve seen.

Price and Availability

Street Price: About $292.00 USA. Available worldwide.

Specifications

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