By Alexandra Savvides
26/03/2009
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,44458795p,00.htm

Olympus is probably better-known for its rugged point-and-shoots, which underwent a revamp earlier this year. The Japanese company ditched the SW-suffix and replaced it with a Tough-prefix as it felt that using the Tough word was more apt in associating its hardy cameras with the kind of conditions they can survive in.

The Mju Tough-8000 appears to replace the Mju 1050SW, but considering its extreme rugged specifications, it is probably more appropriate as a successor for the popular Mju 1030SW. The point-and-shoot took every physical punishment we dished out without flinching, though we wished the image quality could have been better.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com.au. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia.

Design

Unlike the casing of one of its predecessors from last year, the Mju 1050SW, the Tough-8000 definitely looks like the sort of camera you could put through a car wash, slam up against a wall and drop from a considerable height without damaging as much as a fingernail. It takes its stylistic cues from the Mju 1030SW, sharing a similar sort of aesthetics and build quality. The lens at the front of the camera is protected by a sliding metal cover which makes a satisfying sword-like swoosh as it retracts into the body, but this is as exciting as it gets--at least on the outside.

There's a myriad of chrome and silver around the entire body and the 2.7-inch LCD screen at the back is flanked by brushed steel--ideal for showing up all the scratches and bumps from your subterranean adventures. Depending on which country you buy the camera from, the Tough-8000 comes in silver, aquamarine and/or black.

Features And Performance

In terms of rugged cameras, the Tough-8000 is about as hardy as you can get. Let's list off the limitations to start with. Waterproof to 10m, shockproof from 2m, freezeproof to minus 10 degrees Celsius, and crushproof up to 100kg.

Of course, no test of a rugged camera would be complete without the requisite dropping, throwing and smashing session. The Tough-8000 stood up to everything we threw at it, even if it came away with a couple of indentations on the lens cover and scratches galore across the back. Burst shooting mode was relatively impressive for a compact camera, with the shooter managing around nine frames (at reduced resolution) in sequence before buffering to the card.

Speaking of snow conditions, the Tough-8000 features tap control which is designed for skiers who want to be able to shoot photos without removing their gloves. This was something present on previous models and the version that appears in the Tough-8000 is identical, according to the company.

Inside that curious lens casing a wide-angle 28mm lens with 3.6x optical zoom and an Olympus technology called Dual Shakeproof for image stabilization. It's all starting to sound incredibly similar to the 1030SW, except that the Tough-8000 now has the bonus of two more megapixels (12 rather than 10). The LCD screen has also been upgraded with a brighter panel to cater for high glare situations such as being in snow.

The Tough-8000 comes only with four shooting modes: A fully automatic mode dubbed iAuto, a program mode denoted by a camera icon where you can change ISO and white balance settings, preset scene modes; and this curious inclusion called Beauty mode. Pictures taken in this mode will automatically be adjusted the image to remove blemishes and unsightly dark circles, and generally smoothen out the skin tone. Note that shots in the Beauty mode will automatically reduce the resolution to a 2-megapixel image.

Unlike a couple of its other competitors such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1, there is no HD video-recording feature available. The Olympus camera can capture only VGA-quality clips at 30 frames per second. To our disappointment the Tough-8000 still uses the xD-Picture Card format, but there is a microSD card adapter provided in the box.

Image Quality

From observing our shots, the Tough-8000 was perfectly capable of delivering some nice and accurate colors in most shooting situations. The flash was another issue entirely. It was so bright it completely washed out our subjects. While this might be an advantage for underwater photography, above the water everything looked ghostly.

There's a really prominent issue with chromatic aberration, as fringing exhibited itself in both purple and cyan guises. It showed up a lot more toward the corners of the frame and generally produced a soft effect. Other pictures also exhibited this "dreamy" look, except most of the time it appeared as if the camera had not focused properly on the scene. Noise was also prevalent at most ISO levels, and while it's not uncommon for a compact to have these issues, it was quite pronounced on the Tough-8000. The amount of colored noise was rather prominent from ISO 400. By ISO 1,600, it was more noise than actual image.

The Beauty mode worked, but only in controlled situations. We found that it refused to beautify an image that deviated from (what we assumed was) a standard photo. For example, if there were multiple faces in the frame at one time the Tough-8000 refused to apply the desired effect. It did remove blemishes and smoothened out skin tones to an extent. However, we found that using flash made every subject appear ghost-like, so no amount of post-processing could inject some color back in.

Conclusion

While the Tough-8000 may be the most rugged camera on the market, this doesn't mean it's the best in terms of image quality. We were disappointed with the general lack of clarity that the photos exhibited, and the amount of noise and chromatic aberration present. We were expecting better shooting mode capabilities such as more manual overrides and perhaps even the inclusion of HD video. We eagerly await the arrival of the yet-to-be-reviewed Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 and the Canon PowerShot D10 to see how they compare to the Tough 8000.