The Olympus pictured here with a floating strap. Note the black paint that has come off from the front fascia revealing the chrome finishing.
The Olympus Tough µ 1030 SW camera was acquired exactly 2 years ago in October 2008. I have to add that unlike today, there were not many choices for such cameras back then.
What prompted me to get this camera was pretty obvious. It is waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof… basically like its namesake, it is tough.
So did it live up to the expectation?
I used the camera extensively. It goes fishing with me almost every single week. I’ve put it underwater for both still shots and video recordings in both freshwater and saltwater. The Olympus’ survived all that and still works as it had since it was new.
Battery life has also remained about the same.
What about the quality?
When it comes to image and video quality it is quite a different story. In other words it did not live up to my expectations. The 10.1 megapixel is decent enough in terms of size and I do not expect RAW capabilities at the retail price when it was launched.
Put briefly, both still and video images are not good. The subsequent model that replaced this is supposed to be vastly improved though I cannot verify that, as I’ve not had the experience of using one.
So after abusing the Olympus Tough for 2 years it is safe to say Olympus did deliver on its promised of making a tough camera. Which is precisely what I wanted, a camera that I did not have to worry at all. Image quality wise though, I hope the replacements did improve.
