i feel excited with this compact camera especially for Underwater ,although i bought the second hand plus housing.good picture.whenever i go diving i have to use the housing in case something wrong.

when taking macro photo sometime half of the picture litte bit dark.but no problem i use underwater torch or i have to zoom a bit.

it is good camera at the moment while waiting the new series of stylus tg-3

small easy to carry, other than that is fairly useless, DO NOT USE UNDERWATER!!

Camera leaked first time under water, for a sports camera there are too many adjustments and controls, 657 last count. make quick shooting virtually impossible, especially under water. Use your money wisely grasshopper! buy another tougher camera there are many out there

Basically, Olympus has tried to cram too much into the Stylus Tough line. too many options, too many buttons for a sports camera, too many doors with leaky seals for underwater use. Controls are tiny and difficult if not impossible to use with gloves or cold hands. warranty requires sending the camera back to factory every year! (this not listed in warranty literature) My summary impression of this camera line is that it is a RIP-OFF! Not happy, Not satisfied

Similar Products Used:

Hero pro

First U Tough 8000 lasted me less than a week before it let in water on its first trip into the sea less than 1 metre deep. There was no grit or sand in the seal, I just got the warning 'Battery cover open' then it died for good. Ruined my holiday but Olympus customer service were great and believed the camera was imported from Hong Kong by the reputable online retailer who shall remain nameless. Olympus supplied a new camera with a 2 year warranty which has been ok up until last week when I went climbing in Scotland. Customer service was excellent last time, lets see about this time!

Took the camera climbing in Scotland last week, It coped with all the winter weather, being frozen (so the shutter could not close) and being bashed around, but the tap control has packed up and I can no longer take a picture by tapping the back of the camera. To most a useless feature, but when you are climbing with seriously thick gloved hands then this is useful. The on/off button is rather awkward though with gloved hands and the scene selection button has a habbit of turning which is equally difficult to correct with gloved hands. Wish you could turn the flash off in auto mode, as if it's raining you get straeks of light in the photo. Turn it off in any other mode and the shutter speed is so long everything is blurred. In fact most photos are blurred anyway unless you are lucky! Auto focus takes a while and more often than not does not focus on anything.
I shall reserve judgement until Olympus sort this all out, however their customer service (fingers crossed) seems very good, and they are sending me packaging to return the camera to them again.

Tough but poor photos.

Customer Service

1st experience great, supplied new camera. Pending second experience results!

Similar Products Used:

None

real strong against impact
droped it from more than 10 feet one time really hard and kept working after i recharged.

lets moisture in

I bought it on october 2009, for the first couple months it was a great camera until i decided to take some pictures in a pool after an offroad trip, the lens and the lcd display had moisture in them. y kept it in my shorts insidea the pool for a couple of minutes before take the 1st pic when i found out it was fogged.

nice design, great features.

Became waterlogged....even when used correctly.

My husband and I bought this camera to use when kayaking. We live in Florida and do lots of water sports. We have taken the camera on several trips kayaking and have used underwater with no problem. We took it on a cruise with us for a short weekend trip and wanted to use it to take pictures while snorkling. Well the stupid thing would work. We turned it on prior to entering the water and made sure the battery area was locked and we still got water in the camera. The front lens and back LCD display both had water in them. We let the camera dry and now it won't turn on. I'm not too happy and would like to find one that won't do this after a few months of use.

Be aware that Olympus 8000 U are not reliable in Water. I’ve had two failures with two camera’s. BOTH leaked and do not work! Would strongly advise against a purchase.

I bought the Olympus U8000 because of its water depth rating of 10m. I do a lot of diving and other outdoor stuff, canyoning etc. So I thought that a little lightweight number that’s both tough and good to 10m will be useful. When I go the camera the first thing that struck me, as a humble engineer as well as a diver, was the design and size of the seals. To me they instinctively looked lightweight and I was suspicious. O.k. I thought maybe the small seal lip and covers will close tighter on added pressure of 1 Bar.

To cut a long story short; I took the camera in to our pool to shoot a few snaps of the kids. I got 5-6 pic’s in 1.3m Depth, I then went to the deep part, lets say 2m and took a few pictures. Suddenly the screen shows a red warning of battery compartment open. I surface and she has gone blank. I dry it, open it, and there’s a few drops in side. Not flooded, but moisture is in and the LCD has gone. I dried here out slowly for 48 hours. But she was still dead after trying to power her up.

To the credit of the on-line shop I bought it from, after a long e-mail chain and some push they replaced it with a new unit, prior to my holiday to Zanzibar. As an interesting comment one of the staff said “oh yes.....we have had quite a few of these returned....?!?” That did not inspire me with confidence.

On the last day of my holiday .....(yes I did not trust the camera in water until the last day of my trip ?!?) I went to take snaps of my daughter doing a try-dive. I was on the surface with a snorkel. I had no problems and took 15 shots or so. I then decided to get a shot looking at my kid rather than from above, so I dived under to about say 3m at best. I got a few snaps OK. Then I noticed the LCD was simply dead. In the boat I dried her off and opened her up, again no rush of water, just a few drops. I closed her up and rinsed it in fresh water. I did the same 48 hrs plus to dry her out, but she’s still dead.

My summary of good old Olympus U8000.....well I maintain that looking at the seals (which are instinctively not rated to me for 10m...) and the fact that two camera’s failed miserably at less than 3m, then I would strongly advise against anyone buying a U8000 for taking them underwater.

I will no doubt get mine repaired under the warranty. But to be honest I’ve written it off and am fed up at how much grief it’s cost me. So my last energy goes on posting on as many sites as I can to prevent others from similar hassle.

Good luck.

durable, easy to learn, good sequential shots

xD card, weird menus

I've been looking for a rugged camera for whitewater kayaking photos and I've found it! The controls take a bit to learn but once dialed it was easy to use. The sequential shoot function makes for some great still shots of action scenes and takes the worry out of getting the one good shot when conditions limit setup and control. I took about 500 shots the first weekend along with some video and was quite pleased.

take a look at the pics if you want
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14055929@N07/sets/72157622674216352/

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Canon Powershot, Olympus SW 850, Sea Life Micro

Interesting features, panorama is cool, beauty is neat but really softens the photo to much to be worth it.

Poor picture quality, very slow a step down froom some of there former tough series cameras

OK where to begin...I purchased this camera because one of my dogs chewed my 720 sw and cracked the screen. I figured this camera must rock because I was more than happy with the 720. Outdoor pics are great with the 720 but night and indoor sometimes leave something to be desired. With the image stable on pics were not sharp( this is relevant) but can be turned off with the 720. As for the 8000 the image stability is always on so 80% of the pictures were blurred. Anything 400 and over iso was full of noise.pretty much unusable. I only had this camera for 2 weeks before I returned it. I never tried the waterproof aspect of it, so no comment there. I sent my 720 in for a new screen and was told it was lost by UPS. So I did what any rational person would do. I went to Olympus and bought one of the refurbashed 1030 sw cameras for 217 and change. No lie when I got done talking to the Fedex guy the phone rings and it is Olympus. They have the 720 and will replce the screen for 54 dollars. Anyway the 720 took pictures that were 10 times better than the 8000. The 1030 is no dissapointment either. It takes way better pictures than the 8000. Clean and sharp. It is way way faster than the 8000 in every aspect. I do miss the tap control but I would not buy this camera if I had a chance to get a 1030. I was looking at the specs and the 8000 has 1 ed lens? Where the 720 and the 1030 both have 2. Not really sure what it means but it seems to make a difference. I have taken about 200 pictures with the 1030 and even at iso 800 the pictures are nicer than iso 100 with the 8000. Anti blur on the 1030 is better than both of the above mentioned cameras. I would have to give a don't buy for the 8000. I have heard the 6000 is no better so purchase at your own risk.

Customer Service

I would give Olympus an A++ for the way I was treated. I was given an extended 2 year warranty because UPS lost the 720 sw. No fault of theres, but I got it anyway. Also they are refurbashing the 720 sw for 54 dollars again because UPS lost it for a while. It has been a long time since I was treated like I was by Olympus. Again A++ all the way.

Similar Products Used:

720 sw and 1030 sw