Perfect "wet" camera you can get

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great underwater photos, simple, durable, water wicks off perfectly

Cons: Sinks fast, lens cover could be better

The Bottom Line: 
If you need a waterproof camera that a 3year old can beat up, this is your camera.

Author's Review
My wife and I had been looking for a camera to take with us boating, swimming and various other wet activities. We saw some older "wet" models at the store for an attractive price, however when we saw the Olympus tough-8000, we fell in love. The tough-8000 is great looking, great performing and all around awesome!

With most "wet" digital cameras you have the depth rating of either 10ft or 33ft - this camera has the 33ft rating. On top of that, it can withstand falls from 6ft, 220lbs of crush force and freezing temps down to 14F. So far I have tested waterproofing and shock resistance - both have performed very well. I have thrown my camera into the pool countless time, even with the video recording.

The picture quality is quite good for a waterproof 12MP camera - it seems to get the color tempratures right even with the various 'blues' of water. The image stabilization is also very good, I can move this camera around a lot and the image holds steady. So far no blurry camera shake pictures.

One thing that has me worried is the lens cover. I'm not sure why Olympus made a sliding cover, I would have expected no cover. So far it has not been problematic, but that may change when we go to the beach and get it dirty. Other than that, I'm not worried about any other part of the camera breaking.

A couple other things I like about the camera are:
-water wicks, or beads, off of the very nicely
-underwater sound is very good
-simple navigation and usability