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Olympus Tough TG-810: No Surprises Here

Franck Mée
Translator: Catherine Barraclough
March 2, 2011 8:20 AM
The least surprising announcement of the day comes from Olympus with the Tough TG-810 waterproof compact. This robust snapper is designed to replace the µ Tough-8010 which is also waterproof to 10 metres, has a 14 Megapixel sensor and a 5x zoom lens. In fact, if it wasn't for the arrival of a built-in GPS it'd be quite difficult to tell the two models apart.

Olympus Tough TG-810


Olympus Tough TG-810
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The TG-810 is an unsurprising update for two reasons. First of all, it's a logical addition to Olympus' range. While the µ Tough-3000 and µ Tough-6020 have already been replaced by the TG-310 and TG-610 respectively, the µ Tough-8010 still hadn't been updated. Although there were rumours of a TG-810 in the pipeline, waterproof to greater depths that the TG-610's 5 metres, it's only now that the final model has been unveiled.

Next, the camera itself holds no real surprises since the TG-810 is effectively a µ Tough-8010 with a few minor changes. Both models have the same 28-140 mm lens and 14-Megapixel CCD sensor, not to mention the same 720p HD video mode.

Just as Tough

The new camera has a very similar design to the previous model, and there has been no change to its tough credentials. It's waterproof to 10 metres (the Panasonic FT3 can snap at depths of 12 m), shock-resistant to 2 metres, can withstand temperatures as low as -10 °C and up to 100 kg of weight crushing down on it. 

Interestingly, although the press release states that the TG-810 is 'the world's first 100 kg crushproof camera' Olympus iteslf has already released the first crush-resistant camera with the µ 1050 SW, and the first 100 kg crushproof camera was actually the µ Tough-8000!

What's more, this level of resistance is self-evident in a camera that's waterproof to 10 metres, as at this depth, the camera is under pressure equivalent to around 60 kg on each surface. Olympus would be better off promoting that fact that the TG-810 has a VGA screen (the Panasonic FT3 is still stuck at 230,000 dots), a the metal lens cover that protects the lens when the camera's switched off, and a launch price (£270) that's lower than that of its main rival.

Built-in GPS

Apart from the screen, the main new feature is a GPS—a gimmicky feature that's quite popular at the moment. We only hope that the Olympus system will be better than most of the GPS we've seen in recent cameras, as very few are able to find a location in under three minutes, even in wide open spaces, and none of them perform well in town or city centres. However, if the TG-810 does have a really good GPS, it could be a real selling point for outdoor adventurers and off-road hikers.

Most of all though, we hope that Olympus will have seriously improved the start-up time of its high-end waterproof compact, as this was a real problem in the previous generation of Tough cameras. We've just received a TG-310, which seems to start up in under three seconds (compared with 4.6 sec for the µ Tough-3000). Let's hope that's a good sign.

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