Olympus Stylus Tough-6000 Waterproof Digital Camera (Blue)

A worthy upgrade from 7xxSW

The Stylus Tough 6000 is the second Olympus waterproof camera I've got. I got the original 720SW, it survived quite a few adventures and continues its faithful service with a friend. I was ready...Read complete review

The Stylus Tough 6000 is the second Olympus waterproof camera I've got. I got the original 720SW, it survived quite a few adventures and continues its faithful service with a friend. I was ready for an upgrade.

There were two main reasons I upgraded from the 720sw. One was the wide angle lens 28mm vs 35-38mm on it. The other was hopefully longer battery life. I found the 720sw's battery life to be anemic at best.

I considered the 1030sw but decided to try out the new generation of sensor, CCD image stabilization and tap control. The Stylus Tough 8000 was also a contender but I didn't need the extra hardened casing or expense. This has the same rating as the 720SW which survived everything I threw at it and now comes in three attractive colors. I got the blue one.

Overview

Pulling the camera out of the box and playing with it there were several notable improvements over the previous generation. It's not quite as heavy and uses more plastics than the 720SW, more similar to the 760SW. The lens has a larger more reinforced housing probably to accommodate the wider angle.

The buttons have been improved. They stick out more from the surface and have a very positive "click" to them. There is much more clearance with the shutter release which is nice. Your less likely to turn the thing off instead of trying to take a picture.

There is the welcome addition of the control wheel. It is quick access to major features. Starting from the blue triangle (play) and going clockwise you have:
iAuto - Intelligent auto, camera attempts to guess what scene mode (if any) to use or just use the automatic modes.
The picture of the camera (which might be mistaken for play) is now the traditional automatic mode which oddly enough gives you more controls (like the tap control).
SCN - Lets you select from a variety of scene modes
Beauty Mode - Takes longer to boot up, mainly used for portraits. Requires face detection to work properly. After you take the picture the camera spends about 10 seconds processing the image applying a smoothing and contrast routine to make skin look nicer.
Movie Mode is next and that brings us back to play.

The other buttons are pretty standard, looks like you have three ways to access your playback now. The play setting on the dial, the play button on the back and the tap control (more later).

The DISP button has been beefed up, you can now access basic shooting info (WB, FSTOP, Shutter speed), push it again and you get the histogram.

The screen is vastly improved. One of the real weak points on the 7xx series was the screen wasn't sharp. You could take a great picture but couldn't tell if it was sharp or not. This was especially maddening because you really didn't know before you took the shot what your shutter speed was so you didn't know if it was just the screen or really a blurry picture. With the new screen its much better. For a bonus your shutter speed and Fstop get flashed when you do the focus lock.

Tap Tap
Something new is the Tap control. If not in iAuto mode you can change commands by tapping on the camera. Tapping on the left hand side brings up the macro options, macro, super macro or super lighted macro. I didn't think people did serious macro photography with sports cameras...

Tapping on the side again cycles through the settings. Double tapping saves the setting you have selected.

Tapping on the right lets you control the flash (auto, fill, none, redeye).

Tapping on the back lets you enter play mode which is cool. You can then tap left or right to scroll through your pictures. Tap the back again to get out of play mode. Very nice.

Easily accessing flash controls (to force a fill flash or cancel a flash for ambient only) and play by tapping is a excellent feature.

Going Diving
Not in the pool (though you could) but menu diving. Olympus has improved the menus to a degree. At the end of the day they are pretty much set up the same, they just now have pretty 3D icons and transitions between screens. On the old OLY you had the impression the processor was not current generation, now you have the impression they have CPU cycles to burn.

One area that is notably different is the panorama function. It now has its own icon in the main setup. There are several new options for shooting panos to have them combined in the camera as well as a new onscreen guide. When you use the new in camera 1 feature you get a dot and crosshairs to line up to guide your picture taking. In camera 2 and in PC modes still give you the old horizon and boxes as your guide.

Get your Light On
A nice feature is the inclusion of the LED flashlight. If you hold down the display button for a few seconds it kicks on a LED light about the same as keychain lights. It runs for around 20-30 seconds. Once on its not that easy to turn off, you have to hold the button a few seconds.

Shooting performance
Shooting performance seems to be improved. It locks onto targets faster (but still not as fast as others). The face lock is now integrated so it automatically detects and focuses for faces. Even has a smile detector where it won't fire till it gets a smile.

Image quality aside from adding a few megapixels in resolution (no big deal) is improved. Images are sharper, noise is better controlled (key for small cameras). Seems to have a bit more dynamic range in the photos.
It is a noticeable improvement, even in good light. So the answer of "will this let me take better pictures than my old 7xx?" is "Yes".

It's got a wide variety of ISO settings and resolutions (10MP, 5MP, 3MP, 2MP). Not all ISO's and resolutions are available in each mode. The high ISO modes have reduced resolution which is fine.

The CCD shift image stabilization gives you better performance than just the ISO boost. It's still not magic but it does compensate some for hand tremors.

If taking the finest pictures possible with a compact camera is your goal then this probably isn't the camera for you. There are cheaper/better/faster cameras out there. Its faster than previous generations but still pretty slow in starting up, locking onto the target and refreshing after the shot. This is one of the complains people have about point and shoot cameras and this camera is no exception. My 2+ year old Fuji F-40 blows it away in all speed departments.

The main reason you would buy this camera remains its toughness and versatility. If you need the go anywhere, do anything and not worry about it camera this is the one for you. I used mine biking, Kayaking, at the beach, climbing, hiking, swimming and in monsoon rains in SE Asia and its still works great. I expect this to be the same.

Video
Video performance has been improved to a good degree. The old camera often washed out in light and had a magenta cast to it. it was also limited to 15fps. Gave an old home movies quality to the video.

The improved sensor on this camera gives much better video qualtiy, you also now have the option for 15fps. But there is a catch. At full resolution (640x320) and 30fps your limited to 30 seconds of video. I think this is a limitation of the write speed of the card (XD strikes again). I'm using the type M cards. You may have better results from the M+. Anything other than full rez full motion will give you as much recording time as the card. However the compression routine they use is not as efficient as others. Compared to a Fuji I use it takes twice as much space for the same quality.

Accessories
One area of unexpected improvement was the manual. The layout and whatnot is pretty much the same but they have separate manuals for different languages. Not an all in one.

Alas when it comes to cables they have still yet to grow a brain. The video out and USB cables that plug into it have a proprietary tip on them, so don't loose it. If your smart get a card reader for file transfer. Much faster and easier on the camera.

The media used still only half a brain. It primarily uses the XD format which is slow, small and expensive compared to other types. With an adaptor (not included) you can use the Micro SD cards from your cell phone, if you remembered the tweezers...
Why they couldn't take regular SD cards + XD Cards like Fuji can I don't know.

It uses the Li-50B which is a bit thicker than the Li-42 of the previous series. Claimed battery life is at least 1/3 greater. My initial observations are that you'll get somewhere around 200 shots/charge in mixed use (some screen, some playing some flash). This is a lot better than the 7xx.

So in summary

PRO's
Waterproof/Dust Proof/Freeze and shock and sand resistant.
Significant User interface improvements from previous generations
Tap Control
Better screen
LED flashlight
Better Image quality and stabilization than previous generations

Cons
Image quality/performance/speed not up to other cameras at the same price point.
xD/MicroSD cards only
proprietary cables.

Conclusion
My conclusion on this one is the same as the last. If you want a decent picture taker that you can take pictures anywhere with this is an excellent choice. The years have made some good improvements that reduced the previous generations shortcomings. A worthy upgrade if you can use some of the new features and an excellent buy if your getting this type of camera for the first time.