Is the Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 a good digital camera option?

[mhthegoblin]

Hi,

I'm after a digital camera. Doesn't have to be too special beyond a) a high resolution (12MP minimum) and b) reliable and likely to last a while. I'm looking into this - Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 14 Megapixel Digital Camera - Silver
5X Optical Zoom - 2.7 LCD Touch Display - Waterproof - SD/SDHC Card Slot - Dual Image Stabilization - Records HD Movies

- do you guys think it'd be appropriate? Any suggestions of an alternative?

Thanks in advance!

 

[KalamMekhar]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120383"

 

[turbo]

What are your needs? After adopting a rambunctious dog and finding it inconvenient to haul around the Canon DSLRs and lenses, I bought a compact digital camera. I settled on Panasonic because of the excellent Leica lenses and impressive optical zoom capabilities. I got the DMC-ZS3, and I'll bet that its replacement is just as nice. The macro performance is especially good, compared to my old Olympus.

 

[cronxeh]

I got my Sony Alpha A230 DSLR for $325. 10 MP, works like a charm, has most functions you'll ever need, great for astrophotography.

 

[zomgwtf]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16830120383"

troll!

 

[KalamMekhar]

troll!

It meets all of his criteria!

 

[Andre]

Maybe check http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinions.asp?prodkey=oly_stylustough8010 and maybe also this

Compact super zoom test

Compact Camera Group Test: Travel Zooms

there are older test but it gives an idea.

 

[mhthegoblin]

Thanks for the replies, guys :)

 

[Andy Resnick]

Like turbo-1, for home/travel I have a panasonic Lumix super zoom, and it's great.

 

[mgb_phys]

Probably the best camera review site http://dpreview.com/

 

[BobG]

Extra emphasis to what turbo said. At this level of camera, the overall quality of each may be equivalent, but each has different strengths. You'll have a hard time finding a compact digital that's good at everything. But, if you match your camera to the type of pictures you expect to take, you're going to wind up with a very good deal for you personally.

Things to consider:

1) Do you want telephoto lenses or wide angle lenses? Not many at this level support extra lenses, but some do. They cost extra, but that capability is there if you shoot a lot of pictures of scenery, such as mountains, etc.

2) Do you want to take action photographs? Even trying to photograph kids can be considered action photos when you start looking at how slow the response time on some cameras are.

3) Do you need a camera that can withstand a rugged lifestyle? The camera you're considering would be a good one in that case.

Probably several other things to consider when trying to match your photography needs to a camera.

Set up your priorities, narrow your choices based on your top priorities, then among the survivors, narrow your choices by your second priority, etc.

For example, I have a Nikon Coolpix P5000. This is great for the pictures I normally take in the mountains and I even have a telephoto lens for it. It's a very frustrating camera when taking photographs of moving objects. You can do it by technique (half pressing the button until you actually want to take the picture and then pushing the button the rest of the way), but it's very hard to take rapid pictures of moving objects. (In fact, they came out with the P5100 less than a year later to speed the camera up at least a little, even if it's still slow).

While I like my camera, if I tended to take a lot of action photos, I'd be severely disappointed - or maybe I'd have mastered the technique better, except that would be pointless since I could have found a much faster camera that would be much easier to master. Meaning you need more than whether other people like a certain kind of camera or not. You have to know what they use it for, as well.