Fun in the Sun: Olympus Stylus Tough 6000

Seven waterproof digital cameras

<<Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 | Olympus Stylus 550WP>>

Olympus Tough 6000

Easily the sportiest looking camera in the roundup, the Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 has more of the stuff you want when you're looking for a rugged camera. It's waterproof up to 10 feet, withstands a fall from five feet, and can handle a freeze down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10C). Its 10-megapixel sensor sits under a 3.6x image-stabilized lens ranging from 28-102mm equivalent.


Waterproof:	10 feet
Shockproof:	5 feet
Freezeproof:	14°F (-10°C)
Crushproof:	N/A
Resolution:	10.0 Megapixels
Lens:	3.60x zoom (28-102mm eq.)
LCD size:	2.7 inch
ISO:	50-1600
Shutter:	4-1/1000
Max Aperture:	3.5
Mem Type:	xD/Mini SD
Battery:	Custom LiIon
Dimensions:	3.8x2.5x0.9in (95x63x22mm)
Weight:	6.0 oz (170 g)
MSRP:	$300
Availability:	01/2009

Look and feel. With physical similarities to the Panasonic TS1 and Olympus Tough 8000, the Tough 6000 has style cues similar to wetsuit design, and would look right at home in a surf shop. Available in white, blue, and yellow, the Olympus 6000 has a slight grip out front, and the raised mode dial on the back serves as a good thumbgrip.

Made of metal and plastic, the Olympus 6000 weighs 6 ounces (170g), and because of the relatively thin profile, it feels good and solid. A large standoff surrounds and protects the lens opening, and a brushed metal door slides open when you power up the Olympus Tough 6000.

Controls. The power and shutter buttons on the Tough 6000 are of better quality than the Olympus 550WP, as are the buttons on the back; more like the buttons on the TS1 and 8000. They're a little smaller than the TS1's but I didn't find them terribly hard to use (hint: just angle your thumb a bit).

Unlike the mushy ones on some other cameras in this roundup, the Tough 6000's shutter button has a very clear tactile distinction between the half and full-press. That makes starting autofocus and committing to the shot as easy as it should be.

The mode dial disappointed me somewhat. Because the six settings are spread out over the whole circumference of the dial, the camera easily moves to a position in-between stops, rather than snicking positively to one or another setting. On the TS1, they're bunched up closer and each movement is hard enough to begin that you automatically move to the next setting. It's a little odd to explain, but you'll know what I mean if you use the camera enough.

Olympus has moved to a well-designed Function menu that's fairly similar to Canon's, with oft-used settings on the left and their options lined up across the bottom. Pressing the OK/FUNC button in the middle brings up the menu, then confirms selections.

Pressing the Display (DISP) button brings up a Date/Time screen, complete with battery icon, something I always enjoy on a digicam. Another neat trick that several Olympus cameras have performed is the flashlight function. The bright white AF assist lamp next to the flash can be set to serve as a flashlight, activated when you press and hold the DISP button for about three seconds.

If that's not cool enough for you, the Stylus Tough 6000 can be controlled by tapping it when you turn on the Tap Control feature. Designed to be used on the ski slopes while wearing gloves, Tap Control can be very cool. I'm only annoyed when accidentally jostling the camera activates a control. Even if you have the feature turned off, tapping twice on the top of the Tough 6000 brings up the Tap Control On/Off menu.

Still, when you want it on, tapping the right side of the camera adjusts the flash mode, cycling in the direction of the tap with each tap. It feels like you're actually moving the highlight with the physical energy of each tap (...which, of course, you are). Tapping on the left cycles through the Macro modes, tapping on the LCD switches to Playback mode and tapping on the top confirms selections. I found no need for Tap Control in a summer setting, but I can see how useful it could be when wearing ski gloves or mittens in the wintertime.

Shooting. Though I expected the Tough 6000 experience to be as good as the 8000, but without the extra features, I was disappointed. The Tough 6000 is slower than the 8000, reminding me more of the 550WP and 1050SW than the Tough 8000.

Autofocus lag time is actually longer than the 550WP, which surprised the heck out of me. Overall, the Tough 6000 is a much better experience than the 550WP, but that AF lag can be rough. We're talking 1.24 seconds at wide and 1.4 seconds at telephoto. That's a long time. Average among point and shoot digital cameras we've tested is closer to 0.6 seconds. That's not at all what I expected from this sweet looking digital camera. Prefocus shutter lag is much better, though, so if you routinely half-press the shutter button, you'll be much happier with the 0.158 second shutter lag.

Startup time is also painfully slow, taking 4.3 seconds, and shutdown takes 2.5 seconds; the latter's no big deal, but waiting 4.3 seconds before you can take a shot is too long, especially for a camera that I'd be expecting to capture my next outdoor adventure.

These numbers derived from laboratory testing explain my frustration with the Tough 6000 in the field. I can see that it's related to the Panasonic TS1 and Tough 8000, but it's just not acting anything like it.

Another unfortunate problem I haven't seen in awhile is that the Tough 6000 freezes the screen as it tries to focus. That makes capturing the perfect expression, posture, or moment very difficult. Other cameras in the roundup do this for a flash, but in low light, the Tough 6000's screen freezes for a very long time -- seconds -- before returning to live view.

One outstanding feature on the Olympus 6000 is its HyperCrystal LCD, whose high-contrast screen makes framing your images in bright sunlight a sincere pleasure. It's not always tonally accurate, since it's high contrast, but it requires absolutely no squinting, quite a different experience from the 550WP. The Tough 8000 shares this screen as well.

Click to view movie. AVI player required.

VGA movie. Unfortunately, you cannot zoom while recording. Note the large water drop at the end. Something on the lens kept the drop appearing right there. It's a good idea to bring a microfiber cloth along in a ziplock bag for such an occasion, to get skin oils and sunscreen off the lens. (Click image to download 16MB AVI file.)

I also like the Olympus 6000's 28-102mm lens, offering a nice wide-angle view, though it's a little short at the telephoto end when compared to most of the other cameras in this roundup. Zoom is slow to start after you press the button, taking what feels like a full second, though it might only be a half.

That the lens is image-stabilized is also excellent, so there's a plus as well.

Image quality is pretty good for the category, though there's the usual softening in the corners. Geometric distortion is very well controlled, so your buildings are liable to come out straight rather than curved at wide angle. And chromatic aberration is surprisingly moderate at wide angle, a little bright, but unlikely to turn up in any but the brightest prints.

Conservatively, the Tough 6000 will produce reasonably sharp 11x14-inch prints. 13x19-inch prints are usable, but not excellent. And at these sizes, those soft corners still show up as soft.

Overall, while the Olympus Tough 6000 makes good images, its slow functioning trips up the flow a little more than we like.

How the Olympus Tough 6000 fared:

Your intended use

Purpose: The slow autofocus makes the Tough 6000 better for bright daylight shooting, with indoor shooting less desirable. Its 10-foot submersion limit puts it in the swimming rather than the diving category.
Kids: In theory, the Tough 6000 should be easy to operate, but the loose dial and slow AF might frustrate the uninitiated. The excellent HyperCrystal LCD on the Tough 6000 makes short work of framing your images, even in bright sunlight. It's pretty amazing.
Ruggedness: The Olympus Tough 6000 is shockproof from five feet, so it'll take a little punishment.
Cold: Freezeproof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10C), the Olympus 6000 can hang comfortably outside the ski lodge with most of the higher-end cameras in this roundup.

Your expected output size

Print sizes: The Olympus 6000 offers considerably better 10-megapixel sensor performance than its less expensive brother, the 550WP. Though there's a little more chroma noise in the detailed areas, at least the detail is there, and after a little cleaning, you can get a good quality 13x19; but I'd stick to 11x14 straight out of the camera. Not bad for a waterproof camera, though. ISO 400 shots make usable 8x10s, which isn't bad either.
Landscape: As I said about the Tough 8000, the lower-than-average barrel distortion and reasonable sharpness across the frame make the Olympus Tough 6000 a good choice for the occasional landscape shot, as does its 28mm lens.

Versatility

This time it's not the image quality as much as the shutter lag and low-light autofocus behavior of the Olympus 6000 that keeps it from being an all-purpose digital camera. It's definitely one that will serve you reasonably well on a wet vacation if you learn to anticipate the slow shutter release, but the shutter lag and startup times really are troubling for an everyday shooter.

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