Fridae

In the realm of rugged point-and-shoots, Olympus' name is always one of the first to come to mind. Being an early pioneer in tough cameras, the Japanese firm has one of the world's hardiest consumer-oriented snappers on the market, the Mju Tough-8000. But if you don't dive to great depths and just want a compact you can safely bring to the beach, the Mju Tough-6010 is an ideal choice. This model succeeds the Mju Tough-6000, and though its upgrades are incremental with the addition of Magic Filters, we did have fun with the camera. Not only did this Olympus emerge from our tests without a scratch, it delivered some shots with nice color, too. That said, we were slightly disappointed with the noise control at mid-ISO sensitivity, while the use of xD-Picture Cards (or microSD card with adapter) just doesn't cut it.

Design

At first glance, you may not be able to tell that the Tough-6010 is a rugged camera. The duo-tone front gives the shooter a more stylish look and the color options available--red, green and gray--should appeal to the young and trendy crowd.

However, don't let its pretty looks deceive you into thinking that this is just another compact shooter. Hold it and the 149g weight tells you this point-and-shoot has some serious internal engineering to prevent the chassis from suffering abuses such as drops or water seepage.

Press the power button on the top of the camera and the metal lens cover on the front slides down to expose the lens. A myriad of buttons are located behind the camera. The zoom lever is near the top, while the mode dial rests below. Both can be easily operated with the thumb. The four-way navigation pad is flanked by four other buttons and are clearly labeled so users shouldn't have a problem identifying them.

What we found to be a flaw was the positioning of the flash. There was more than one occasion when we accidentally blocked it with a finger while taking shots. Olympus could have positioned the flash a tad higher or a bit more toward the lens, though given the limited real estate on the camera, it wouldn't make a big difference anyway.

Features

The highlight of the Mju-6010 is its tough capabilities, and this Olympus can dive to depths of 3m (for a maximum of 2 hours), withstand shocks from drops of 1.5m and operate in minus 10 degrees Celsius environments. We put all these claims to the test by dipping the Tough-6010 in a pool and snapping shots underwater, then dropping it onto concrete surfaces repeatedly, before leaving it in the freezer just to see if it would still work fine after that. We are glad to say that the camera survived the onslaught without a scratch on the surface. That's also probably due to the Scratch Cure coating on the glossy surface which removes minor blemishes caused by rough handling.

While the Tough-6010 hold up well in our tests, it fared average when its specifications were pitted against competing models.