This camera is the one camera I can bring anywhere! It is fast in shutter speed and can take multiple shots, don't have any delay between shots. Tested it out on our cruise to Alaska and it took the best pictures! There was cold weather and wet weather, never missed a beat. This is the 3rd Olympus camera that I have owned and by far the best. Battery life is also much better! You will enjoy the camera if you get one!

very good camera, my best buy for any camera, very easy to use complete

I just got my new Olympus TG-2 iHS and haven't had much time to play with it. So far, I love it! It is very user-friendly and easy to use! Takes great pictures, too!

I have had the camera now several weeks. Really impressed. Easy to use. Great photos. The zoom is incredible .
This is by far the best camera I've ever owned.

Curt Maxwell. M.D.

I bought the TG-2 as an all around camera. For that purpose to works great. We went on a scuba diving trip to Bonaire. I used the camera on both day and night dives as is without a housing. I used it with and without flash. I was very pleased with the results. At night I pre-focused using the flashlight and then turned the beam away to take the shot. Got some great octopus pictures at night. The manometer appears accurate and displays a warning that you are getting too approaching the maximum depth (at .40 feet). It remained dry when used down to 45 feet.

It was nice that I could use the same camera to take underwater and normal pictures. I also took under water videos.

4 Stars because of the audible noise during video. zooming and focusing both create sounds. I am still very pleased with its performance as a camera.

i have a Stylus 1030sw before this one.
It`s a great update. Now i can make HD video with this one !! Nice !!
The only thing missing with this camera is a carry case when the camera have a teleconverter on it, Make it !!

This camera feels good in your hands. It's a great size and has just enough bulk to it to make it feel well built. I've taken this camera out on a number of outings now in varying conditions. The auto setting amazes me every time with how great it can make the images for you on the fly. This camera is a great turn on and snap a great picture kind of camera. With that said, the built in effect settings are also really awesome and fun to play around with. Super Macro Microscopic Mode is a little tricky to get to work - but when you do get it to the close up images are amazingly detailed. This camera can do a lot of cool things and is performing flawlessly so far. The tought features are an added and convenient bonus for someone who is taking pictures on the go. Great value in my opinion.

I find the camera to be good. The smoothing out that some have mentioned by changing the compression to Fine instead of Normal. You will get fewer pictures on a memory card, but considering a 32GB will still hold over 4,000 I think you are doing good.

I did buy the lens ring adapter and a lens cap to protect the lens. This is really something that the camera should have come with though.

I haven't had any sound issues while recording, I believe I have the record volume set to medium, I know I did play with that.

Now, here are the items that I have noticed:
When recording video, watch where you use all of the image stabilization features, you can get some odd results when used in low light or you are far away from your subject.

I do not understand why they couldn't put the multirecord mode that allows photos while taking video into this camera. It is in the lower end TG-830IHS. This one is a big one and if they ever do come out with a TG-3 that has this, I would probably buy it. That being said, I would not return the TG-2 to get the TG-830, I think the TG-2 is a great camera.

I purchased this camera 3 weeks ago just before I left for my vacation to Cancun. Previously I owned an Olympus StylusTough-8010, another tough type camera with similar functions. I chose this camera as I wanted to have a tough construction, durability and above average picture quality.

I have tested this camera day, night, underwater, in badly lit places and also during snorkleing. I have not managed to drop this camera so far so I cannot tell anything about the real toughness.

The pros:

- This camera does take brilliant photos, the best function I like on it is the handheld night-mode shooting. I was very much surprised at the quality of the photos. The photos are quite good, however sometimes I feel that the focus is on the wrong spot and the other parts of the photo is quite blurred.

- The turning on time is 1-2 seconds which is already a great improvement compared to my previous olympus camera.

- The battery life is quite long, I have managed to take ~380 photos during snorkeling within 3 hours using the original Olympus battery.

- The GPS does work very well, however sometimes it takes quite a long time to find a position, it could take up to 5min even with full wide view to the sky. (Note that the GPS does not work underwater, this is due to the fact the water absorbs the radio waves used by the GPS.) The tracking function is also useful, however there are no additional settings for the plotting interval.

- The provided software could plot the photos on the map, it is similar to the iPad's function.

- The video does have a good quality as well, however the compression rate is very low so it takes up quite a lot of memory.

The big cons I have found with this camera:

- There is a dial on it to change the shooting mode, it is definitely not a smart idea! At the first time I took it into the sea the fine sand penetrated underneath the dial so I could not turn it for a while. (On my previous Olympus model there was no dial, only buttons, yes it took longer time to select the mode, but it had never got stuck.)

- There is no protector for the lens. I very much afraid that it is going to get scratched even in my pocket. Recently I took this camera for biking and put it into the pocket of my jersey, everytime I took it out it was steamed up and I had to wipe it. (Again on my previous model there was a lens protection. Well it took 5sec to fire up the camera, however I never had this kind of problem.)


Summary:

I will stick with camera for a while as I am generally happy with it, however I am looking forward to some software update especially for the GPS and to get some extra manual functions on shutter timing. It was not the cheapest tough model on the market, but it is worth the price. I would like to try the extra lenses as well, which was not possible with my previous camera.

I bought the Tough TG2 to replace an older Olympus. This camera is incredible. Easy to use and perfect for our work, which involves being able to take EXCELLENT close-up photos of homes/buildings. It's rugged yet easy to carry & the picture quality is great. Aside from my DSLRs, the TG2 is probably the best camera I own! Thanks, Olympus!

I really like this camera.
Especially the aperture mode allows you to get great quality images out of the camera. If you pick the right aperture and limit the ISO to a reasonable value. You will get very good image quality out of it.

I was also very positive surprised by the output of the magic filters. It is very easy to create some amazing fun pictures with this camera.

One other very nice feature are the two custom modes, which allows you a fast switch to your preferred settings.

I am very sure I will have a lot of fun in the next years taking pictures with this camera.

For a perfect camera I would just wish tow more things:
- RAW image storage to allow optimized post processing (or at least a setting to define the level for noise reduction as there is very good noise reduction software available).
- make a little bit smaller so that it fits even better into jacket pockets.

When I heard this was coming out I made a deal and sold my tg-1 to a friend for $150. The super macro and updated resilience appealed to me. I Also didn't have a doubt in my mind that Olympus would address all the sound issues, noises, in video mode... Boy was i wrong, After reading the reviews and seeing the tg-2 actually got I worse rating from user I want my camera and $250 back :( I feel kind of stuck because I already have all the attachments for this camera. Just why in gods green earth would Olympus not fix a known issue on a previous model. As its well known Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result. So me next question is why? Or am I wrong and did Olympus do this knowingly..???? They had to of known, how could they not. Now did they factor in this major flaw and crunch numbers only to decide they will make enough of a profit to pull out ahead regardless, I Did notice Olympus blocked the reviews of the higer rated,older tg-1. Is that because they can't admit failure, to save face? Surely it is. To top it off the tg-1 has 3d, tg-2 no. The tg-1 is 9.8mp effective, the tg-2 9.7mp effective, also a few other items on the tg-1 make the quality better. really tg-2 is just slightly tougher with super macro as upgrades.I just though Olympus was better than this.

The camera lived up to everything. We went on a trip to 3 islands in Hawaii. Used it for hiking , Swimming and underwater shots. only complaint is the ring that goes on the lens area fell off several times the last on a boat and fell over board. Gone. Works fine without. I well continue to use my Larger full size cam for everyday use but this is a great pocket cam for travel and skiing.

I bought this camera to use while snorkeling, kayaking, fly fishing, and hiking. It certainly seems tough enough to handle all of that. I like the physical design of the camera. It has a fast 2.0 aperture when shooting at the wide-angle end of the zoom.

What I found to be a major issue is the amount of noise reduction Olympus applies to the images - the fine details come out looking like an impressionist painting. Too smoothed out, smeared. If this camera applied LESS noise reduction to it's images I'd have kept it, even without manual controls or the ability to shoot RAW images.

Hopefully Olympus and other manufacturers will offer a tough waterproof camera that puts out a less processed, finer detailed image in the near future. I'd buy that camera tomorrow.

I have taken some amazing pictures with this camera and absolutely love the way it performs. I have had occasional issues in a dark environment or with extreme zoom with getting the camera to focus, but have otherwise had an easy time using this camera. The magic features work well, as does the aperture priority mode.

There is noise when recording video, but it doesn't really bother me.

Overall awesome camera!

I received my TG-2, Opened the Box, immediately read the manual and installed my new 32 gig (1080P) memory card. Then I took a few photos around my desk, trying out the different features, settings and options available on the TG-2.

I have yet to use it under water (wish I had owned the TG-2 during our last cruise, I could have used it on my snorkeling adventures) but from what I have seen thus far, I expect the underwater features will also exceed my expectations.

The most interesting trial shot I made involved taking a picture of a picture of my daughter. The original photo was pretty good but using the features available in the Beauty Settings I was able to make her look like a model straight out of a magazine. I showed the results to my wife of 36 years and she said that she wanted me to take some shots of her. Now that is an excellent advertizement of the capabilities of my new TG-2.

I made a short movie walking along the creek behind the house and the 1080P video was outstanding. I am already looking forward to making movies of my grandson's athletic endeavors this spring and summer.

Thanks - Olympus for making my photography efforts/results better than they have ever been!

I ordered my Olympus TG-2iHS camera as soon as I could find one in stock. This is my 5th Olympus camera and again I am not disappointed. I love the features on this camera. I will start by saying that what you may have read about the noise on a video from the zooming in and out of the camera lens is true, but this doesn't bother me as I don't shoot many videos. The microphone on this camera is very sensitive and I see no way they could make it without picking up the lens zooming in and out. I bought this camera to be tough and to take great photos, and in that it shines. I like the lens being in the center of the camera and not in the top left corner as some of the Olympus cameras are. I love the new button to turn the camera on. I have arthritis in my hands and some of the other Olympus cameras are hard to turn on with the tiny button. The controls on this camera are simple to use and simple to understand. It takes great photos and very good low light photos. The only trouble I had was trying to view my videos on my computer. I called the Olympus Tech team and the gentleman talked me right though it. I had to download the software that comes with the camera, and I had not done that. You also have to have Quick Time on your computer and this is a free download also. After I did those 2 things everything was fine. Again I am glad that Olympus went to the SD card storage system as they are available at a reasonable cost almost anywhere. I do a lot of trail camera photography and it is so nice to be able to take the card out of your trail camera and pop it in your TG-2 iHS camera and it works great. And the large viewing screen on the Olympus gives you a good view of the photos from the trail camera. Also as in all Olympus cameras I have used, the viewing screen is easily seen outside in bright sun light. I have not used this camera under water, but I feel certain it would do a good job. Overall I am greatly pleased with this camera.

I wanted to like this camera mainly because of all of its features for travel i.e. waterproof, drop proof, freeze proof, dust proof.

The pictures are pretty good

The main issue with the camera are the noises it makes when recording video. There is no end of clicks, grinds, beeps etc as it, I am assuming, tries to adjust focus. They are actually quite loud when you play back the video. Also when you zoom in there is a fairly loud buzzing sound.
These sounds for the most part make the video almost useless.

if they fix these sound issues, this would be a great travel camera. The way that it is now, this camera is almost useless for travel