The name says it all. Olympus’ Stylus Tough 6000 is a rough-and-tumble head turner, and Women’s Adventure testers felt comfortable taking it into the toughest conditions—its lens cover and waterproof gasket design beat others in our test for durability and performance.
The 10-megapixel sensor and wide, 3.6x, 28-102 mm equivalent lens is on the wide side and an innovative in-camera photo stitch mode makes wall-worthy panoramas. In low light, there’s a delay up to four seconds—a major flaw—and the overpowering flash has a tendency to unevenly overexpose party and indoor shots. In natural light, image quality is in the middle of the pack for this category of camera, but the menu is still noticeably slow.
On the scale of ruggedness, this camera earned high marks and it’s unique tap feature make it easy to operate while wearing glove—a plus for snow-sport enthusiasts and other glove wearing crowds. A fun feature for video: in pre-capture mode, you can capture up to two seconds of moving images before you hit the shutter button. You’ll never miss the perfect moment again. $280; www.olympusamerica.com
