Olympus STYLUS Tough TG-4 Compact Camera 16MP 1/2.3" BSI CMOS 4608 x 3456pixels Black - Digital Cameras (16MP, 4608 x 3456 pixels, BSI CMOS, 4x, Full HD, Black)

Product Information

Once connected the app offers four main options: Remote Control, Import Photos, Edit Photo and Add Geotag. Tapping Remote Control lets you see a live image from the camera and refocus it by tapping on your phone or tablet’s screen. Impressively you can remotely change the exposure mode between iAUTO, Aperture priority, Super Macro, and Scene mode without touching the camera’s mode dial. Depending on the selected mode, you can then tap to adjust the aperture, exposure compensation, ISO and white balance, along with changing the drive mode, and of course triggering the exposure. The drive mode menu also has an option for movie recording which uses the movie mode currently set on the camera. Before we move on to look at the quality results, there’s one final feature of the Olympus TOUGH TG4 that you won’t find on the other rugged water-proof compacts I’ve tested and that’s the ability to shoot camera RAW files. Choose 16M +RAW from the quality settings menu and you’ll get a RAW file in the Olympus .ORF format as well as a full resolution JPEG. The camera automatically adjusts the settings best suited for the scene. Camera menu settings such as white balance and exposure compensation can be changed.

Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 vs Olympus TG-2 iHS - Versus Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 vs Olympus TG-2 iHS - Versus

Examining the front of the Olympus TG-4 – complete with a couple of screw heads to signify industrial levels of strength – reveals that the camera’s reinforced lens is further protected by virtue of it being encircled by a raised metal surround or lens ring; this can be unscrewed and removed to allow for supplementary attachments. Lens aperture runs from f/2 at the wideangle end to f/4.9 at the telephoto end (maximum zoom), with closest focusing distance being a very respectable 1cm. And of course it wouldn’t be an Olympus without Art filters. Switch to the Art position on the mode dial and you can choose from Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale & Light Colour, Grainy Film, Pin hole, Diorama (miniature), and Dramatic Tone art filters. Another way to get to these is via the Picture settings on the function menu.If you want to know exactly where you are when taking a photothen the TG-4 can tell you. The camera records your location and direction, air pressure, and altitude or depth. You can also use the camera as sort of a navigation device. By pressing the Info button a few times, you'll see a compass along with current GPS data. The TG-4 can keep a log of where you've been, which you can later import into Google Earth or other software. All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb. Pro Capture mode saves photos before and after the shutter release is pressed, to help you capture the right moment

Olympus TOUGH TG4 review | Cameralabs Olympus TOUGH TG4 review | Cameralabs

Like the earlier TOUGH TG3, the TG4 has built-in GPS and Wifi, allowing you to tag your photos with positional information, wirelessly transfer them to your phone and upload them to the Web and remotely control the camera with a smartphone. There’s also an electronic compass feature and a manometer which measures barometric pressure providing altitude and depth information. While the TOUGH TG4 is a more than capable video camera, it’s a little disappointing not to see any new video features. With the exception of the time-lapse movie introduced on the TG3, these are essentially the same video modes as on the two-year-old TOUGH TG2. It would be nice to see at least some improved slow motion options with HD resolution or the ability to take stills during movie recording For those in the first group, the TG-6's auto mode can handle just about every situation, and its numerous scene modes are well organized. Going underwater? Just choose the 'fish' spot on the mode dial, where you'll find five choices that match the situation you're in. It is a shame that Olympus did not create a simplified version of its menu system for more novice users, who are likely to be overwhelmed by the options and organization. Exposure. Using full Auto mode, the TG-4 performed fairly well with our Indoor Portrait flash test producing a well-exposed image, though Auto white balance produced overly warm results. Still, not a bad performance from such a small flash, though the camera did boost ISO to 400 and used a somewhat slow shutter speed of 1/30s to achieve those results. (Slow shutter speeds like 1/30s can result in motion blur unless your subject is reasonably still during the exposure. We'd rather see a speed above 1/50s for flash shots of people.)

Comments

Built-in Wi-Fi lets you share files with iOS and Android mobile devices, geotag photos with GPS location information, remotely compose the shot, adjust camera settings, and trip the shutter, apply custom signatures, Art filters, and stamps, using the Olympus O.I.Share app.