Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 Review

by Stefan Etienne on 25. Feb, 2010 2:56PM in Cameras, Reviews

The first camera ever to show up here is a little over a year old. That doesn’t mean the Stylus Tough 6000 has lost its ability to take pictures. It’s waterproof to 10 feet, shockproof to 5 feet, and can withstand temperatures of down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Since this is a pretty simple point-and-shoot I’ll just go over price, durability, and the pictures and videos it takes. Check out the review after the break where we see if this $300 camera is worth it.

Price as Reviewed: $300

Full Disclosure: This camera was provided by Olympus for review

Looks and Feel

Your first impression of the Stylus Tough 6000 once you take it out of the box is that it’s a joyful camera: a big yellow front cover with accents of silver and black; it’s a great looking point-and-shooter. The extreme durability is definitely one of its strong points; it’s waterproof, shockproof, and probably even scratch-resistant. Dropping it over and over again didn’t expose any significant scratches or complaints for the Tough 6000. Overall it’s very comfortable to hold and features raised buttons that even allow you to switch the camera’s functions and settings while wearing gloves. The included wrist strap is a plus, and makes sure that you won’t lose your $300 investment. One feature that I love in this camera is the tap control. By tapping the left, bottom, right, or top sides you’re able to change flash settings, macro LED settings, and review and browse through pictures. This feature – strange at first, but brilliant in the end — only compliments the position of the buttons. The zoom button is where it should be, switching between video and shooting is where it should be, and the rest of the buttons feel and look as they should. It’s a proper button layout.

Pictures and Video Quality

The 10-megapixel with 3.6x optical zoom sensor can produce some pretty decent shots. At first the UI seemed very understandable and user-friendly, with options to set it to different colors. You’re able to pick which “scene” you’d like to take photos of and the camera adjusts its settings accordingly, a feature present in most, if not all modern cameras. When I first started shooting I noticed that I was taking pictures on the lower settings, and wasn’t even using the sensor on 10-megapixel mode, the normal and max for this camera. Surprisingly the shots were still great, and since I cranked up the settings things only got better. Check out the gallery of shots on 10 megapixel mode, with flash off, and a combination of different settings. And if you’re interested in looking at more photos, then hop on over to our M15x review, because I used this little guy for the entire gallery.

Stylus Tough 6000 Shots

As for the video quality, it’s unfortunate it can’t record HD video, buy only QVGA and VGA. The QVGA gets you about 15 frames per second, and the VGA settings does 30 fps. While by default the camera is set to QVGA, which is outstandingly horrible, stutters, and is squeaky. Use the VGA setting though, and you’ll get smoother, richer, and watchable video; but in VGA of course, not HD. UPDATE: We’ve added some of that 30 fps video for you to look at! Check it!

Conclusion:

While there are cheaper point-and-shoot cameras out there, which shoot HD video, look better, and probably are more durable, Oly’s Stylus Tough 6000 can still have a fight even a year after its release. Would I recommend this camera? Well, uhhh — sure. It’s old (for us technically) and uses the useless xD Picture Card format that Olympus has bundled with it. And a card reader is included, so you shouldn’t have any problems with transferring files straight from the card itself. Overall, it’s a good camera, but its time on the market is numbered, with other high-quality tough cameras currently being announced nearly by the day, at the time of this review.

Pros: