Review on 📸 Ultimate Olympus TG-4 16 MP Waterproof Digital Camera Bundle - Black, Accessory-Packed! by Edwin Cen

I have had mainly Panasonic digital cameras for many years. I currently have an am/43 installation; ZS19 if I can't take all my gear with me; and TS25 for the beach and water park. I had two reasons for buying a new reliable camera. (1) The TS25's photo quality is good enough for underwater photography, but the burst rate at full resolution, if you can call it that, is 1.3 fps. I wanted something with a real burst mode to see our 3 year old son in action. (2) The TS25 doesn't compare to the ZS19 indoors, so I take both cameras with me on vacation on the water. I wanted to see if I could combine it into a compact camera that was tough enough for water but still good enough for indoor use. I initially chose the Olympus TG-4 over the Panasonic DMC-TS6 because of the f2.0 lens, RAW capability, macro mode and light ring. I used it for a day and eventually returned it and got a TS6 instead. Below are my observations and arguments for the exchange. Photos The TG-4 is great for outdoor photography, and even indoors when you're capturing a still subject in natural light. The f2.0 RAW lens combined with excellent image stabilization allows it to stay at the base ISO longer than you would normally expect from a small, compact sensor. The problem is related to moving subjects and/or flash photography. The first thing I noticed was that my flash rarely fired automatically indoors. Instead it will opt for a ridiculously slow shutter speed. I tried closing the aperture and fixing the base ISO and instead of firing the flash it chose 1/2 second. Then I tried to force flash. The problem is that when the flash is turned on it still uses the shutter speed determined without the flash, unlike my other cameras which choose a faster shutter speed when they know the flash will fire. So you can be 1/20 second with flash, resulting in nearby objects being completely blown out. Olympus has really done this camera a disservice by hurting it with its lack of shutter priority or full manual mode. The TS6, like my ZS19, is far more intelligent in its use of flash, making it far more likely that I can give the camera to a stranger for a group photo and get something useful in return. It also has shutter priority and manual mode. Video I knew from the specs and reviews that this camera would only offer 1080/30p and the quality wasn't top notch. I thought it was no worse than my other compacts. However, the autofocus was constantly sneaking around even when the subject wasn't moving, and there was a lot of noise when the video was zoomed. I found it almost useless even for everyday use. Macro mode I bought a light ring for the camera and compared it with my G7 with Panny 45/2.8. The close focus ability is amazing. In fact, you can use the ring of light to place the camera on a flat surface and take a photo. With this use, the magnification exceeds what I can achieve with my m4/3 rig even after cropping. Getting a little off topic, the M4 / 3 mechanism becomes comparable to the TG-4. But I thought that the TG-4 does the in-camera focus stacking, which made it a better choice. Unfortunately, this is another area where Olympus has stalled this camera. In single microscope mode you can select the desired ISO value. However, as soon as you switch to focus overlay mode, the ISO menu disappears and the camera automatically selects the ISO value. I found that he wants to use ISO 400. So now you have an image with more depth of field, but the details are blurry. If you don't have an ILC with a macro lens, the TG-4 is definitely a lot better for macro photography than what you don't currently have. However, if you have a macro lens, it's better to create the stack yourself, even if it takes more work and requires your own software. In my case, it was cool to see extreme magnification, but I really don't need to photograph coins, cloth, salt, and other flat, stationary objects at extreme magnification. For shooting insects and butterflies and even close-ups of eBay ads, my macro lens works best. A camera of this category is currently on the market. If you want macro capabilities, I don't know of any other compact camera - rugged or not - that can do what this camera does with macro. If you want to capture a moving subject in less than ideal lighting, the lack of shutter speed control and inconsistent flash can get you frustrated. If video is important to you, I think there are far better options. In the end I found the TS6 to be a better camera for what I needed, although I hated giving up f2.0 and RAW. The fact that it cost a hundred dollars less than a TG-4 plus light ring wasn't the basis for the decision, but it reinforced the choice. If Olympus can add shutter speed priority, fix the flash and improve video quality, it will be hard to beat and the higher price will be justified. I will keep an eye on future TG models and hopefully try again sometime.