Home > Consumer Reviews > Olympus Stylus Tough-8000 12 MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Wide Angle Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Silver)

So far I have used this camera with good success. You have to play with it some under certain lighting conditions but you can take pictures that are not grainy in most lighting conditions with the right settings.

It's underwater picture taking capabilities do pretty good for the pictures that I have taken but are not necessarily great but. The only problem I have seen that I really dislike in this area is that when you come out of the water and take pictures the lens tends to fog up most of the time and wiping it clean doesn't always solve that it just takes a little time.

One downside to this camera is the Panaramic feature. It only allows 3 frames to be combined in the camera, to combine it in the computer is fine but I have seen cell phones that can take panaramics and combine more then 3.


I haven't really put the crush, fall or freeze capabilities to the test yet and except for the latter don't plan to. During the winter I may add on to my review.

I just want to make note. Don't expect this camera to take pictures like an SLR. It isn't cheap because of its resistance capabilities but it is still just a point and shoot camera. It is a great camera to just toot around so that you always have a camera with you but if you want to take amazingly clear and completely clean images and don't need it to be rugged buy a nice SLR that captures in RAW format and not jpg.

So I'm not a camera expert and won't be able to tell you about f stops and whatnot, all I can tell you is that this camera works and makes me happy. I have taken it underwater, I teach swim lessons, and have had my camera in the water several times with no problems whatsoever, and all the kids think it's super cool. Definitely test your camera underwater before taking it out in the world, I'm sure that sometimes there are just errors in the production.

I bought this camera after using a Nikon with an underwater housing for three years, but the underwater housing was so bulky it made my nice little Nikon a pain to carry, so I decided to upgrade. The biggest problem I had with my old Nikon point-and-shoot was getting the pictures to look the way I actually saw things, I had a lot of trouble with pictures that were too bright or too dark. I took my Olympus out on the first day and took picture after picture, playing with all of the different settings and functions and while I did have to find a good combination of settings, eventually, I got pictures back that looked exactly like what I was seeing with my own eyes.

This is my first Olympus, but I am very impressed with the camera so far. The 3x zoom initially worried me, but the camera has plenty of zoom for what I've needed. One big difference I also noticed is that with my old camera, when I looked through the view finder or the screen, the image was further away than it actually was- like that passenger's side rear view mirror thing. But that doesn't happen with the Olympus, which is perhaps why the little zoom number isn't a problem. This is the first camera I've had with a re-chargeable battery, and the only thing that kind of surprised me was that the only way to charge the battery was while it was in the camera. I bought a package deal on Amazon with an extra battery, memory card, etc. so I was hoping that one battery could charge while I was using the other in the camera, but this is not so. I'll just have to be careful planning to have both batteries charged when I need to have them for big adventures.

So overall, I'm really quite happy with this camera, I think it's fantastic and can't wait to travel again and take lots and lots of pictures.

UPDATE- The following link is to some of the pictures I've taken with the Olympus Stylus Tough-8000. I absolutely love the picture quality I've gotten with this camera, the underwater shots are fantastic, and the multiple settings and scenes allow you to get the perfect shot of whatever you're looking at. I love showing off my new camera!
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I was torn between the Canon D10 and This tough 8000 because I am a long time Canon fanatic. I had read reviews saying the Canon had better image quality. I went to a local shop to hold them in my hand. the deciding factors were that A) I couldn't find an apreciable difference in quality taking a variety of shots inside and outside the store, B) The Olympus records sound, the Canon doesn't, and C) the Olympus has a lens cover, the Canon doesn't, and no matter how scratch proof they say it is I'm not taking a camera on a sand-filled Hawaiian vacation unless it can cvover the lens when int he pocket and laying around a towel.

This camera was AWESOME in every situation. It outperformed every camera my relatives brought in every situation. It focuses quick, does fine in low light, and the iAuto feature is fantastic when you need something quick and aren't sure what settings to try. The shadow assist mode is SUPERB. The underwater shots are clear and while it has no capacity to add a red filter and therfore comes out tinted teal, it's a one click fix in Picasa to adjust 99% of them to darn near perfect. The camera performed great for panoramas, portraits, indoors, outdoors, low light, too much light, and underwater in sometimes murky conditions

I like the "Fine" Zoom which is kind of a semi-digital zoom without the typical crappiness of digital zoom. My only complaint is that it seems you have to turn fine zoom back on for most shooting modes every time you reboot the camera. This would be one of my two complaints and it's minor. I've had many cameras with scene featurs and I've never really used them always finding I got better pictures if I adjusted everytiong myself. In most cases with this camera, the Scene features do a really outstanding job, and the iAuto's abiity to pick the right scene and adjustment combos is really impressive.

Battery life was great with both the original Olympus and a Maximal battery I got for $4 from Amazon. I did find the battery seemed to last longer when charged in a 3rd party charger than it did when charged in the camera off a USB cable. I'm not sure if this is user-error in the way I'm charging it or not.

My only other complaint would be the choice to use XD and a MicroSDHC adapter rather than just using SDHC cards. This limits the choice of value memory available.

I really want to give this camera a positive review, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Over the three weeks of use this camera saw (ranging from backpacking trips to picnics) I took some really awesome shots. However, in the end I just couldn't justify keeping it when it seemed to get all the basics wrong. I am not a photography expert. I don't know what aperture means and if you start talking about spot metering you're likely to lose my attention to something shiny. Of course, those things are the reason that I purchased a point-and-shoot camera in the first place. I read some of the early reviews (this camera premiered in April 09) and thought I had found a camera to fit my very active outdoor lifestyle. A friend has the 790 SW and I really liked it, but it seems they made some mistakes when upgrading.

When I first started taking pictures with it I thought maybe it was my own doing. I, admittedly, don't know what I'm doing so I thought maybe I'd set some funky settings. However, simply putting it on "iAuto" and focusing/shooting resulted in photos that only seemed good if the person(s) in them was standing completely still. I gave it the benefit of the doubt though and tried it a few more times. Unfortunately the result was consistent. I was throwing out 3/4s of the pictures I was taking. Those numbers are unacceptable when some of the places you go take days of hiking to get to. For an example of what I'm talking about please see the photo here. I asked a friend to simply walk across the room while I took a picture with the Intelligent Auto feature on. This is not a cool shot, AT ALL. I repeated the process only using some of the scene settings (action specifically) and the result was a washed out noisy photo that I wouldn't think of posting.

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I decided to give the camera two stars because it does do some things really well. For instance, it survived a couple of drops, my chalky hands while rock climbing, and a river swim in the Smoky Mountains (with complete submersion). However at the end of the day it's supposed to do those things AND take good pictures. I have returned my camera to Amazon (awesome return policy) and will purchase another rugged style point-and-shoot soon. I'm considering the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 or even considering "downgrading" to the Olympus 1030SW. I will post reviews when I have made a decision and tested the cameras out.

I bought this camera a few weeks ago to replace a long line of broken Canon ELPHs (S200, S230, S500, SD800, SD870); I love those cameras but they're just too fragile.

The Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 seems about as tough as advertised, and picture quality seems okay, though not as good as the Canons (but I have only very little experience with it so far)

A couple issues:

There is a manometer on top of the camera used to measure water depth and altitude; this automatically enables certain features when the camera is underwater. For some reason, after using my camera to take photos and video in a swimming pool, the camera has become stuck on underwater mode whenever I try to use it for video -- and underwater video mode means no audio is recorded. I tried drying the camera, and washing and drying it again, but that didn't help. The manometer still seems to be working fine when the camera is in photo mode; when I submerge the camera it correctly enters underwater mode, and when I take it out of the water it returns to normal mode; just the video mode is stuck underwater for some reason.

Another annoyance: there is no orientation sensor, so you have to rotate photos manually (and remember to do so before uploading them to your computer, if you want the exif orientation data to be correct.) No orientation sensor!? What year is this again?

Also, the AC charger that comes with the camera has a long bulky cable, unlike the small lightweight battery charger that comes with the Canons.

Aside from the issues noted above, I am quite happy with this camera overall.