Olympus Tough TG-2 iHS

[bermudabound1]

Beautiful pics. I bought one yesterday and tested it in the pool today, pics came out nice. Can't wait to use it snorkeling.

 

 

 

 

Lori

[krkheffe]

I've finally given my TG-2 enough of a workout to feel better recommending it. I used it for a couple weeks in the Virgin Islands and really beat the snot out of it. It was dropped several times, slid across the deck more than once and spent 2-4 hours a day underwater. I was nice and only took it down to 35 feet but even at depth the controls worked as freely as they do on the surface with no stiffening or binding.

 

I am still not sure which is the best underwater mode to use but ended up mostly using one that allowed zooming, auto focus and the flash to fire which helped brighten the colors at deeper depths. Surprisingly zooming in a bit really helped get up close photos of fish without having to spook them by getting so close.

 

 

 

I wish I could say the TG-2 was as fast and sharp as my DSLR but it's not. It does well but it suffers as most underwater cameras do by having to look through the front glass. Focusing is generally quite good and pretty fast and the f2 lens really helps in low light situations without resorting to flash.

 

 

 

If using the TG-2 underwater I'd throw away the annoying plastic trim ring around the lens. The camera ships with a red & black one and it's only cosmetic and must be removed every time you come out of the water and rinse the camera off so I quickly lost it. Also, make sure to occasionally wipe off the lens window. Days of handling got the camera covered in thin film of sunscreen. This did not affect photos on land but in the water it messes up the coating on the glass and bubbles and water spots stuck. When the window is clean bubbles and water drops slide right off for clearer pictures.

 

Great pics...thanks for sharing. What setting did you use for these?

[pilotdane]

What setting??? I don't have a clue. That's one of my beefs with this camera. The multitude of scene settings and how it's not clearly displayed what each mode is doing. I think there are 4 underwater modes, not to mention pet and food modes. I just picked an underwater mode that allowed me to zoom and use the flash.

 

On land I found that I used A (aperture) and auto mode most often. Auto did well with most scenes but A allows you to turn the flash on and off. At first I thought that the three aperture choices in A mode (2, 2.8 and f8) would be restrictive but in the end I think two modes would suffice.

 

One killer though is that in A (aperture) mode the shutter speed can not be slowed below 1/2 second. The camera will go to much longer exposures in auto mode but only to 1/2 second in A mode. You can adjust the ISO through the full range, set the aperture open (f2) or closed (f8), turn the flash on or off so why they limit control over shutter speed is beyond me.

 

Even though this post makes me sound negative toward the TG-2 I love it as an indestructible pocket camera. Every underwater camera will eventually leak but this camera has survived far better than I thought it would and without any special treatment or care. I treated it like a disposable but those little battery and USB door latches held firm and kept the sand and saltwater out.

[CWRob]

I have a tg 2 .The plastic ring around the lense covers the threads which can be used to attach an adapter for either a screw on telephoto or fish eye attachments. I believe each additional lense is around $100 plus the adapter.

The camera also has a depth/altitude guage, and GPS tracking. You can purchase an "eye fi " wireless card to wireless ly transfer pics to tablet and/or laptop

Picture quality is very good 2 thumbs up

 

 

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