OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS Stylus Tough 3000 12 MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Wide Angle Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Red) (Old Model)

We bought this camera as something we could easily share with our children, take snorkeling and to swim meets and not have to worry about wetness. It does a fabulous job and we have been very pleased with the results. It's the perfect camera for this price range! I do however have major issues with the software it comes with. It's very difficult to navigate out of and I cannot figure out how to keep it from being the default program that opens whenever I put in a photo card or plug in the camera. It somehow has installed itself on both of my memory cards - the one I use for my cannon photos is now infected with this software! While I'm sure it's a wonderful program, most of the time, I just want my raw files. This immediately opens, boggs down the system, and starts downloading files - even though my systems defaults say otherwise. I would like the option of using this program, so I don't want to delete it entirely. I don't think I'll buy another Olympus because of this virus of a program!

I bought this for vacation in an emergency when my other Olympus got a scratch on the lens and I needed a replacement fast. I didn't have much time to do research, but let me save you the time... *No lens cover. What camera doesn't have a protective lens cover??? *Battery life IS TERRIBLE. I had to bring along the old camera with the lens scratch because I didn't have enough batteries to take many pictures. *I like that it's waterproof and shatterproof, but so isn't the Stylus Tough I had- and it was made much better. I wouldn't purchase again and wish I could have returned it. Unfortunately, it was through a 3rd party seller with a 7-day policy, and we were not back by then.

Excellent! Works wonderful. Great picture, great video. It is easy to use and durable. I bought it for my 7 year old son. I looked at child durable cameras, but they were plastic or had poor quality and low usage. We planned a trip to Sea World and we realized that this camera is perfect. It can go into water, even salt water, and can handle minor drops. It is a real tough camera (that can even survive a clutz like me). Now other family members want one of their own!

I see a lot of Reviews of this product by "Photographers", who yap on about ISO settings, and blah, blah, blah. Here's the deal. If you're such a pro, why are you using a hundred dollar camera? For all you shutter jockeys out there reviewing hundred dollar cameras, STOP PLAYING WITH THE SETTINGS! It's a point and shoot! I bought the Stylus Tough 3000 PURELY ON PRICE POINT to replace a Stylus 1030 SW that is aging.... The 1030 SW is three years old, and believe me, it's been used and abused in and out of pools, saltwater, sand, drops, and you name it. I never had it sent to Olympus for waterproofing maintenance , so I won't submerge that camera anymore, but I did for almost three years, and it still works, and I would take it in rainy or wet conditions with no qualms. I gave it to my daughter and she uses it. It takes great pics on auto setting if you know how to use the focus. It still takes great shots. I am a little disappointed there is no retracting lens cover like on the Stylus 1030 but, I haven't had it long, and haven't seen what abuse will do to that part. However, I was used to using the focusing feature on my old 1030, and this one is very similar. I like it. It takes sharp photos in different scenarios if used correctly. When it arrived in the mail, My daughter and I took it for a test run in the shallow waters around my home town..... I took underwater photos of various things at depths of just a couple feet. I took multiple pictures at macro and super macro, and normal modes, underwater and in the open daylight, with and without flash, and with different flash settings. It was partly cloudy, so I had opportunities to shoot full sun shots of my daughter, wildlife, etc. in shady or sunny conditions... We spend the day wading, playing in the sun, and taking pictures. The camera stayed in my pocket, even while wading in belly-deep waters. I wouldn't normally swim all day with it. I was just giving it a trial run, basically to insure it will perform over it's life as advertised so I can send it back now if necessary. The battery is the smaller one, and that I dislike. I don't mind charging it with the USB as others have complained about. I am lucky to have USB adapters for everything, but I can plug it into the car, my computer, someone else's computer, a wall, etc... It doesn't charge so fast, but hey.... It's a hundred dollar camera. Plus, you can get dock chargers for these batteries pretty easily and cheap. Buy an extra battery or two as well if you want to use it all day. The Stylus Tough 3000 has more internal memory than the 1030 SW, so I was happy about that, but had a limit as to the amount of pics I could take on it. However, it still took about 75 shots on the 12MP setting, which I don't normally use. Normally, I'd use 5MP on the 1030 SW, I will probably continue using 5MP because even that is too large to print from almost any normal printer at it's native resolution, and it's much larger than most computer screens. Why waste the space if you aren't using them for a professional job? Anyways, the internal memory isn't bad at all, even with firmware taking up much of it. I have a 16GB SDHC card on the way. Obviously, the seals held for the day. It turned out that out of the 75 or so pictures I took, about 3 of them were unusable and blurry, maybe ten of them were just acceptable for most computer screens and had some different anomalies and such, but the rest were brilliant. If you factor in human error (which is a BIG factor in these reviews), I think that is pretty impressive for a hundred dollar waterproof camera. I have a decent sized (23") monitor, and they look great on it. I have pics all over my Facebook, and everything. people comment on how gorgeous the pictures are from both Olympus cameras I've used. I Only used the automatic settings for the day, as well. What's cool about it is it has different automatic settings for different scenarios. It even has a feature for stitching together multiple shots into a huge panoramic, even a 360 degree pan. I tried that, and didn't do it correctly, but if I had, it would have been a great image. I just had to figure out what to do, that's all. after viewing the file, I saw where I erred, and could easily create wonderful pan shots now. I haven't used the video yet, but on my 1030 SW the video is not good. Not good at all. However, I've seen video taken with the Stylus Tough 3000 online, and I was fairly impressed. I wouldn't expect to get different results from this camera. My last Olympus is still getting abuse and taking good shots after more than three years.... I'm more impressed with the images this new one creates. I just hope it will prove as sturdy as the last one. I see no immediate reason why it shouldn't.

Having owned several different brands of small digital cameras, I felt the need for another that was waterproof, due to the fact that I was soon to go on a cruise and planned on taking underwater photos of marine life while snorkelling....very disappointed. Although some of the photos that I did take were very clear with underwater life, the non ability to see on the screen, both in the water and in bright sunlight, left me to attempt to take pictures on the quess.....anyway, I would probably not have bought this camera if I had used someone elses beforehand.

This was an OK camera. I agree with the other posts in that the battery life was short, and it takes a long time to turn on. I purchased a referb, and the first time I put it just under the surface of the water, it was ruined, so be warned. I won't be buying another Olympus.

The camera is nice, small and easy to use. the pictures and video is very nice. the problem with the battery life, so short. neet extra battery

I got this camera to replace my last Olympus stylus tough that I had and I am very disappointed. The camera doesn't focus where it's pointed so over half the pictures turn out blurry, it has a really long delay so if you are trying to take pictures of children the moment is gone by the time the camera takes the picture. It's tough, but Olypmus makes better cameras in the tough series. NOT worth the money. If you are looking for a Olypmus tough go with one of the more pricier ones. They preform much better and are worth the extra cash.