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A good choice for $109

Started Dec 16, 2012 | User reviews thread
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hha Contributing Member • Posts: 753
A good choice for $109
2

at Sears and Amazon. I bought it in preparation for some snorkeling in Maui, were I don't want to risk a better camera near the beach or in the water. After the first battery charge (it lasted for 160 pictures) here are my preliminary conclusion:
a) The TG320 may not be as good as my old Nikons III, but with proper care it should be OK in the rain, sand and for snorkeling. The TG320 uses a single seal door to close the SDcard/connector access. Carefully inspect the seal and wipe off dust grains on the seal and the mating surfaces before closing the door and going into the water.

b) Away from dust/sand and water, a side-by-side comparisons on dry land with photos taken with my 10 Mp Panasonic LX5 look very decent for daytime shots, but inspected at 200% they show a softness due to lens quality (resolved by the 14 Mp CCD) and aggressive noise suppression (blurring). The effective image quality is closer to a 5 Mp camera. Under darker indoors conditions the TG320 will go to iso1600 in the "hiIso" mode, but only with heavy noise suppression. However, the images beat even the better cellphone by a wide margin under all conditions.

c) More details are http://www.steves-digicams.com/camera-reviews/olympus/tg-320/olympus-tg-320-review.html has a more comprehensive review. Time to first shot string with the camera OFF (important for snap shots) is 2.3 seconds, much better than reported in Steves review.

d) The camera has enough exposure compensation, WB, focus, iso, closeup and selftimer options, including a "life histogram", in Program mode to keep an avid amateur entertained. In the bright outdoor sun the LCD screen is very hard to read, so it is best to stay in "iAuto", listen to the beep indicating focus, and snap away.

e) The relatively small LiIon battery has to stay in the camera for recharging. A full recharge takes one hour through the supplied 110V to USB power adapter, with the camera connect with the supplied USB to Olympus unique mini-USB connector.

Problems:

None this far.

 hha's gear list:hha's gear list
Olympus TG-630 iHS Nikon D3200 Nikon D3300 Nikon D7200 Nikon Z6 +4 more
Olympus TG-320
14 megapixels • 2.7 screen • 28 – 102 mm (3.6×)
Announced: Jan 10, 2012
hha's score
3.0
Average community score
2.0
bad for good for
Kids / pets
acceptable
Action / sports
mediocre
Landscapes / scenery
acceptable
Portraits
mediocre
Low light (without flash)
weak
Flash photography (social)
bad
Studio / still life
mediocre
= community average
Olympus TG-320 Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5
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