Very Disappointed on Vacation

After researching and watching many youtube videos and reading many reviews on underwater cameras I opted to purchase the TG-5. I am just a guy that likes to take photos and have an Olympus point and shoot that I really liked, so I stuck with the brand. We had planned a vacation to Belize and I wanted a camera to take underwater photos on vacation and at our lake home in northern Minnesota , plus the ability to have accessories. I purchased the camera a good few months prior to our vacation to practice but because its Minnesota in the winter it was very cold out and all the lakes frozen, so it was a few bathtub photos. Well once it came vacation time and our first day and 10 minutes into our snorkelling tour to the reef, I was able to get maybe 10 photos taken before the camera went absolutely black on the screen. I assumed from prior posts it was a screen brightness issue, so I kept turning the camera on-off-on hoping to get a display. Well, this continued for the next 45 minutes during our guided snorkelling tour while in the water. Well, I missed basically all the underwater life messing with the camera, which I continued to fidget with on the boat to another snorkelling site. I also assumed it was the battery so I changed it out with a spare, Nothing just a black screen and an illuminated led light. I gave up. I ended up purchasing the disposable Fuji 35mm cameras for underwater use to take underwater photos. I had to re-schedule another snorkelling trip for the time lost messing with the camera. All and all this little mishap cost us an extra $175 in expenses I wasn't expecting.

When e got back home the camera was replaced by Olympus free of charge which was very good customer experience. I am just not sure this is the right camera for me and nervous to go near saltwater again with it, by back-up disposables.

I am an amateur that wants to learn and enjoy being outside taking the occasional photo of wildlife and scenery and hoped this camera would give me that option, the zoom pretty much does nothing for me. I have also read from multiple posts the telephoto converter is not a good option for adding extra zoom. I love the size and functionally of the TG-5 with the great macro options so I purchased the led attachment for macro photos. This camera is awesome for close up shots.

I have spent days reading up on other camera options for a nice compact size camera I can add zoom lenses too or a P&S with a long zoom range. I am close to purchasing a Nikon B500, Panasonic F280 or Canon SX530 with the super long zoom lenses. Any suggestions would be great.

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Well, my Canon D20 isn't new, but it still works and works great. I used it many times snorkeling in salty water - no issues. 
Maybe find one on ebay cheap?

I had the opposite experience.  I love the pictures that I took with the camera.  I have the wide angle lens too and even with the distortion it made for some really fun images that the family is enjoying.  Attaching three sample jpg files not corrected.  So I would say it's unfortunate the first one did not work well, yet I would not give up on this camera.  I was quite impressed with it's versatility for my beach vacation.

Wild Dolphin on Ohau

J_dpr wrote:

Thanks for sharing. Please do share some underwater shots with the wide angle lens attached. It’s hard to find pictures shot with the FCON-T01.

Unfortunately I didn't use it underwater as the shore snorkeling suffered from rougher surf it wasn't clear the the boat trip was in very deep water.  Based on its above water performance if you correct for the distortion, I think you would be very happy with the results.  It really makes for fun images.  Here is another example where I snapped a shot very close to this friendly cat.  Again no corrections.