Tough new Olympus models for Christmas

Six new Olympus cameras will be here by Christmas, including two new Tough models which are water-, shock- and snow-proof.

Son of Norm

In the lead-up to Christmas, every camera maker and their dogs are releasing new models. Canon has refreshed its compact camera range, as well as its EOS digital SLRs. Nikon has fired back with new dSLR offerings too. Not wanting to be left out Olympus will have six new cameras on sale prior to Gift Giving Season 2007. There are two new Tough and three new Mju compacts, as well as a new prosumer ultra-zoom model. All new models persist with Olympus' proprietary xD-card format.

At the press launch, Olympus brought back "Norm", the dog who in a series of TV ads famously chewed and spat out the Tough 720SW. Also in attendance was Norm's son.

Tough
Last year Olympus -- pardon the pun -- shook up the compact camera category with its water- and shock-proof Tough 720SW. This year Olympus refines the concepts with two new models. The Tough 795SW is now waterproof for up to 10 metres, up from three metres in the Tough 720SW, and is also crushproof up to 100kg.

Mju
There are three new Mju models, which take a leaf out of Nokia's playbook. That is, not one model, not even the top-of-the-range Mju 1200, has all the features that Olympus offers -- they're sprinkled liberally throughout the range. For instance, Mju purchasers will have to choose between the in-camera panorama photo stich feature and mechanical image stabilisation.

	Tough 795SW	Tough Lite 790SW
Price	AU$599	AU$499
On sale	Soon	Soon
Sensor	7.1-megapixel CCD	7.1-megapixel CCD
Optical zoom	3x	3x
LCD size	2.5-inch	2.5-inch
Image stabilisation	Digital	Digital
Waterproof	10m	3m
Shockproof	1.5m	1.5m
Crushproof	100kg	N/A
Snow-proof	-10 degrees Celcius	-10 degrees Celcius
In-camera panorama photo stitch	No	No

Ultra-zoom
Last but not least is the new SP-560UZ, which shares its wide-angle (28mm) 18x optical zoom lens with its elder brother, the SP-550UZ. New to the SP-560UZ is the 8-megapixel sensor and TruePic III image sensor. Read our first take here.

	Mju 1200	Mju 830	Mju 820
Price	AU$599	AU$449	AU$399
On sale	Soon	Soon	Soon
Sensor	12-megapixel CCD	8-megapixel CCD	8-megapixel CCD
Optical zoom	3x	5x	5x
Image stabiliser	Digital	Mechanical and digital	Digital
Splash proof	Yes	Yes	Yes
In-camera panorama photo stitch	Yes	No	Yes

	SP-560UZ
Price	AU$799
On sale	Soon
Sensor	8-megapixel CCD
Optical zoom	18x (28 to 504mm-equivalent)
LCD size	2.5-inch
Image stabilisation	Mechanical
In-camera panorama photo stitch	No