Olympus mju Tough 6010: Olympus gets back in the game

Olympus is muscling its way back into the increasingly crowded sturdy-camera market with the new mju Tough 6010 in manly, red, grey and... turquoise?

Richard Trenholm

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

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Richard Trenholm

July 17, 2009 4:02 a.m. PT

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British summertime is well and truly here, but don't be too jealous of anyone going to Latitude or Lovebox or any of the other 37 festivals taking place on any given weekend these days. It's going to rain -- a lot -- and soaked fest-goers are going to find themselves wishing they had an Olympus mju Tough 6010 to save their pictures, and possibly use as a raft.

The 6010 is the newest addition to Olympus' mju Tough range of indestructible cameras. It can be frozen down to -10C, dropped from up to 1.5m, and is waterproof to 3m. It's also sealed against the sand of the beach and the ice of the piste.

The lens packs a 3.6x optical zoom, with a 35mm equivalent focal length of 28-102mm. Optical image stabilisation keeps things steady as you hurtle down the slopes, while beauty mode smoothes out complexions blasted by desert winds. Face-detection technology can find up to 16 faces.

Olympus introduces assorted Magic Filters, which echo different styles of photo. These include pinhole, pop art and fish-eye. Imagine using fish-eye lens underwater while snapping picures of fish.

Anyone would think camera manufacturers reckons a global climate apocalypse is on the cards, judging by the way the waterproof camera market has taken off in the last six months. The Pentax Optio W80 last month became the latest addition to this burgeoning market, joining the Panasonic Lumix FT1, Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP and Canon PowerShot D10.

Click through our gallery to see the colour options for the Olympus mju Tough 6010, and find out pricing and availability.

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View your images on a triple-coated 69mm (2.7-inch) screen.

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This is the titanium grey model.

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Lava red! Titanium blue! And, er, turquoise blue. Clearly this model was busy getting a pedicure when the butch names were being handed out. The Olympus mju Tough 6010 will arrive this month for around £300.