After years of making the most rugged point-and-shoots available, Olympus is finally using that know-how to take on GoPro.
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Even without a housing, the Olympus Tracker is tougher than most action cams.
Some action cams are only as tough as their housings. But the Olympus Stylus Tough TG-Tracker on its own -- no housing -- is waterproof to depths of 100 feet (30 meters), dustproof, shockproof from 7 feet (2.1 meters), freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius) and crushproof up to 220 pounds of force.
That makes the Tracker nearly as waterproof as the standard GoPro housing (rated to 40 meters), except without the fear of it accidentally opening up and destroying the camera within. Perhaps what's more impressive than its durability, though, are the sensors inside the camera that help it know where you are even if you don't.
A flip-out LCD and included handgrip make it easy to shoot at different angles.
Olympus calls the set a Field Sensor System, which includes GPS (with Glonass and QZSS functionality), an e.Compass, temperature, barometric pressure and accelerometer sensors. Combined they capture all kinds of data -- position, speed, water and air temps, altitude and water depth -- that can be viewed on the camera's flip-out display or on its companion smartphone app. The camera can even keep collecting data when you're not recording.
Other key features include:
The Olympus Stylus Tough TG-Tracker (because just one name wasn't good enough) will be available in June for $350 -- that's about £240 or AU$485. You can find more details on Olympus' site.