Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4Mb.

The Olympus mju Tough 8000 produced images of good, though not outstanding, quality during the review. The lens clearly struggled to keep up with the extreme pixel density of the sensor, and this resulted in slightly soft details and some blurriness in the off-centre areas of the frame. In consequence, you will likely find that the images allow somewhat smaller enlargements than could be expected on the basis of the pixel count alone. At medium to high sensitivity setting, the maximum print size is further limited by noise. To be fair though, most compact camera owners are not likely to print big anyway, and as long as you limit yourself to smaller print sizes, you may even find ISO 800 shots usable, particularly if taken in neutral light. Automatic white balance works quite well, especially under natural and fluorescent light, though it leaves a tad too much warmth in images taken in incandescent lighting. Shadow adjustment works well and can come in handy when dealing with high-contrast scenes.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Olympus mju Tough 8000. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 64 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% Crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Olympus mju Tough 8000 has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

12M Fine (4.57Mb) (100% Crop)	12M Normal (2.45Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Olympus mju Tough 8000 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Olympus mju Tough 8000 offers a Super Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 2cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Olympus mju Tough 8000 are Auto, Red-eye reduction, Fill-in, and Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Fill-in - Wide Angle (28mm)
Off - Telephoto (102mm)	Fill-in - Telephoto (102mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the On or the Red-eye reduction settings caused any red-eye.

On	On (100% Crop)
Red-eye reduction	Red-eye reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Olympus mju Tough 8000's maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds in the Night scene mode, which is disappointing news if you're seriously interested in night photography, as it doesn't allow you to capture enough light in most situations. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 160. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Olympus mju Tough 8000 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/10th / 28mm
1/4th / 102mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Olympus mju Tough 8000 camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Open

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Function Menu

Rear of the Camera / Camera Menu

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Olympus mju Tough 8000 is a special camera. Built to resist a fall of two metres, the pressure of ten metres of water, the weight of a corpulent man and the cold of a Continental winter, it is a camera that you can take pretty much anywhere. From beaches to swimming pools, rainforests to deserts, coral reefs to mountain tops – you name it. Places and conditions in which shooting with a regular camera would be foolish or downright impossible. The mju Tough 8000 is tough, without a doubt.

But it's a pretty nice “normal” point-and-shoot too. Its 28mm equivalent wide angle makes it a lot more versatile than many other compacts, and its legion of scene modes will help you get a good shot no matter what your subject is. The usual caveats apply of course. Like most digital compacts, the Olympus mju Tough 8000 likes good light and isn't really well suited to low-light photography. In addition to that, its extreme pixel density pushes its folding optics to their limits and beyond, meaning you don't get as much detail as you would expect based on its high pixel count. But if you are not one of those that make big enlargements out of their digital photographs, you will be unlikely to be seriously disappointed by the images, particularly those taken at base ISO. They stand up to being printed at normal sizes pretty well.

Obviously if you are a real stickler for image quality and / or manual controls, then the mju Tough 8000 is probably not going to cut it for you. As of this writing, one well-known online retailer has the Olympus E-420 DSLR with kit lens for just $30 more than the mju. That combination will undoubtedly give you much more control and – the somewhat lower pixel count notwithstanding – considerably better image quality too. But it won't take nearly as much beating as the 8000, neither will it be readily usable for underwater photography without a special housing. So as always – know your requirements, and decide based on the Sample Images as well as what you have read in the other parts of this review if the Olympus mju Tough 8000 meets them or not.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3
Value for money	4

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Olympus mju Tough 8000.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Olympus mju Tough 8000 from around the web.

Specifications

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