Olympus µ-1050 SW review

Olympus says its [mju:] 1050SW is shockproof, waterproof and freeze-proof, but does it still take good pictures?

Usually, if you want to take pictures underwater, you have to buy a regular camera and a dedicated underwater housing to go with it. But the [mju:] 1050SW comes fully waterproofed from the start – not that you’d think so to look at it. It’s a very smart-looking, super-slim camera available in a variety of colours (ours was a metallic pink) and it looks more like a fashion accessory than a tough, go-anywhere camera.

And yet as well as being waterproof down to a depth of three metres, it’s also shockproof, and capable of withstanding a 1.5m drop, and allegedly ‘freezeproof’ down to a temperature of -10 degrees Centigrade.

Water pressure increases with depth, and sooner or later it becomes high enough to overcome the water-resistance of any device. So when Olympus gives the 1050SW a depth rating of three metres, it means that at greater depths than that its waterproofing can no longer be guaranteed. This means you’ll be okay if you’re snorkelling in a few feet of water, but not if you decide to go wreck diving instead.

You have to be a bit careful here, too, because the Olympus range is slightly confusing. As well as the 1050SW, there’s also a 1030SW. Now although the serial number is lower, this one’s actually a higher-spec camera waterproofed to ten metres instead. As with any underwater gear, you need to check the depth rating carefully.

Of course, there’s more to this camera than waterproofing. Much of the time, the closest it’s going to get to underwater photography is when it’s dropped in a puddle by a hyperactive infant. Its overall toughness makes it the ideal family camera, though of course it needs to be easy to operate as well.

Here, things aren’t quite so good. It takes its time starting up, and the AF is only averagely fast. You may want to turn off the TAP control, too. This is a novel idea whereby tapping the camera at certain points on the body activates certain controls. You tap it on the right to change the Flash mode and on the left to activate the shadow adjustment feature, which lightens dark shadows. You tap it on the back to enter Playback mode and tap it twice on the top to display the TAP on/off option. It’s a bit of a novelty, but of limited practical value – the camera keeps responding to ‘taps’ you never meant to make.

The 1050SW can display a histogram while you shoot, which is good, but when you press the EV compensation button to adjust it, you get a screen full of thumbnails showing you what the image will look like at different EV settings. Presumably it’s meant to make EV compensation easier to grasp, but it’s slow, it shows variations that are so close they’re hard to distinguish from each other and you have to flip to a second screen if you want to swap from positive compensation to negative compensation or vice versa. The directional buttons act as shortcuts for the EV compensation control, Flash mode, Self-timer and Macro mode, but the icons are embossed into the chrome-look finish, so you have to angle the camera to catch the light in the right way before you can see them. To be honest, this aspect of the camera looks and feels a bit like a Christmas cracker.

The digital image stabilisation isn’t a great success, either. Optical image stabilisation systems are far superior because they keep the image steady on the sensor during the exposure. Digital systems use computer trickery to try to work out what the image would have looked like if it hadn’t wobbled. It just doesn’t work as well.

The definition is pretty average, as is the lens, and that’s the trouble. Of course, what you’re paying for here is a smart and sexy super-slim camera that’s also tough enough to survive bumps and soakings – as long as you don’t expect noticeably better pictures than a £100 snapper.