Slimline

Available in three colours (Arctic Silver, Midnight Black and Sunset Orange), the Olympus Tough Lite 790SW adds some new capabilities to the traditional Mju series features and controls it provides. It has a metal body that is built for demanding conditions and can be used at depths of up to 3m without a protective waterproof housing and also withstand being dropped from heights up to 1.5 metres. In addition, it can function at temperatures down to -10 degrees Celsius, making it suitable for anyone who participates in winter sports or travels to the colder parts of the world.

With its 7.1 megapixel CCD image sensor, 3x optical zoom lens and 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD, the 790SW has a fairly average feature set. User-adjustable controls are also pitched towards point-and-shoot photographers. This is fine, because the 790SW is likely to be used in situations where fiddling with camera settings is difficult or inappropriate. The LCD monitor takes up two thirds of the rear panel but is reasonably bright (though not outstanding) in outdoor lighting. No viewfinder is provided and the button controls are universally small and fairly cramped. The zoom rocker is also tiny, making accurate zooming difficult.

The mode dial has the same settings as the Mju 820, covering still and movie capture, the ISO-boosting 'Shakeproof' function, 23 Scene pre-sets, text-based shooting/playback guide and the Favourites memory. Two Shoot & Select modes allow users to take a sequence of shots and choose which ones to keep. Four underwater scene modes are provided: Underwater Snapshot, two Underwater Wide settings (which recommend the camera be used in a waterproof housing for depths greater than three metres) and an Underwater macro mode

The camera's waterproof sealing and rugged construction make it suitable for boating enthusiasts, fisher-folk and families who enjoy water-based activities. The camera is simple enough for children to operate – although you'll need to make sure their fingers don't overlap the lens – an ever-present problem with slimline cameras whose lenses are close to the top corner of the front panel.

The Olympus TruePic III image processor supports a similar range of functions to other recent Mju cameras, including Face Detection and Shadow Adjust functions. An ISO-boosting 'anti-blur' mode is also provided, along with 'Nightproof' ISO boosting in low-light conditions. Only one Panorama setting is available and it requires use of an Olympus-branded xD-Picture Card and the bundled Olympus Master software.

Although the highest image resolution produces smaller JPEG files, the Tough Lite 790SW provides a similar range of image size and quality settings to the Mju 820. Compression ratios are not quite as high, although the 16:9 mode, the compression ratio is almost identical. The table below provides an estimation of typical file sizes.

Playback settings are similar to the Mju 820, with single-shot and index viewing, slideshow playback, support for DPOF tagging for direct printing and a setting for silent shooting. Users can also access a Perfect Fix editing menu containing shadow adjust and red-eye fix settings as well as being able to crop shots, re-save pictures as B&W or sepia images and adjust saturation to high or low.

The same framing, labelling and calendar-based operations are also provided. Movie clips can be played back and enlarged up to 20 times. You can also play clips in reverse and measure clip lengths via a 'stopwatch' that is activated by pressing the shadow adjust/delete button. Dual time and alarm clock functions are the same as in the Mju 820.

Performance
The test camera's exposure levels appeared to be pitched about two thirds of a stop lower than the Mju 820's so, in comparison, shots appeared a little dark. However, highlight details were recorded (which is unusual for a point-and-shoot digicam), although shadows tended to block up unless the shadow adjust function was used. We observed a fair amount of shadow noise both with and without shadow adjust.

Imatest showed resolution to be well below expectations and confirmed our subjective assessment that edge sharpness was relatively poor. However, colour accuracy was reasonably good, although red saturation was a little high. We found huge differences in lateral chromatic aberration when we compared horizontal and vertical measurements of the same test shot. The horizontal analysis showed chromatic aberration to be negligible, while the vertical analysis showed it to be severe. We can't explain this but we did see evidence of coloured fringing at the edges of many test shots.

Close-ups were, however, impressive, especially with the Super Macro mode, although we observed some sharpening artefacts in our test shots. Digital zoom shots were a little soft but not severely artefact-affected. Image noise became obvious at ISO 400 and very obvious by ISO 800. We would not recommend the use of the ISO 1600 setting.

 The test camera's auto white balance system was unable to remove the colour casts of either incandescent or fluorescent lighting. The manual pre-sets also failed to provide full correction, although they came closer to correct colours. No custom measurement function is provided.

Low-light performance was unimpressive; largely because the camera's flash is weak and long exposure times are not supported. Even with the ISO 1600 setting, the flash was only just able to illuminate an average-sized room. Night-time outdoor shots taken with the ISO 1600 setting were too noise-affected to be usable.

The test camera powered up within half a second and we recorded an average capture lag of 0.6 seconds. However, it took roughly four seconds to process each shot without flash and over five seconds with. Two continuous shooting settings are provided, a standard setting that records shots at intervals of approximately 0.9 seconds and a high-speed mode that drops the resolution to 2048 x 1536 pixels and records shots at intervals of just over 0.2 seconds. We were able to capture seven frames with the low-speed mode while, with the high-speed setting, the camera's image processor appeared able to keep pace with the capture rate.

 IMATEST GRAPHS

SAMPLE IMAGES

Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.


Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.


Coloured fringing. Note the loss of focus that has occurred near the edge of the frame.


Digital zoom.


Super macro.


ISO 100 in good lighting (short exposure).


ISO 1600 in good lighting.


One-second exposure at ISO 1600.

Image sensor: '1/2.33-inch' type CCD with 7.4 million photosites (7.1 megapixels effective)
Lens: f/3.5-5.0 (38-114mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 3x optical, up to 5x digital
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (Exif 2.2); Movies - AVI Motion JPEG with sound
Image Sizes: Stills - 3072 x 2304, 2560 x 1920, 2304 x 1728, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480; Movies - SHQ: 640 x 480 30fps, HQ: 320 x 240 15fps, SQ: 160 x 120 15fps
Shutter speed range: 1/2 to 1/1000 sec. (up to 4 sec. in night scene mode)
Image Stabilisation: Digital only
Exposure Compensation: +/- 2 EV in 1/3 step increments
Focus system/range: TTL iESP auto focus with contrast detection; range 50 cm to infinity, macro 20 cm to infinity; super macro to 7 cm
Exposure metering/control: ESP multi-pattern and spot metering; Program AE plus 23 scene pre-sets
ISO range:  Auto, ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
White balance: Auto, Overcast, Sunlight, Tungsten, Fluorescent (x3)
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, Red-Eye reduction, Fill-in, Off; range up to 4.8 metres
Sequence shooting:  
Storage Media: 14.7MB internal memory plus xD-Picture Card expansion slot
Viewfinder: n.a.
LCD monitor:  2.5-inch LCD with 230,000 pixels
Power supply:  Li-42B Li-Ion Battery (C.I.P.A. rated for approx 200 shots/charge)
Dimensions (wxhxd): 93.6 x 60.9 x 21.3 mm
Weight: 136 grams