Oh boy! The new Olympus digital cameras are showing up. As you know the DSLR E-30 arrived over a week ago.  Today the first new point and shoot Olympus digital cameras hit. The TOUGH series cameras which are directly related to the 1030SW and 1050SW cameras are starting to show up. The flagship, The Tough 8000 is a nearly indestructible (under reasonable use) model that can go underwater down to 33 feet, can withstand 200 lbs of pressure, can survive a 6.6 ft. drop onto a solid surface and can operate in 14 degrees F.  It is also 12 mega pixel, which is higher than the 10.1 mega pixel camera it replaces, the wide angle zoom is great at 28-102mm 35mm equivalents.

This next generation also has what is known as the beauty setting. In the beauty setting you take a photo, then the camera runs a built in  program which removes wrinkles and applies a soft filter effect.  It works pretty well, and as I get older and more “distinguished” looking I can see a definite need for the beauty mode.

The other newby Tough camera is the 6000 series, available in cool colors it is a 10 mega pixel, also has a 28-102 mm range lens that can withstand a 5 ft. drop, goes 10 feet of underwater and works at -10 Celsius/14 degrees F. Both cameras use the xD memory card, but Olympus also includes a Micro SD card adapter so you can use Sandisk cards up to 8GB in the cameras.

Priced at  $279 for the 6000 and $ 369 for the 8000 series these cameras are cheaper than any similar featured camera and an underwater housing by a country mile! Beauty Baby.