Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 Review

Here you can see the typical record mode screens. Pressing the DISP. button allows you to change the amount of information shown on the screen from nothing to the shooting information alone or with a grid or histogram.

When you half-press the shutter release it starts the autofocus process and if it locks you'll see the AF targets turn yellow. If focus fails, they will turn red and flash on the screen (not shown.) The 'red lightning bolt' icon indicates the flash is charged and ready to fire.

Pressing the 4-way controller Up, Down, Left or Right allows you to quickly change settings for Macro focus mode, Flash mode, Self-timer, and Exposure compensation.

You can access a variety of Scene modes by rotating the Mode Dial to the SCN position. As you go through the Scene selections an image depicting the mode is shown. A brief text explanation of the mode is presented when you press the DISPlay button (not shown). You can choose from a wide variety of different exposure modes on the dial: Intelligent Auto, Program Auto, Scene Modes (1. Portrait, 2. Landscape, 3. Night Scene, 4. Night+Portrait, 5. Sport, 6. Indoor, 7. Candle, 8. Self Portrait, 9. Sunset, 10. Fireworks, 11.Cuisine, 12. Documents, 13. Smile Shot, 14. Beach & Snow, 15. Snow, 16. Pre-Capture Movie, 17. Underwater Snapshot, 18. Underwater Wide 1, 19. Underwater Wide 2, 20. Underwater Macro), Beauty and Movie

Pressing the OK/FUNC. button will bring up the menu of options shown above.

FUNC. Menu Options:

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, or Fluorescent 1, 2, and 3
ISO - Auto, H. Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
Drive Mode - Single, Continuous, High-Speed Continuous
Metering - ESP or Spot
Image Size - 10 megapixel, 5 megapixel, 3 megapixel, 2 megapixel, 1 megapixel,
VGA (640x480), Wide 16:9 (1920x1080)
Image Quality - Fine, Normal

Press the MENU button to bring up the Record mode Menu. You can use the shortcut menus to quickly change Image resolution, Reset all settings to factory defaults, enter the Camera or Setup menus, enter Panorama mode, change the Scene mode as well as enter Silent mode.

Camera Menu Options

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, or Fluorescent 1, 2, and 3
ISO - Auto, High ISO Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
Drive Mode - Single, Continuous, High-Speed Continuous
Fine Zoom - On or Off
Digital Zoom - On or Off
Metering - ESP or Spot
AF Mode - Face Detect, iESP or Spot focus modes
Voice Memo - Off or On
Image Stabilizer - On or Off
Shadow Adjust - On or Off

SETUP Menu Options:

Format - Format the xD memory card
Backup - Save a copy of images on to your PC
Menu Language - Choose from one of the 38 languages
Power on Setup - Screen and Volume startup controls
Menu Color - Normal, Color 1, Color 2, Color 3, My Favorite
Sound Settings - Controls the different sounds made by the camera
Rec View - On or Off
File Name - Reset, Auto
Pixel Mapping - Map out bad pixels
LCD Brightness - Adjust the LCD Brightness
Clock - Set the time and date
Dual Time - On or Off
Video Out - NTSC, PAL
Power Save - On or Off
LED Illuminator - On or Off
Tap Control - On or Off

Press the 4-way selector 'left' to enable Macro focus mode and take close up shots at a range of 3.9 inches (0.1m) to infinity, or enable Super Macro mode and get as close as .08 - 19.7 inches (2cm - 50cm). The Stylus Tough 6000 also feature a S-Macro LED mode, which uses the LED illuminator to help achieve focus in marginal lighting.

Movie mode lets you capture VGA (640x480) or QVGA (320x240) resolution motion video at 15fps or 30fps with sound. When shooting at highest quality, you are limited to clips of just 10 seconds when using a standard or 'M' type xD card. Because the Stylus Tough 6000 features a built-in microphone, the optical zoom may not be used during recording. You can preset the desired focal length before starting to record a movie.

Camera Menu Options

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, or Fluorescent 1, 2, and 3
Metering - ESP or Spot
Movie Size - 640x480 or 320x240
Frame Rate - 15 or 30 frames per second

Camera Menu Options

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten (Incandescent), or Fluorescent 1, 2, and 3
Digital Zoom - On or Off
Metering - ESP or Spot
DIS Movie Mode - DIS on or off
Shadow Adjust - On or Off