The TG-850 is small enough to slip into your pocket, and thus very convenient for spontaneous candid photography. The camera is also waterproof, without the need for any one extra case, and seems the only underwater camera with a folding screen to be. Other nice surprises are the macro capability, the slow-motion video feature, the excellent image stabilization and the very wide lens.
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*** IMAGE QUALITY ***
I photograph usually with DSLRs, but I also like to go to a compromise between image quality and the flexibility of the TG-850 in order to get some unusual shots. I wish, however, the image quality of the TG-850 would be better. The performance of the TG-850 is good in bright lighting conditions, but it is worse pretty quickly when the lighting conditions are a little more demanding. This is for a camera that has been designed for underwater shots, not so great, because it is precisely under water you often only little light available. The quality of the images, however, is what one would expect from a compact camera in this price range. One can invest much more in a compact camera like the Sony RX100 and receives a fantastic picture quality, manual exposure settings and the ability to shoot in raw format, but without the many features that make the TG-850 so versatile and flexible. I wish there was a camera that combines all these virtues in one another.
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*** FOLDING SCREEN ***
The LCD has top by a hinge, so you can open it to get a better look, if you want to take pictures close to the ground, or that you can rotate it a full 180 degrees to shoot self-portraits. You can screen for overhead shots not fold down, but you can turn the camera simple - the camera detects the orientation and automatically rotate the image for you.
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*** VIDEO ***
Since the Olympus TG-850 also shoots video, it might be better to see them as an action camera and not as waterproof camera, and how many modern action camera also has the Olympus TG-850 some impressive modes for high-speed shooting for slow motion video. The camera can record 60fps at Full HD 1920x1080 and 120fps at 640x480 standard definition. She also has a 240fps mode, but in a much less useful 432x324 resolution. The different resolutions and aspect ratios make it inconvenient to edit clips from this different sizes together, but it's nice to have the options.
The available video frame rates are unfortunately only for the NTSC standard (30fps and multiples) in North America instead of the PAL standard (25 fps and multiples), which is used throughout Europe. This presents a problem if you want together with footage that was taken with other cameras, edit shots of the TG-850, or if you want to play back recordings on a PAL TV.
The Olympus TG-850 also has an interval shooting mode for time-lapse video, but the fun is limited to a sequence of up to 99 images, ie video recordings to less than 4 seconds.
If you intend to use the TG-850 to be used as an action camera for extreme sports, etc., you should be aware that the options for mounting on a helmet, an extension arm are etc. very limited. It has a tripod thread, but it's on one side and not in the middle, so it is not far away with the balance. The tripod socket is also made of plastic, which makes it very easy to damage it when putting on a metal tripod screw. I have the tripod mount my camera damaged immediately.
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*** UNDERWATER ***
The TG-850 has several scene modes for underwater photography and a special underwater setting the white balance to compensate for blue color cast. There's even a scene mode specifically for macro shooting under water.
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*** Macro shooting ***
The macro capability is very impressive. I have a few examples uploaded by customers pictures, so you can even make a judgment. In addition to the flash, the TG-850 has a built-in LED to illuminate very nearby objects, which is very useful for macro shots.
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*** *** BATTERY
To avoid having to change the battery while the camera is wet, it is important that the battery hold out at least for the time for which you use the camera in the water. Fortunately, the battery has a CIPA rating of 300 shots per battery charge, which I think is more than adequate for still images over a day long. Video I can take on a single battery charge about 97 minutes (tested at room temperature).
The included Li-50B battery takes about 100 minutes to be charged in the camera. The camera does not come with a separate charger, but there are more on Amazon at discount price, if you would like to use throughout a battery the camera while you charge another.
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*** DESIGN ***
I can say many positive things about the design of the camera, but there are also a few things that I do not like.
Positive * *
1. The slim design of the camera makes it very easy to put them in your pocket, so that you can take with you anywhere.
2. The start time is very fast, so you lose after power no valuable time waiting.
3. The menu is generally very well structured and self-explanatory.
4. The autofocus is generally very fast, except in low light conditions.
5. Olympus makes its reputation for excellent image stabilization in the camera all the glory. Image stabilization helps to reduce the motion blur in stills and stabilize the hand-held video.
6. The lens is also more than what you find in similar models in the widest zoom setting. For underwater self-portraits so there's plenty of room for the shark in the background.
* Negative *
1. The above-mentioned plastic tripod socket is probably the single most significant design flaws.
2. The frame size for video is trimmed significantly compared to stills mode, so you probably will not be in a video Selfie able to get the shark in the background with the video. There are before you start taking shots no visual aid where the image will be cropped. Thus, one can not make correct recording in advance.
3. The position of the lens is at the top left inconvenient if you want to hold the camera with both hands, because this makes it very easy to get the left hand in the recording, mainly because the lens is so wide.
4. I found the arrow keys as hypersensitive, so the camera very often more than a click registered when trying to navigate through the settings.
5. The way how the image files are named is not always unique. Names start with the current date, followed by a number that every time resets to 1 when you format the card. When dragging files more than once in a day from the card to your computer, some of the file names are reused, so that you can save in the same folder you will not, without renaming the files cumbersome.
A feature that I like neither not like, but that is so quirky simply that I must mention is that the camera has an internal memory, which allows one to take pictures without inserting an SD card. The memory, however, is just big enough for 6 Full-Sized JPEGs, so I really do not know why you have taken the trouble to add this feature.
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*** SUMMARY ***
I am of two minds regarding this camera, so I've tried in my review to reflect on what is good and what is bad to the TG-850, so that others have the opportunity to come to a decision based on its own priorities.
For me personally, I know that this camera allows me to take pictures, I could not compete with other cameras. But except when I go into the water, I'll use for most situations prefer my Sony RX100ii take the Olympus TG-850, if I need a small camera because the image quality is with the Sony so much better. The RX100ii costs but also much more than the TG-850, thus this is not really a fair comparison.
