Olympus TG-5 Delivers Rugged Design, Improved Shooting Modes & 4K Video Recording

Olympus has announced the TG-5, its newest rugged digital camera capable of shooting 4K video. The Olympus TG-5 is set to hit stores in June and will sell for $449.

The Olympus TG-5 is the successor to the TG-4, which was released back in 2015. Since the TG-5 is part of Olympus’ rugged camera line, it is also waterproof, crushproof, dustproof and freezeproof. The TG-5 isn’t only tough, but it also is capable of delivering camera performance that’s expected from the TG-series.

The Olympus TG-5 comes with a 12-megapixel CMOS sensor and equipped with a 25-100mm f/2.0 wide-angle lens that’s capable of 4x optical zoom. The TG-5 also uses the latest TruePix VIII image processor. Although the TG-5 has a smaller megapixel count compared to the TG-4’s 16-megapixel sensor, this actually helps in taking better photos in low-lighting conditions.

The TG-5’s sensor is able to do this because it has less number of pixels, while the pixel are actually larger. This prevents production of noise when users shoot photos at high ISOs, as explained by Digital Trends. Speaking of ISO, the Olympus TG-5 has a maximum ISO of 12,800.

It’s actually very important for Olympus to make shooting in low-lighting conditions more palatable since the TG-5 is designed to work up to 50 feet of water. Divers and professional photographers who may want to take photos deep underwater will need all the help they could get in order to capture properly exposed and less-noisy images.

Olympus also improved the underwater modes by adjusting its algorithms on the TG-5 so that colors are more accurate in photos. Olympus said there’s four underwater modes on the TG-5.

The TG-5 also has other shooting modes as well, including Nighttime Live Composite, for capturing light trails, and Pro Capture Mode which helps in making sure users capture the exact moment even before or after taking a photo. There’s also HDR shooting, Focus Peaking and Manual Focus Assist and even 14 creative art filters.

Olympus has also added four specialized Macro Modes for the TG-5. Microscope Mode allows users ti shoot objects as close as 1 centimeter, while Microscope Control Mode is able to shoot objects that are only 1 millimeter in size by combining optical and digital zoom.

There’s also Focus Stacking Mode which is able to take eight photos and combine all of them into one to provide better depth of field (background blur). Lastly, theres the Focus Bracketing Mode which is able to take 30 photos at once. Users will then be able to choose the amount of focus shift and number of shots from the 30 images. Olympus says that Focus Bracketing is best for shooting low-contrast subjects like flower petals.

Like with the TG-4, the new Olympus TG-5 is still capable of shooting RAW photos. The biggest change with the TG-5 however is that it gives users the option to only shoot in RAW. The TG-4 was only capable of shooting RAW and JPEG photos simultaneously.

As for video, the Olympus TG-5 can shoot 4K Ultra HD resolution videos at 25 or 30 frames-per-second, as well as full HD 1080p at 120 frames-per-second for slow-motion. There's also full HD video recording at 25, 30, 50 and 60fps, accoridng to Engdaget. Other features include a GPS sensor and built-in Wi-Fi.