OM SYSTEM TOUGH IG-7

This compact really is tough enough to handle anything

www.omsystem.com £500/$550

Yeah, that picture on the last Y page of this review? That's the OM System Tough TG-7 sitting in a glass of water, with a cat taking a drink for good measure. Why? Well, why not? After all, the camera is waterproof- and I mean, seriously waterproof. Not waterproof like an iPhone, where you're scared to let it get in contact with water because it can get damaged by anything from the pressure in a shower head to the salt in seawater. No, the OM System Tough TG-7 is properly waterproof. So, there it is just chilling in a glass of water while I write this review.

The OM System Tough TG-7 is a compact camera with a difference: it's waterproof, shockproof and freezeproof. It has a GPS as part of a full Field Sensor System that records things like the temperature as well as altitude. That's ideal for recording precisely what the conditions are if you're doing something like scaling Everest, or to see how hot it was on the day you took a photo, or what altitude the plane was flying at when you took a video of yourself skydiving.

The OM System Tough TG-7 does so much more than that... but, crucially. not much more than its predecessor. So how good is the TG-7 and, if you already own the Olympus Tough TG-6, would it be enough to merit an upgrade?

Key features

Let's start with the crucial stuff: just how 'everything-proof' is this camera? It's waterproof to 15m (50ft), which is as deep as five Olympic swimming pools, it's also freeze-proof to -10C (14F), which is around the average temperature in Siberia at this time of year. It's shockproof to drops from 2.1m (7ft), so would be able to survive falling off Shaquille O'Neal's head, and it's crush-proof to 100kg (220lbs). which is the equivalent of being trodden on by a giant panda.