Olympus Stylus TG-625 Tough adds AF light for tricky shots in rough situations

It's been awhile since we've seen Olympus tackle the more affordable side of its rugged camera lineup, which makes its latest entry feel overdue. The Stylus TG-625 Tough effectively replaces the TG-620 by adding something that's been commonplace in the camera world: an autofocus illuminator light to improve focusing at night or, more likely with this camera, when it's plunged 16 feet underwater. Outside of a new double-lock system, though, you're looking at the hardware that has defined most of Olympus' rugged line this year, including a 12-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, a 28-140mm equivalent lens, 1080p movie making and a 3-inch LCD. The Japanese should get the TG-625 the soonest, on August 31st. There's no word on whether or not there's an upgrade on the way for the US, although we can picture it slotting into the American lineup without much trouble.

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Fashionable design and colors let users easily capture a variety of situations from daily life to active scenes.

The OLYMPUS STYLUS TG-625 compact digital camera

Olympus Imaging (President: Haruo Ogawa) is proud to announce the introduction of the OLYMPUS STYLUS TG-625, a camera which features waterproof*1, shockproof*2, and freezeproof*3 functionality into a tough, but stylish body, along with iHS Technology, which allows users to perfectly and beautifully capture photographic moments. It is schedule to go on sale from August 2012.

Main Features

1. With waterproof*1, shockproof*2, and freezeproof*3 functionality, the TG-625 is a tough model, built to withstand the most punishing environments.
2. With a 12.0 megapixel*4, back-illuminated CMOS sensor, an image processing engine established with the OLYMPUS PEN, and iHS Technology, this camera achieves high-sensitivity, low noise, a fast AF, and a fast start-up time.
3. Equipped with Magic Filter*5, for arranging photos exactly as users imagine them, and Beauty Make-up*6, for 19 varieties of makeup effects
4. The new AF Focus Illuminator is a supplemental light included for those times when auto focus has difficulty focusing in dark places, or in scenes with particularly low contrast.

The Tough series is a camera equipped with the three Tough qualities, waterproof/dust proof*1, shockproof*2, and freezeproof*3, for worry-free shooting underwater, mountain climbing, and other harsh environments that other cameras could not endure. With the ability to easily shoot in tough or formal situations, the photo possibilities keep growing.

The OLYMPUS STYLUS TG-625 boasts waterproof functionality*1 down to 5 meters, shockproof*2 to 1.5 meters, and freezeproof*3 to -10°C.In addition to being perfect for the ocean and mountains, the TG-625 is lightweight and compact, making it perfect for taking anywhere. Because it can easily be taken out of and slipped into a bag, it is the perfect camera for daily situations: shooting photos of food or sweets, pets, parties, and a girls' night out. With such a wide field of photo opportunities, users will love shooting and carrying it with them.

With the combination of the back-illuminated CMOS sensor and TruePicVI SLR image processing engine, the iHS Technology made it improve the image quality, the speed from camera start-up until shooting, focus time, and continuous shooting time. In dark or low-contrast scenes, it can be difficult for the auto focus to operate properly. With AF Focus Illuminator, however, the subject can be illuminated, assisting in focusing. The popular Magic Filter*5 is available, with a total of 12 different effects, 10 of which can be used when shooting movies. Users can simply select a filter to give a slightly different flair to their still images and movies. Beauty Make-up*6 is also available, offering 19 different effects such as eye shadow, blush and other types of makeup to smooth skin and make it look more beautiful when shooting, or during playback. This camera is packed with useful features that not only cover tough shooting conditions, but usual situations, such as automatically detecting a pet's face (dogs and cats), and automatically capturing the shot at the best possible timing.

With the 28mm wide-angle*7 to 5x optical zoom, a wide variety of shooting possibilities are available, from expansive landscapes and group shots, to narrow-angle underwater shooting.

Main Features -- Details

iHS Technology

iHS Technology stands for "intelligence", "high-speed", and "high-sensitivity".
With a 12.0 megapixel*4, back-illuminated CMOS sensor, and the TruePicVI image processing engine established with the OLYMPUS PEN, this camera achieves high-sensitivity, low noise, image, and fast start-up. Even in backlit or nighttime scenes, the camera can beautifully capture images, just as they are seen by the human eye. With HDR backlit correction, with a single shot, the camera captures three images at different exposures and automatically merges them into a single image. With Super Resolution technology, double the digital zoom is available, with virtually no image degradation. As an added facet of Intelligence technology, iAUTO can automatically detect up to 29 different scenes.

AF Illuminator

The new AF Focus Illuminator is a supplemental light included for those times when auto focus has difficulty focusing in dark places, or in scenes with particularly low contrast. When the shutter button is pressed halfway, the LED will automatically activate, illuminating the subject and improving auto focusing precision. This function is especially useful for shooting in darker indoor scenes.

DUAL IS*8 Image Stabilization

DUAL IS*10 is image stabilization that counteracts the direction of camera shake by moving the CMOS sensor via a shift-type image stabilization mechanism, and uses digital SLR algorithms. By using this function in combination with high-sensitivity shooting, camera shake and subject blur is effectively reduced, providing double image stabilization.

Full High-Definition Movies (MOV/H.264)*9

Full High-definition size 1920 x 1080 movies, and an extremely good compression format for computers. With MOV and H.264 formats, longer movies can be shot more smoothly and beautifully. With the dedicated movie button, movie shooting can be started and stopped with a single touch.

The STYLUS TG-625 is also equipped with Multi-Motion Movie IS image stabilization. Because this function corrects for the gradual camera shake that commonly occurs when shooting a movie while walking, users can more fully enjoy shooting beautiful, high-quality movies.

Magic Filter*5

The popular Magic Filter offers 12 different filters to choose from: Dramatic, Fragmented, Pop, Pinhole, Fisheye, Sketch, Wedding, Rock, Watercolor, Crystal, Miniature, and Mirror. Pop, Pinhole, Sketch, Fisheye, Wedding, Rock, Watercolor, Miniature, Mirror, and Dramatic can also be used when shooting movies.

Beauty Make-up*6

Beauty Make-up*6 allows users to apply the desired makeup effect to three people at the same during shooting or playback, and to register 3 favorite patterns of makeup for ease of use.

This function offers a full range of 19 different makeup effects that will make women happy. Because effects are divided into four different themes such as Makeup, Eye Effects, Performance, and Spa, they are easy to choose from.

The Makeup menu screen is packed with cosmetic choices such as Cheeks, Eye Shadow, and False Eyelashes, so that users can easily choose and apply effects. In the Eye Effect menu, users can not only change eye color, but make eyes appear bigger. In the Spa menu, users can make subjects faces appear smaller, and add effects such as to make faces look even more beautiful, such as Lift-up.

Pet Mode (Scene Mode)*10

Dogs and cats are automatically detected. By selecting Pet-cat or Pet-dog modes, the camera will automatically detect cats or dogs and focus on their faces. Up to ten dog or cat faces can be detected.

Auto Shutter

Capture pets' cute expressions. With Auto Shutter, the camera will automatically shoot when a pet faces the camera head-on. With this function, users won't miss the whimsical antics of their pets. (Auto Shutter can detect only one pet.)

Eye-Fi Support*11

Eye-Fi cards are SDHC memory cards that contain an internal wireless LAN. Images can be wirelessly uploaded to picture services such as [ib on the net], online photo albums, and computers.

SNS Upload Function

This function satisfies the demand of users who want to upload still images to social networking sites, such as Facebook and Flickr.

By adding images user want to share to an upload list on the camera, they can easily be uploaded to the desired social networking service.

To upload images, users simply add recorded images to a list on the camera, and then upload them to a computer. Images added to a list can be searched with a single touch and then easily uploaded. (It is necessary to preinstall the included software OLYMPUS Viewer2 on a computer.)

Basic Features

Effective number of pixels 12 million*4
Zoom factor 5x optical zoom, 10x Super Resolution zoom
Wide 28mm wide-angle (35mm film conversion)
Image stabilization DUAL IS*8
(CMOS shift type & high-sensitivity shooting, Multi-motion Movie IS)
LCD screen size 3.0 type, 460,000 dots
LCD screen type HyperCrystal III for OLYMPUS Tough Series LCD
Movie shooting Full High-definition movies (MOV/H.264)*9

Other Features

- Underwater scene mode (Underwater Snap)
- Macro LED function
- Multi Motion image stabilization support for movies - reduces slow, strong camera shake that occurs when breathing or walking
- Sequential shooting function: 5 fps (12m), 15 fps (3M), 60 fps (3M)
- Face and Back Control detects subjects faces and adjusts the focus, and optimizes the exposure
- Scene Mode allows for shooting not only standard scenes, but also enables easy shooting of beautiful images even in difficult shooting conditions
- HDMI Output Control*12 enables control of the camera, such as selecting and switching images with a TV remote control
- Face Detect AF lets the camera automatically detect faces
- iAUTO allows never-fail, beautiful shooting of 29 different automatically detectable scenes for still images and movies
- In-camera Panorama Merge allows users to easily shoot panoramic images by simply moving the camera as directed
- USB Battery Charge allows users to charge the camera battery while connected to a computer, and transferring or organizing image data
- Auto Tracking AF automatically tracks moving subjects and adjusts the focus
- Photo Surfing allows users to search for images by keyword, such as the date and subject (person, dog, cat)
- New double lock mechanism – slide style double lock
- Supported media: SD, SDHC, SDXC, Eye-Fi cards

*1 Waterproof functionality is equivalent to JIS/IEC protection class 8 (IPX8). Dust proof functionality is equivalent to JIS/IEC protection class 6 (IPX6).
*2 This product is manufactured according to quality standards and testing procedures equivalent to MIL Standard 810F Method 516.5 Selecting Procedure IV (U.S. defense regulations for the military).
*3 The available number of shots will decrease.
*4 Effective pixels
*5 Recordable image size will differ depending on the filters in Magic Filter. Filters available for use when shooting movies are limited.
*6 The image size is limited to 5M and lower for corrected images. Effects may differ from person to person.
*7 35mm film equivalent
*8 Differences in image stabilization may occur depending on shooting conditions.
*9 The maximum recording time for a single movie clip is limited to 29 minutes. Recording will automatically stop once the file size has reached 4 GB.
*10 The number of detectable pets are as follows. Auto shutter on: 1, Auto shutter off: 10. Faces may not be detectable in certain shooting conditions or for certain subjects. During pet detection, detection of people's faces, and use of the flash are not available.
*11 Eye-Fi card use is only permitted in the country of purchase. Make sure to abide by the laws in the country of use. Do not use Eye-Fi cards inside aircraft, or where the use of radio transmissions are limited or forbidden, or set the Eye-Fi card's transmission function to OFF. Images and movies with a file size exceeding 2 GB cannot be sent. For questions concerning Eye-Fi cards, contact the manufacturer.
*12 When the HDMI control setting menu is set to ON.