Let's be honest I bought this camera specifically for the waterproof/dustproof/crushproof/freezeproof features. I anticipated that image quality and ease of operation might be sacrificed and this is exactly what Olympus delivered. Additional questionable bonus is the "tap" feature, which allows to activate some of the functions by tapping the camera from the sides. This is a nice concept, but would be much more useful if it was reconfigurable and allowed the user to assign which functions are activated by tapping. The most important (at least for me) feature of this camera is that it's waterproof, and I can honestly admit that it works. I used this camera for a couple of hours while playing around in the swimming pool, and it worked beautifully. No leaks, no bubbles, and color correction for underwater photography is quite decent. The crushproof feature was also tested, since I dropped the camera couple of times, and it kept working. This camera is tough :) Unfortunately the image quality is far from perfect, in fact is merely average for a point-and-shooter.
The good:
waterproof and crushproof (tested!)
good color representation
good automatic white balance (AWB)
built-in panorama mode (only 3 frames)
The bad:
images lack sharpness, appear very "soft"
poor low light operation (focusing)
occasional focusing issues (focuses in center even in "face detect" mode)
some operation modes ("scenes") are inconsistent, e.g. "portrait" mode switches focusing to "point" instead of "face detect"
flash is too strong and there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust it
the image stabilization doesn't seem to help consider it non-existent
heavy (but this is kind of expected)
tap control not reconfigurable
The ugly:
weird "ghosting" and flaring effects appearing in photos on some occasions when the flash was used (poor or no antireflective coatings on lenses)
very poor sound quality in movies
Bottom line if not for the "tough" part, this would have been a pretty average, all-around, point-and-shooter. If you need a true waterproof (not just "splash proof") camera or something that you can carry in your pocket or a backpack in all weather conditions or any situation that could otherwise damage your camera this is the one to get. If you don't need the "tough" part get another camera with better image quality.
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