The camera was the number 1 top-rated Tough Camera in every review. Related: Pacific Crest Trail Gear List & StrategyД«ut weвЂ™re not alone in our praise for the TG series. The weight of a typical DSLR camera, the kind with interchangeable lenses that you wear around your neck and hold in two hands is measured in pounds. A tough cameraвЂ™s weight is measured in ounces. They are ergonomically designed for ease of use and large enough for their controls, buttons, and settings to be used even with glove liners on. In contrast to phones or full-size DSLR cameras or other non-tough point-and-shoots, tough cameras donвЂ™t need protective cases and are small enough to fit in a shirt pocket or backpack pouch. Most have autofocus adjustments that can hone in on a single object or keep a moving subject in focus. Tough cameras can shoot single still images or bursts with zero or minuscule shutter lag. These days the cameraвЂ™s sensor does the same thing. Exposure, back in the long-ago days of film meant the amount of light that touched the film inside the camera and produced the image. For instance, under the вЂњSceneвЂќ mode theВ Olympus TG-5В has 5 basic semi-automatic exposure settings: People, Nightscapes, Motion, Scenery, and Indoors, and over 20 different adjustments under those sub-categories to further fine-tune exposure. Tough cameras can handle a wide latitude of varying exposure situations with automatic (and semi-auto) settings. Most Tough cameras have macro and even microlens settings for extreme close-ups. The cameras reviewed here will zoom (optically) from about 24 mm to 100 mm. An optical zoom found on Tough cameras actually pulls the subject closer in the viewfinder. The digital zoom found in most phones is merely a low-quality crop of the image in your viewfinder. Unlike many phone cameras, Tough cameras have optical telephoto lenses, not digital zooms. Good lenses that are sharp edge to edge with accurate color reproduction are the cornerstone of good photography. Read More: The Best 4-Season Tents Quality Optics Related: The Best Personal Flotation Devices & Life Jackets Tough cameras can function in rain, snow, and sandstorms and withstand extremes of hot and cold temperatures. Tough cameras are tough! Weatherproof, waterproof, and crushproof, they can survive being dropped onto rocks, buried in mud, tossed at grizzly bears, and stomped on by moose. Although Tough Cameras are video capable, and can shoot high quality video, they are not primarily video cameras. Tough cameras are sophisticated auto focus, auto exposure, point and shoot cameras with video capability. GoPros can take stills from the video but these kind of cameras are primarily dedicated to video. While action cameras are fully water and weatherproof, they only have one wide angle focal length and a point of view that usually comes from being mounted on a helmet or other object. Even in a protective case, a cell phone is still a cell phone with shortcomings in the camera department: a fixed focal length lens with limited telephoto capability (most will do a digital zoom which produces lower quality images) and limited exposure control (see our Guide to Best iPhones for Outdoor Adventures to learn more about what phone cameras can and canвЂ™t do these days).ДЄ tough camera is not an action camera, like the GoPro Hero 7. DonвЂ™t bounce your phone off a boulder, take it into a sandstorm, let it freeze or overheat or shoot with it at any depth underwater. But I wouldnвЂ™t test a cell phoneвЂ™s durability much further than that. If you shoot in the rain, drop your phone into a creek or take a dunking while rafting, youвЂ™re covered. Many new cell phones like the Google Pixel 3, Samsung Galaxy S9 or iPhone XR are weather and waterproof-to a point. As cell phones have evolved so too has the quality of images produced with them. LetвЂ™s start with what tough cameras are not.

Fujifilm waterproof digital camera