Budget Waterproof Olympus 770 SW Digital Camera

The Olympus 770SW is a 7.1-million megapixel camera that comes boxed with loads of extras to make life easy and, best of all, not only is it a smashing camera, it\'s waterproof to a depth of 5meters without a housing. And it\'s shockproof as well.

Sit on a dive boat and a queue will quickly form to drop your camera once word gets out it\'s shockproof from a height of 1.5 meters, belief me!

In an effort to prove Olympus wrong, divers and gravity got together to drop it from various heights and angles on to its sides, corners, screen and just about every part of its metal body. Having failed to dent Olympus\' claim, we tried to see if it really was waterproof to 5 meters. Subject only to the limitations of sunlight and its little flash, the Olympus took cracking photos in the shallows on the reefs of the coast of Koh Chang.

The camera has 25 preset screen modes, including two wide-angle and one macro underwater settings, and an auto setting. Switching between them was a cinch with the user-friendly operating system.

Pop the Olympus 770 SW into a special housing and the 770 SW is now waterproof to a dept of 40 meters and, best of all, if you notice the housing leaks when you start your dive, it\'s not the end of the camera, thanks to the camera being waterproof itself. The housing secures with two metal clips and benefit from a lens cover, which in my humble opinion all housing should come with.

The well-designed housing allows access to all the camera\'s functions and the good-sized, well-placed buttons are easy to use. The Olympus 770 has a huge screen with adjustable brightness, which in conjunction with its hood makes finding and focusing on your subject a simple enough task.

The final images were very good, both crisp and detailed with the three underwater settings helping prevent the end picture being too blue.