WANTED: Gadget girl seeks go-anywhere, do-anything travel partner. Must love adventure, water and winter sports, and global exploration. Fragile sissies need not reply.
FOUND: Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 pocket camera.
Leave the clunky SLR and clumsy waterproof housings at home – you won’t be needing them once you add this rugged travel essential to your adventure packing list.
I know I’m a total gadget-geek, but I get a thrill each and every time I dive into a salt water ocean, or plunge headlong into whitewater rapids, with this puppy strapped to my wrist, sans waterproof casing. Even more so, when I rinse it off under a stream of water in the kitchen sink. And who cares how many times I fall snowboarding (it happens a lot!), this freezeproof, crushproof, dropproof beast can handle it. It doesn’t take a gadget girl to appreciate that.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
I’ve taken this little dynamo skiing in Utah, snorkeling in Baja and mountain biking in New Mexico. I even dropped it onto my ceramic tile floor - and it’s still shooting like the little pro that it is. Shockproof, waterproof (to 10-feet underwater), freeze-proof (to -14°F) and basically life-proof, if I can take it, so, it appears, can the palm-sized Olympus Stylus 1050SW.
The folks at Olympus seem to have thought of everything any adventurous shutterbug could ask for – rain or shine, underwater, on the slopes or on the run. Boasting 10.1 megapixel high-quality photography, image stabilized video, scene specific shooting modes, quick-access buttons for flash and exposure control, this svelte little number screams Yes You Can!
Favorite Feature: Topping my list is it’s pocket-sized convenience assuring that I’m never without a camera. Better yet, at 10.1 megapixels, if I do happen to snap the shot-of-the-century, it’s publication-quality. Did I mention it shoots YouTube ready video, too? Very fun.
Not-so-favorite Feature: No viewfinder means that I have to compose my shot in the LCD screen. But every shutterbug under the age of 30 that I voice this complaint to tells me to “get over it!” Okay, okay, I get it, viewfinders are sooo middle-age, but I still don’t like it.
Bottom-line: I wouldn’t even think of adventuring without it.
$299.00 suggested retail price: www.olympus.com
Also available at The Travel Store at EllenBarone.com powered by Amazon.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".