Olympus TG-3 Review – Design

Thankfully most manufacturers are moving away from making their adventure cameras look like sci-fi military hardware, in favour of a more conventional appearance, and the design if the TG-3 reflects this.

It still has a couple of unnecessary exposed bolt heads on the front cover, but other than that it looks like a normal compact camera. It has a textured rubber grip on the right of the body and a small thumb-grip area on the back, making it nice and comfortable to hold, but the control design leaves something to be desired.

Rear controls

The on/off button, shutter button and zoom lever on the top plate are partly recessed, which may protect them from damage, but makes them hard to operate, especially when wearing gloves. The zoom control is especially fiddly.

The rear panel controls are no better, with small fiddly buttons, a narrow partly-recessed mode dial and a small D-pad. Fortunately Olympus’ menu design has improved markedly over the past few years, mostly by taking cues from other manufacturers, and the addition of a quick menu for commonly-used settings is especially useful.

Needless to say the build quality is excellent. The two hatches have sturdy hinges, locking latches and O-ring seals, and the plastic body feels extremely tough and durable. The supplied wrist strap and its steel mounting point look like they could be used to tow a Land Rover.