OM System Tough TG-7

The OM System Tough TG-7 is a compact camera from Olympus, released in 2023. At 253 grams and about 11 centimetres wide, it fits in a jacket pocket, which is the whole idea of a camera like this.

It suits anyone who wants one camera for outdoors: travel, hiking, boats and beaches. Weather sealing helps it keep working when conditions turn rough, and the built-in GPS records where each photo was taken.

There is no viewfinder and the lens is fixed, so composition happens on the 3-inch screen and the camera never grows beyond pocket size. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built in for wireless connectivity.

Stills come from a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor in the small 1/2.3-inch format. The ISO range runs from 100 to 12800, so high settings are available when light drops, though the numbers alone say nothing about how clean those files will be.

Sequential bursts reach 20 fps and ProCapture mode runs at 10 fps. These are maximum figures, and the autofocus and duration conditions behind each rate are not supplied, so treat them as peaks rather than a sustained promise.

In-body stabilisation reduces camera shake, which helps for handheld shooting in fading light or on the move. It does nothing for subject movement. The top shutter speed is 1/2000 second, and autofocus uses 25 points.

There is no viewfinder and no lens mount, so you frame everything on the rear screen and work with the fixed lens. That keeps the camera simple and pocketable, at the cost of the flexibility an interchangeable system would give you.

Video tops out at 4K resolution, and frame rates reach 60 fps; these are separate maximums, and the permitted combination is not stated. Clips record as H.264 in MPEG-4 or MOV.

The built-in timelapse function condenses slow scenes such as drifting clouds or a sunset into clips without a separate intervalometer.

In-body stabilisation keeps handheld clips steadier by reducing camera shake. It does nothing for subject movement, so expect moving subjects to blur at slow shutter speeds.

Weather sealing makes the camera comfortable to film with in rain, spray or dust. That suits the same rough outdoor conditions the rest of the camera is built for, and keeps you filming when the weather turns.

Framing and playback happen on a 3-inch LCD with about 1.04 million dots. The screen has no touch input and does not move, so you aim the camera and press buttons rather than tap and swivel.

A built-in flash helps with dim rooms and evening shots. There is no support for an external flash, so the built-in unit is the only flash option on this body.

GPS is the notable travel feature. It records where each photo was taken, which makes it easy to sort a long trip afterwards or find a shot's origin on a map.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built in for wireless connectivity. The weather sealing rounds out a feature set clearly aimed at outdoor use.

Storage is a single SD slot that accepts SD, SDHC and SDXC cards with UHS-I compatibility. There is no second slot, so a spare card in the bag is sensible insurance on a long trip.

The LI-92B battery is rated at 330 shots. That is a rating rather than a promise, and a busy day of shooting, reviewing and wireless transfer will drain it faster, so a spare battery is a reasonable addition.

USB charging is a practical plus. You can top the battery up from a USB charger or a laptop between shoots, which helps keep packing light on multi-day trips.