Used Olympus TG-4?

I will be joining old university friends on a portage trip coming Friday. There is an offer on Kijiji for a used Olympus TG-4 for CAD 150. Should I get this camera? - for this price? Given my situation, I will probably not make the purchase, but it is still fun to speculate and think about it. :slight_smile:

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Are you going to take any camera? I’ll say this, and YMMV: I spent two years in the Marshall Islands, got my scuba cert only because it was too easy to do. Did some great diving in +100’ vis waters and the only pictures I have were taken by others because I was too cheap to get my own camera (they’d hired me out of academia, still had my ‘frugal hat’).

I know your budget might not allow, but think about the implications. 114US seems like a good deal (found an ebay offer for $175US) unless it has some flaw, like compromise of the water seal.

Just saying…

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That is where my hesitancy comes from. Otherwise, it is a good deal.

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Yeah, water resistance is not an easy thing to test… I take that back, it is easy, you just might not like the result… :crazy_face:

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I am on my third TG camera. I had a TG5 or TG4 whch was destroyed when the camera was splashed with water and the charging port got wet because it was not yet closed. Unbelievable that a phone never leaks through the charging port but an underwater camera does, hmm. The replacement camera I bought was a TG6 and despite claiming 15 meters waterproof it flooded at 11.6 meters depth. Hats off to Olympus distributer in Australia, they replaced it free of charge despite the warranty period being expired. I was very impressed by that. However, being scared to test the water tightness of the camera again, I purchased a seafrog underwater housing from eBay. So even if the housing leaks then it has to also get through the cameras defences.

The TG cameras from Olympus are the best affordable underwater camera on the market that shoots in RAW. I can recommend the camera, but shoot in RAW and editing in DT.

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All that matters is waterproof is safer than water resistant. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Not when the camera doesn’t work because the guts are corroded. Two dead TGs in my hands. I definitely recommend the seafrog housing. Looks more professional and it floats. But TG is great for wet and dirty outdoor activities like mountain biking in a tropical storm in Thailand. It passed that test without a housing. :grinning:

Portaging is not deep sea diving. It will probably™ be okay. :crossed_fingers:

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I second this. I took my TG camera on many wet, dirty and rough terrestrial trips and snorkelling trips without the need for an underwater housing. They are great for these activities. But the point I wanted to make was get an underwater housing if scuba diving.

BTW, the TG cameras produce really compromised quality JPGs that sacrifice a lot of detail and sharpness. The shots really benefit from DT developing the RAWs. The lens has lots of distortion and chromatic aberration which is easily managed by DT. The distortion I only correct if it is noticeable as some of the image area is by necessity lost while performing the correction. This happens with the in camera JPG as well.

Good bush walking camera when you don’t have to worry about, rain, mud or reasonably rough treatment.

I ended up filling up my schedule so much so I don’t have time to pick up the camera from the other end of the city. Thanks for everyone’s feedback. :slight_smile: