Best Olympus Cameras of 2026

Sixty frames per second with the electronic shutter is a figure that still looks startling on a body this old. The E-M1 Mark II reaches it with single autofocus, holds 18 fps with continuous autofocus, and backs both with a 121-point dual fast system using cross-type phase detection — coverage that keeps a sprinting child or a dog mid-run in focus instead of hunting past them.

Speed is only half of why it stays in the guide. The 20.4MP Live MOS sensor and TruePic VIII processor produce the rich, saturated color this generation is known for, and 4K video means it isn't a stills-only proposition. The body carries at 1.1 pounds, but the articulating touchscreen and the 1.48x viewfinder are what make it feel like a working camera rather than a spare: you compose at eye level, and you can frame from waist height with the screen out.

The second card slot is the detail we kept noticing. Long bursts go somewhere other than the card you're about to pull, and a full card stops being a story you tell afterward. It's a generation behind the OM-1 Mark II in autofocus coverage — the newer body is the more persistent of the two when a subject refuses to hold still — but for landscape, macro and studio work that gap barely registers.

One habit worth forming: leave the electronic shutter on for daylight action and switch to the mechanical one indoors under artificial light, where the faster readout can band. Fifteen frames per second with single autofocus is still there when you do, which is more than enough for most of what people actually shoot.

Twelve megapixels on a 1/2.3-inch sensor is the smallest imaging chain in this guide, and it's worth being straight about what that means: the TG-7 is not the camera you buy for pixel-level detail or for dim restaurants. It's the camera you buy because it will still be working when the wave arrives, and because it can focus on things your phone has no way to see.

The numbers behind that are unusually concrete. Waterproof to 15 m, shockproof from 2.1 m, crushproof to 100 kgf and freeze-proof to -10°C, with an anti-fog lens that doesn't steam up when you go from a hot deck into cold water. What we like most is the macro system: four modes get you as close as 1 cm from the end of the lens, close enough that you're photographing the ridges on a shell rather than the shell, and the five underwater modes sort out the color cast so you aren't grading every frame afterward.

The limits are the ones that come with the category. In dim water the small sensor gives you grainy files, and there's no way around that except more light or a bigger camera — for a reef at noon or a rainy hike it never comes up. What did surprise us was the video: 4K with high-speed slow motion makes a jumping fish far easier to catch than timing it by hand.

Set the TG-6's specification sheet next to the TG-7's and the differences nearly disappear. Both are waterproof to 15 m, shockproof from 2.1 m, crushproof to 100 kgf and freeze-proof to -10°C; both use a 12MP 1/2.3-inch back-illuminated sensor behind a 25–100mm equivalent f/2.0 lens; both focus to 1 cm and record 4K along with high-speed slow motion. If you're choosing between the two, you're choosing on price and availability, not on capability.

That isn't a knock on the TG-6 — it's an acknowledgment of how completely the formula was worked out the first time. The ruggedness is the reason to own it: this is the camera that lives in a life jacket pocket or a rain-shell on a wet hike, and the macro modes reward anyone who bothers to kneel down. Our view is that the older body is the smarter buy of the two when the money differs, and the battery figure is the one place it makes a clear claim: about 340 shots to CIPA standards.

Cold water is where that rating stops being realistic. The battery drains far faster on a dive day than on a walk, so carry a spare, keep it somewhere dry, and charge both the night before a boat trip. Beyond that the TG-6 asks very little of you, which is the point of a camera you keep in a pocket for the one moment the water clears.

At 13.92 ounces the original OM-D E-M10 is the lightest interchangeable-lens body in this guide, and it's the one to look at if you want a camera to learn on rather than a camera to grow into. A 16MP Four Thirds sensor, an electronic viewfinder, a tilting touchscreen that fires the shutter, a built-in flash and Wi-Fi cover the basics, and the touch shutter makes low-angle shots easy for someone who has never owned anything but a phone.

Image quality isn't the compromise. In good light the files are clean, the color is pleasant, and the detail holds up better than the 16MP figure suggests — this is a sensor that rewards a decent lens rather than one that caps what you can do. The 3-axis sensor-shift stabilization helps steady handheld stills, though it won't rescue a slow shutter at night.

The compromises are in video, where 1080p is the ceiling. That's fine for family clips and a problem if you're building a channel or want to crop into 4K footage later. Check what the listing includes, too: this body has been sold both bare and bundled with a collapsing 14-42mm zoom, and the difference changes the total you're comparing against everything else on this page.

The 1.15x electronic viewfinder is the part we miss when we shoot with anything smaller. Composing at eye level in a body this light still feels like a small luxury, and it's the reason the E-M10 stays in a bag instead of a drawer.