You can drop, drown, and crush Olympus' new 4K action camera

Action cameras aren't always immediately suited for action out of the box. For example, GoPro's cameras are known for being sturdy, but that's usually because you stick them in one of the company's ruggedized cases. So if you only have a few hundred bucks to spend, and you are forgiving when it comes to design aesthetics and device-naming conventions, you might want to take a look at the new Olympus Stylus Tough TG-Tracker.

The TG-Tracker is pretty unique to say the least. It has an incredibly wide 204-degree lens, something that's rivaled only by the Ricoh WG-M2. (Is there a rule that rugged cameras must use lots of capitalized consonants in their names? I digress.) The TG-Tracker lets you overlay a bunch of data on that footage, which isn't new, but unlike other cameras you don't need extra devices, because it has a GPS radio, a barometric pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a compass, and an accelerometer built right into the camera. That's not all — the camera also has a built-in tilting LCD screen and a "high-intensity" LED light.

It should be called the Olympus Rasputin

The real draw, though, is the camera's supposed toughness. Olympus claims that it's waterproof up to 100 feet, dustproof, and crushproof up to 220 pounds of force. Curiously, though, the camera is only shockproof for falls up to 7 feet, and freezeproof to temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you're relatively tall, live in Canada, and consider yourself a bit clumsy, you may want to hold on to your loonies.

Olympus Stylus Tough TG-Tracker in photos

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The TG-Tracker will be available this June in black or neon green for $349 in the US, and $479 in Canada.