Olympus

In case you weren't aware, the focal range race for superzooms -- or as some call them, bridge cameras -- is still very much alive and well. There's plenty of evidence packed into Olympus's 40x SP-820UZ iHS.

'Tis the season for tough, waterproof cameras to start making their way into the backpacks of outdoor types and the latest model from Olympus looks pretty promising.Like any rugged camera, its primary talking points are a list of things you can do to it without breaking it. It's waterproof to 40 feet, shockproof from a 6.6-foot fall, and freezeproof down to 14 degrees F. That actually makes it one of the more durable cameras in the segment.

The Olympus OM series cameras have been around for roughly 4 decades, but, much like almost everything else, they have gone digital.The boxy body plays well into the current trend of retro-styled cameras with fancy new-fangled features. Inside is a 16.1-megapixel Live MOS sensor that shifts in five directions in order to provide image stabilization. That's a first. It's paired with the TruePic VI image processing engine. That gives it what Olympus is calling an expanded dynamic range and a maximum ISO of 25,600.