Review: Olympus TG-7  Dive Camera + SeaFrogs Housing // SCUBA Diving Photography

After 8 years of trying to capture videos of the underwater world with various GoPros, I finally made the upgrade to a proper underwater camera! The OLYMPUS TG- 7 Series of waterproof cameras by Olympus, paired with the SeaFrogs Housing, seems to be the place most people start. Having captured videos with my GoPro on dive trips to Hawaii, the Keys, Tahiti, and even in Thailand, I thought the videos were fine, good enough even. But I was wrong, the ability to capture macro images of the smallest critters on the reef without the wide angle distortion, plus zoom into the fish that are just out of reach, the TG-7 was the ultimate upgrade at this price point. 

While the Olympus TG-7 is waterproof out of the box to 15m, that is not enough for even most recreational dives let alone any deep dives to a shipwreck. Luckily, SeaFrogs makes a housing for the TG-7 at a fraction of the price of most camera underwater housings. The housing not only protects the camera at depth (up to 195ft) and gives you full functionality of the camera, it separates the ocean water away from the camera lens to the outside of the housing. Though that doesn’t mean much, it drastically improves the quality of the image when in water. Plus, the housing allows for easy attachment for filters, dome, grips, extensions, lights, and strobes.

My favorite features on the TG-7, especially over the features of the GoPro series, are the Zoom, Macro mode, the larger frame, the flash, and the ability to take photos and videos in the same setting. 

ZOOM Feature

I use the 4x optical zoom feature way more than I thought I would. Beyond trying to capture the barracuda hanging out on the edge of the reef, I more often use it to fill the camera frame with the entire fish. Even if the fish is only a foot or two away, especially when it’s a tiny banded shrimp or arrow crab tucked away inside some hard corals. The downside of the zoom is that the image stabilization performance drops off very quickly at full zoom, and this is very visible when capturing video. 

Macro Mode

Don’t get me wrong, seeing a large Hawksbill Sea Turtle or a Reef Shark gets me just as excited as the first time, but the macro (very tiny) sea creatures have become my true passion to film and photograph. Adjusting the settings dial to macro mode, you can truly bring to life the smallest of fish and crustaceans. Before, with a GoPro, you simply shoved the camera as close to the animal as possible and hoped the series of photos came out okay. But with the TG series and its bright screen, you can really focus on the eyeball of the smallest creature and capture a moment that you never would have imagined. This translates as well to the videos, with my buoyancy being the only limitation to a great, steady shot of creatures like tentacles of an anemone capturing it’s prey, a school of silversides or Blennies, or the spots on a seal faced puffer fish. The possibilities are endless when you start looking at the reef on the macro scale.

Size & Frame

As technology progresses, the once massive cameras can now fit on a post-it note, or even smaller. While I agree this progress is amazing, one drawback is the feeling of stability in your hands. The smaller the camera’s frame, the more prone it is to shaking video footage. I still remember getting better video quality from the larger, heavier GoPro Hero 2 than I did from it’s much smaller successor Hero4. Of course, in-camera image stabilization has fixed 99% of these issues (thankfully), but to me, there still is a feeling of confidence in a larger camera that isn’t so easy to shake about. The TG-7 series inside a Sea Frogs housing, combined with a 2-grip frame, chefs kiss. This is the right amount of weight, size, and durability to resist the unintended movements that come along with scuba diving. The video footage, doesn’t ebb and flow with your fin kicks, surging currents, or the simplest movements of your shoulders when getting into position. I’m aware that this is a personal preference, but having a camera that feels like it wants to be upright and facing the shot feels much more comfortable to me than a flimsy GoPro on the end of a selfie stick.

Flash

Though I generally use the flashlight mounted onto my housing’s frame, you can never, ever have too much light when it comes to underwater photography and videography. Especially when it comes to macro photography at depth, the added benefit of the camera’s native flash will bring out colors on the reef that you never realized. When hovering around 60feet below the surface, the colorful soft and hard corals turn muted shades of tan and blue. The fish scales with hints of greens and reds are all grey, especially the small crabs and shrimp. Lighting up their habitat with the flash, while no doubt blinding them in the process, brings out so much color, but also a shocking amount of clarity through even the otherwise clear water. Even inside a Sea Frogs housing, the flash is defused through a semi-transparent section of plastic that evenly illuminates the shot making for great photos in some of the darkest caves or wrecks. 

Photo & Video Mode

Last, and definitely not least, I love the ability to quickly go from photos to videos in the TG series of cameras. No longer do I have to decide if I want to shoot videos or photos without having to change settings. The TG-7, like most point and shoots or even full frame cameras, have a dedicated shutter and video button. A simple thing, but something that did get annoying with the GoPro or even an iPhone. Quickly, I can snap off a few photos of a tang navigating around a soft coral before clicking record and capturing the rest of its movements around the reef. All with one finger and never having to check my settings to ensure which mode I’m in. 

iPhone Comparison

I’m aware that the iPhone has equal, if not better, photo and video quality than the TG-7. In fact, a fellow diver on a trip showed me their night time photos of a Caribbean octopus from our dive, and I was in awe of the quality. But this is sometimes apples to oranges. Personally, I’m never going to take my very expensive iPhone down to 100ft in a foreign country, regardless if the housing or case is rated for it. Too many things can go wrong and sadly my phone is too important to my ability to travel and return home. Plus, if you want to compare apples to apples, an iPhone scuba diving setup (phone and underwater housing) technically costs almost 2x the TG-7 plus the underwater housing. At that price point, you might as well start investing in a full frame camera with an underwater housing. All to say, if you are willing to risk flooding and breaking your iPhone, then you already have a fantastic camera to use while diving. But for me, it will always be a dedicated camera for anything like scuba diving.

**Note, some photos are taken on the TG-6.