Olympus has created an entire line of cameras designed to be used in inclement conditions, ranging from the $250 Stylus 850 SW to the $350 Stylus 1030 SW, which can survive depths up to 33 feet. The Stylus 1050 SW, on the other hand, can handle a bit of splashing and falling, but not quite to the level of the other models. This 10-megapixel camera, which will set you back $300, can survive 10 feet of water and temperatures down to 14°F, making it a great choice for shooting at the pool or out on the slopes. Plus, if you’re wearing a thick pair of ski gloves, the 1050 SW lets you tap on the sides and top of the camera to control playback, shadow adjustment and flash mode.

The camera has a 3x zoom lens tucked away in the upper left corner, protected by a stylish drop-down lens cover that’ll guard against any damage. While the tap system lets you control some of the camera’s settings, you’ll enter most commands using a well-constructed but very cramped button system.

Seeing as you’re probably using this camera while snowboarding down a mountain being chased by tuxedo-clad villains on snowmobiles, or something equally extreme, you probably won’t have time to fiddle with manual settings, so there are very few on the 1050 SW. You can’t manually control shutter speed, aperture or focus.

For both aperture and shutter speed, the 1050 SW feels  decidedly limited. Exposure lengths only run from 1/1000 to four seconds, erring on the slow side for catching fast action on a sunny day. As for the aperture, the maximum setting is f/3.5, discouraging low-light photography.

Performance (read in-depth lab performance at Digitalcamerainfo.com)
While the Stylus 1050 SW may fly high on the style department, it crashed and burned in our lab testing. It squeaked by in color accuracy and low light performance, but was distinctly sub-par in all the other tests, most noticeably an abysmal performance for white balance.

The camera was also decidedly on the slow side in our timing tests. It took about four seconds to start up, only took one photo every 2.7 seconds in continuous “burst” mode, and took up to six seconds to process an image after taking it. These are not the specs of a camera that will wow you with its speed and responsiveness.

Comparisons (read in-depth comparisons at Digitalcamerainfo.com)
We compared the Olympus 1050 SW to four other point-and-shoot cameras, two weather-resistant models and two less aggressively armored contenders.

The Pentax Optio W60 is slightly more expensive than the 1050 SW ($329.99 vs $299.99), has a better 4x zoom lens, and can withstand up to 13 feet of water and 14°F temperatures. In our lab tests, the Optio handily outperformed the 1050 SW. While it’s not quite as sleek looking, and doesn’t have the distinctive tap controls, it’s a better all-weather camera for a very slight price increase.

If, on the other hand, you want your camera to handle massive amounts of abuse, the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW will set you back $350, and is waterproof to 33 feet (10 meters), shockproof from a 6.6-foot (2 m) height, and adds a "crushproof" claim to withstand 220 pounds of pressure. It’s a bit bigger and chunkier than the 1050, but the increased price and size is well worth the additional resilience, and the overall superior performance it provided.

If you don’t need your camera to handle any extreme situations, we also compared the 1050 SW to the Fujifilm F60fd and Samsung TL34HD. Both provide  higher resolution than the 1050 (the Fuji shoots at 12 megapixels, the Samsung at 14.7), and cost around $300. The Fujifilm performed better than the Olympus in our color accuracy and resolution tests, while the Samsung trounced them both, and utilizes an excellent touch-screen interface to boot. Of course, neither the Fujifilm nor the Samsung will survive a dip in the pool, where the Olympus performs swimmingly.