The OM System Tough TG-7 is my official beach day camera – but one of my favorite features of the waterproof compact isn’t one of the camera’s headlining features, like the waterproof body or the pocketable size. If I’m grabbing for the TG-7 out of my camera collection, it’s either because I need something small and durable – or because I want microscopic macro photographs.
The OM System Tough TG-7 is arguably the best waterproof compact camera out there, at least in its price range, thanks to its durable design and bright lens. When I brought it along on my family vacation earlier this year, I used it more than my mirrorless camera, in part because much of that vacation was spent on wet, sandy beaches.
But outside of the Tough series’ durability, one of my favorite features of the TGH-7 sits on the camera’s mode dial: the macro mode. The TG-7 can focus as close as 1 cm from the front of the lens, which means the camera is capable of some exceptional close-ups.
The photo above showcases just what that macro mode can do, getting close enough to a subject to create abstract artwork. The image is the wing of a luna moth that I found napping on a windowsill earlier this summer, a close-up that shows the fake “eye” that is part of the insect’s camouflage.
The TG-7 has a few different macro modes. There’s a basic macro, then a microscopic mode for even closer shots. This microscopic mode is the equivalent of a 7x macro on a full-frame camera, which is so good that I’ve used it for photographing individual snowflakes.
Macro mirrorless lenses tend to be expensive, and only a few go beyond 1:1 or 1X. Even OM System’s best macro mirrorless lens is a 2x magnification, which looks like 4x from a full-frame camera, thanks to the crop factor. The TG-7 gets even closer.
Getting up close to the subject exaggerates depth of field, leaving much of the image out of focus. The TG-7 also has focus stacking, a mode that will stack photos together so that more of the image remains in focus. This is all done in-camera rather than with editing software, but the TG-7 also has a focus bracketing mode that gives photographers the ability to build the focus stack themselves in Photoshop and other editing programs.
Yes, there are limitations to capturing macro photographs with a compact camera, and in particular, a compact camera with a small sensor. The image quality from the 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO with a Micro Four Thirds body is going to be sharper, with clearer details and less noise.
But the TG-7 is also a camera that fits in a pocket – and in many budgets at $549 / £449 / AU$759. I think one of the pocketable camera’s best features is the ability to get exceptionally close to tiny subjects.
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