This is the comparison review of GoPro Hero 7 Black and Olympus Tough TG-5 cameras. In this, Hero 7 is smaller and light weight than the Tough TG-5. Both has some positive and useful features and check out which will be useful for you.

GoPro Hero7 Black	Olympus Tough TG-5
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Much improved stabilization. SuperPhoto adds better stills. Live streaming adds a new way to “share”. Improved UI.	Travel-proof design. Records raw files. 4K video. GPS/action tracking. Vibrant daytime images. Recharges via micro USB.
CONS	CONS
Minor hardware improvements for upgraders. No improvement on battery life.	User interface is confusing. Expensive for a compact. Fiddly apps. Average battery life.

Expert Reviews of GoPro Hero7 Black:

By BackPackerBanter
Sure it’s still not perfect – but this is easily my favourite GoPro yet and has firmly found its place in my travel kit list as well as allowing me to shed some extra weight and space in my hand luggage, which any traveller will tell you is always welcome!

By TechAdvisor
So the GoPro Hero 7 Black isn’t hugely different from the last model. In fact, when it comes to design and core specs, it’s pretty much the same. The new features are on the inside and within the software. Namely HyperSmooth brings excellent stabilisation that will be a real boon for anyone using the camera in situations where a gimbal isn’t an option.

By ExpertReviews
Buttery smooth video, waterproofing and HDR photography skills – the Hero 7 Black is the best action camera on the market.

By Wired
Ultimately, there’s nothing not to like here, but it feels more like an iterative upgrade rather than a whole new camera. It’s like when iPhone goes from the 6 to the 6S, or from the X to the XS. That’s not a bad thing. The Hero6 Black was our number one recommended action cam last year, and the Hero7 Black is the same camera, but better. What’s unknown is if these updates will be enough to keep the Hero on the throne throughout another year.

By Mashable 
The GoPro Hero 7 Black’s built-in stabilization is so good it eliminates the need for expensive and clunky gimbals.

Expert Reviews of Olympus Tough TG-5: 

By Trusted Reviews 
Still the standout among rugged compacts, packing strong image quality and more features than any other model…

By HotHardware
We are almost to the end of yet another wonderfully innovative year in technology. The non-stop innovation of the tech sector has presented us with products and services that deliver more horsepower, lower power consumption, and smaller form factors…

By Tom’s Guide 
Although it’s very pricey for a point-and-shoot, the rugged-and-waterproof Olympus Tough TG-5 provides exceptional features that almost any photography enthusiast would appreciate, yet it includes easy-to-use auto and scene modes that will help novices…

By Gadget Speak
This is a camera that can work on land or under water, when used in the latter condition the ability to get a level shot may or may not be important but it does have both horizontal and vertical levels, it is of course fully waterproof and can withstand…

By camerjabber.com
While a compact camera with a relatively small sensor can’t quite replicate the image quality that you’ll get from a DSLR or mirrorless system camera with a Four Thirds, APS-C or full-frame sensor, the TG-5’s tough credentials allow to take shots that…

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

GoPro Hero 7 Black

This is the action camera from the GoPro and it also has the fully waterproof feature which is useful. This camera has some upgraded and some new features. 

Olympus Tough TG-5

This is the Olympus Tough Tg-5 camera and the successor for the very popular TG-4. The new features that they added in this camera which makes much better than the old one.

DESIGN:

GoPro Hero 7 Black

The design the GoPro itself is minimalist and it’s actually really nice. It’s got the rubber coating on the outside which i think looks great and feels just as good. There are two openings one for the battery and micro SD card and the other for the micro HDMI and USB C.

The branding on the outside isn’t over-the-top and I think it looks quite nice. If you didn’t have any branding on it, I don’t think it would actually look as good it would look a bit too plain. So, the overall design is nice, obviously, that front screen is present on this version which gives you basic settings like a resolution frame rate, battery life, and how much storage space you’ve got on your SD card or micro sd card, it’s really useful.

Olympus Tough TG-5

This is indestructible, it’s really good. It’s just as good as ever just like the TG-4, TG-3 before and it just awesome because I think all the Tough cameras are very solidly built. The place where I shoot, it was constantly at 38 and 39 degrees Celsius and very high humidity, so it was no problem. There’s not even condensation on the lens which is actually awesome. Sometime, if anything coming from a air conditioning environment coming out onto a very hot and humid street you get condensation, this one doesn’t have it.

It will not break easily. It’s being a drop proof, freeze proof, and waterproof camera, you don’t have to worry about a thing like compared to other compact cameras.

FEATURES: 

GoPro Hero 7 Black

This camera is shock-resistant, drop resistant, water resistant, dust resistant, and all that stuff. The rear screen is fairly small but I found it pretty easy to use. The menus are fairly laggy, they’re really easy to use but they’re laggy. So, the layout is good, I feel like everything is roughly where it should be but there can be a bit of lag to it.

Also, connecting it to the GoPro app, I had problems with in the past, it has had trouble connecting to the apps sometimes but it’s not too bad if you updated it. But, it’s still bit flaky, it’s not perfect. The battery life is an area of concern, it’s not very long at all. I mean, these batteries are absolutely tiny and considering how powerful the camera is you would kind of expect the battery life to be pretty poor. It does have USB C and this can connect to an external battery bank if you’re using it inside a car and you can power it off, you can charge it off of that as well.

Olympus Tough TG-5

The another different thing is the dial. It’s very important to me because then as a professional photographer you want direct control. Being a compact, you can have a lot of dials and buttons but one little dial means a lot to me because I can now control the exposure compensation during the aperture priority mode. It means that I can actually dictate the the exposure myself rather than let the camera do it or have to go for a layer of menus. The dial works well in this situation, so I love this feature.

The little locking button on the lens of the camera which makes the accessory ring like it Bionic Mount, so you can press it and unlock it and then you attach your lens to which makes everything more secure. The reason I like the TG4 in this point because it had the same accessory port but it’s a schooling mechanism which means that there was no locking and your accessory ring or the lens itself can come off quite easily if you are not cutting it properly. So, as a safety precaution or safety feature, I think the locking mechanism worked very well.

It also has some negative points. I really was hoping that the TG-5 will have a touchscreen because all the Olympus cameras that I use like the micro 4/3 cameras, they all have touchscreen which is really cool. You can touch focus, I think it’s very convenient these days. I think they’ll be good to incorporate with the the top cameras in the future.

The second one is battery life, the battery life of this things and especially if you do use 4k videos recording because this is actually one of the main features. They advertise is the 4k capabilities but if you do 4k recording, the battery does not last at all but on the flip-side, they included USB charging which means that you can actually now use your battery power bank to recharge this thing. It’s handy to have it because you don’t always have the opportunity to recharge your batteries, so having USB charging is definitely a very convenient thing.

IMAGE QUALITY: 

GoPro Hero 7 Black

The image quality from the GoPro is pretty good, it’s nothing staggering. But, when you consider that it’s such a small package, the footage does look pretty good. It’s fairly sharp there are several different modes. I rather doubt the colors because it’s not popping over the top meaning that you can add a little bit in post and there are certain modes that you can use to tune the image to make it look as nice.

Olympus Tough TG-5

The resolution of this camera sensor and in fact it hasn’t gone up but down from 16 to 12. There’s a good reason for it because you want to shoot better in low light especially underwater when this dimmer, so what they did was they keep the sensor size the same as before but reduce the resolution which means now the pixel level is now bigger. So, you can get much better quality in low-light and I can guarantee that it does work very well. It is performed very decently well.

The image quality of this is actually quite decent especially on the wide. The reason is because the Y angle sight is very sharp, very nice, edge to edge is actually very good but the tele end at the far end is actually a little bit soft to my taste and when I zoomed in, by the way its optical is not digital. So, when I zoom all the way in and I found that the the detail has lost a little bit and then the sharpness has gone down and it’s noticeable. So, it’s actually not very good if you want to do a lot of tele shots but the wide angle sight is perfect. It’s really good for both video and still.

The contrast is all there and being a small sensor, you lose the depth of feel if you want to even f/2 but if you want to achieve a little bit of the shallow depth of field and little bit background blur, you can also do that by using aperture priority such as f/2 and move close to the subject. So, overall I think it’s actually pretty awesome. The pixel sizes now is down from 16 to 12, so the low-light capabilities that improve. So, you do get better low-light shots as well.

The image quality of the telephoto end is little bit disappointed because it’s a little bit soft. The sharpen is really just avoidant and as zooming in, it’s just basically is decreasing at every level.

VIDEO QUALITY:

GoPro Hero 7 Black

The modes, it can shoot out are plentiful, you can go up to 4k at a 3×2 aspect ratio at 60 frames per second. Stabilization will be turned off there you have to drop down to 30 to get stabilization although it does come back I believe at 1080 60. In fact, 1080p can even go up to 240 frames per second which is really awesome for those of you wanting slow motion but I wouldn’t worry about any kind of problems with modes and recording capabilities because this thing just has them all.

The stabilization is really good like considering, you don’t need a gimbal or extra housing or a tripod. This thing is just brilliant, I really like the stabilization on this camera. It might not be as smooth as DJI is offering but considering this is a GoPro and you get all of the GoPro features with it, it works really well.

It’s really inconvenient to put a gimbal on a bike. So having this just sat on top of there works just fine and it follows your movements really well. So, I don’t see a problem with the steady shot compared to a gimbal because again gimbal just adds more money.

Olympus Tough TG-5

It has the 4k feature, now every single consumer camera can do 4k even your smartphone can do 4k. So, they need to have 4k video capabilities which they did and pretty good as well at 4k 30 frames per second which is actually quite decent not spectacular but you cannot compare this camera. But, in a full HD mode, you can also do slow motion as well which is really cool. So, in terms of video features, it has kind of bought this camera bang up to date from the predecessor.

AUDIO:

GoPro Hero 7 Black

The fact that you need an external adapter to connect to a microphone is really annoying. Especially, as the microphone isn’t very good itself. So, you’re going to want to go by the external adapter except and just consider the price tag. It’s crazy like how GoPro can get away with charging that much for a USB C to headphone port adapter. Another thing based on the port is the HDMI out is pretty useful if you’re using the GoPro indoors.

The audio is not too bad but if you’re someone who’s trying to record a voice-over or something with it, don’t even bother.

Olympus Tough TG-5

In the high frame rate videos, this camera cannot do the video with audio, it can only shoot video without audio. 

FOCUS:

GoPro Hero 7 Black

I feel like the lack of auto focus is going to be a problem for some but you really shouldn’t be using this camera for things where you need auto focus. If You want to use this camera for is basically as an action camera which doesn’t require auto focus. So, closer elements are nice and sharp but when you get too close, it just gets fuzzy and out of focus. So, it’s kind of made for a POV shot not necessarily a macro shot.

Olympus Tough TG-5

These things in good light, the AF focuses as quickly as any camera out there on the market at the moment. But, I think it’s a negative because in no light, this thing just isn’t quite there because it still has quite a bit. So, you cannot lock on it quick and even though with f/2 aperture, increase low-light performance in terms of image quality, the AF performance doesn’t quite match.

In video mode, I’m really disappointed because this thing now shoots 4k which is really awesome. There are two focusing mode in video mode, it’s AFC which is continuous forward their focus or menu focus. For continued focus, it will be worse if it locks onto your subject well and tracks it well but it does not and you’re still just in and out a little bit, especially when you’re shooting in 4k, you can see every single little details. When you drift the focus a little bit, you can see it very clear.

The manual focus also not good in this camera. It doesn’t even let you refocus anything, so it stuck with that focus. You cannot change the focus that means you cannot even move in and out with your subject to readjust your focus, you just cannot do any of that at all.

CONCLUSION:

GoPro Hero 7 Black

I think it’s a brilliant camera, it’s not one of those cameras that you’re going to use for everything. It’s not a multi-purpose, it’s not a little pointing shoot like a Sony rx100. If you’re looking for something with excellent, depth of field and image quality, go for something like that but if you’re looking for an an action camera, you’re obviously looking at GoPro the Hero 7.

Olympus Tough TG-5

It’s just so simple to use and I appreciate all these little details like the dials, the 4k videos and the colors and sharpness of these thing. I think it’s pretty pretty good and but even though it’s given us 4k capabilities but all this limitation like AF is hindrance. Like, this has some positive features with some noticeable negative features which is also important.