Olympus Tough-6010 has magic touch

If you had to leave the house in this colour, you'd soon toughen up, too
If you had to leave the house in this colour, you'd soon toughen up, too

It's not quite Harry Potter, but Olympus's new all-weather mju Tough-6010 camera comes with 'magic' image filters.

The most effective one - Pinhole - makes £299.99 disappear before your very eyes, as "images will seem to have been taken with a traditional pin-hole camera."

If you're not keen on turning your £300 purchase into an old shoe box, rest assured there are plenty of high tech options that make the most of its 12MP sensor.

Wobbles magically evaporate

Dual Image Stabilisation helps to cut down on blur if you're using the 6010 for extreme sports, while its face detection tech can recognise up to 16 mugshots at a time. Other 'magic' filters include Pop Art, Fish-eye and Sketch. Expect little in the way of supernatural image manipulation and more of a sub-Photoshop instant tweak.

Of course, the mju Tough range is also one of the most rugged brands on the market. The 6010 is dustproof, freezeproof to -10C, waterproof to 3 metres and provides shockproof protection against drops of up to 1.5 metres.

A practical Tap Control mode gives easy access to a range of settings, even when you're wearing scuba or ski gloves. Other interesting tech facts: a 3.6x optical lens with a true wideangle (28mm equivalent); shadow adjustment technology; intelligent auto mode; and a 2.7-inch LCD screen.

The Olympus mju Tough-6010 should be in shops imminently.

Mark Harris is Senior Research Director at Gartner.