Nice camera, but might return mine..

I got this camera to replace a previous all-weather Olympus I had. I travel 'far away' both for work and fun and I have some mil-spec gear. Waterproof has been great for snow shots although lately I am more often in sandy/dusty places. That said my cameras tend to get lost/stolen/given away before they break...

I was somewhat disappointed with the camera although that's probably fault of my own expectations.

Usability - I bought it just before a trip to Asia and had time to goof around with it and learn the menus (they are quite a lot of options but I found the menus easy to navigate, although some functions are a bit too many clicks away). Comparable/better to other Olympus cameras.
On the hardware side it has a nice size to it. One thing I found is that it isn't fast enough to turn on and with its power-save function that turns off the screen, I was either thinking it was on and pressing the shutter button, or having to turn it on-ooops-off-on-again then take the picture. A recipe to miss fast shots (and I missed many this way)

Style:Nice size, fits comfortably in the hand but not so much if you are taking pictures with your left hand only. I chose the black camera as it draws less attention but the orange one looked great at the store.

Image wise- OK... So-so.... Not happy. Many images I have have a washed-out look, fuzzy edges and under/over exposed when using flash indoors. I saw them side-by-side with comparable images from my previous pocket Olympus and the new ones look worse.Everything but the 'easiest' stunning shots look bleh (eg Thai gold temple against deep blue sky). I realized halfway through the trip and started playing more with white balance, exposure etc setting as well as the 'full auto' options. I did not get better shots and got tired of the game.

Card & Reader :XD. I don't like proprietary stuff but I've had enough Olympuses to learn to live with it. I got a new 2Gb card from the Olympus site. Of course you have to have an XD reader for this card, I use the tiny MAUSB from Olympus which is convenient but slooow (it also has an open slot so grit gets into it - I have all electronic gear in a ziploc while I travel)

Battery Life: Terrible! I barely could get a full day of shooting without changing battery! I bought a 2nd battery from the Olympus store and same problem. When you consider it takes many hours to recharge one of the batteries with the supplied charger you can see how inconvenient this was. In addition the power meter may be correct but disproportionate to battery life and therefore misleading (it goes from full-green to half and then immediately to red). I was surprised on at least 5 occasions to not have battery remaining. If you are vacationing and taking pictures of unique moments you can see how frustrating that can be. The long charging time is also an issue as it only leaves overnight as an option to charge...just one battery.