Ricoh WG-50

£249/$247

The WG-50’s toughness stats – 14m waterproofing, 1.6m shockproofing, and -10°C freezeproofing – may be average, but it also has a 100kg crush resistance that only the Olympus TG-5 can match. Build quality feels robust, though there isn’t much to grip on to. Also annoying is the 2.7in widescreen display: it’s great for video, but 16MP 4:3 stills appear very small. The low 230k-dot screen resolution doesn’t help, while its limited contrast ratio makes it tricky to judge exposure.

Thankfully image quality is good. Fine detail is marginally less crisp than in the Olympus’ shots, but areas of fine foliage are well reproduced. Low-light, high-ISO images are slightly noisy, but detail is well-resolved and colours are vibrant.

The 28-140mm-equivalent lens is sharp and resists fringing. It’s also surrounded by a ring of LEDs that light macro subjects as close as 1cm.

Pros: Very tough; respectable image quality; strong macro performance

CONS : Poor screen quality; no 4K video; average waterproof depth rating