Waterproof to a depth of three metres, shockproof to a drop of 1.5 metres, and dust proof, Olympus’ Mju 720 SW is ideally suited to withstanding the rough and tumble of family life.

With a top resolution of seven megapixels – making it suitable for prints up to A3 poster size – plus a 3x optical zoom lens and BrightCapture technology to boost the 2.5in screen’s brightness by up to four times, the Olympus 720 SW would also seem to tick all the boxes when it comes to taking pictures.

If that’s not enough it also comes in three colours – dusky pink, polar blue and steel silver. Like most compacts in this price bracket, the Olympus 720 SW features 24 hand-holding scene modes, optimised for a variety of common shooting conditions and subjects.

There’s also a mode for shooting video clips at a very respectable 640 x 480 pixels (TV-screen resolution), and another that automatically adjusts the camera’s light sensitivity to cope with low-light photography without flash. This avoids making your subject look like a rabbit in the headlights.

There is an internal memory of 19Mb included to get you started. As this provides storage for just five full resolution stills, it’s best to budget for an additional xD-Picture Card to boost capacity.

As expected, given its claims, the Olympus 720 SW's build quality is high. The metal body somehow manages to be tank-like in its sturdiness, yet slim and portable enough to fit in the palm.

Response time is also SAS-swift; powering up ready for the first photo opportunity in a second. If you blinked you’d miss any delay between the first shot being committed to memory and the Mju refreshing itself for the next.

Commonly with Olympus compacts, colours are natural, if a little cold, straight out of the camera, and the fact that there’s plenty of detail on offer suggests quality optics and reliable in-camera image processing.

Not being foolhardy enough to try dropping the 720 SW onto cold paving stone, we instead opted for successive falls onto wood laminate without a dip in the camera’s performance.

Curiously it always landed face down, but as the Mju boasts an internal 3x zoom lens mechanism, there’s no danger of ending up with a bent lens barrel.

If there’s a gripe it’s that operational controls have again been shrunk to make room for the large screen on the back, resulting in the power button and zoom lever being fiddly to use.

And if you’re planning to snorkel deeper than three metres it’s best to invest in a PT-033 underwater case, which extends this depth to 40 metres.

For a price favourably comparable with a standard zoom compact, the Olympus Mju 720 SW offers more than most.

Also consider
Fujifilm FinePix F11 
Verdict: Nowhere near as sturdy as the Olympus but a very easy-to-use digital compact camera that is suited to photographers taking images under a wide variety of lighting conditions
Rating: 4/5
Price: £299