The Olympus SP350 is now the nearest equivalent in Olympus' line-up to the popular C7070 camera. Like the C7070 the SP350 will shoot RAW images, has TTL flash metering which will work through the bulkhead on the PTO30 housing in conjunction with Olympus' own flash housings. The SP350 is 8Mp and has a large and bright 2.5" screen. It takes AA batteries and comes supplied with a CR-V3 single use lithium battery that gives roughly 500 shots.

The SP350 fills a niche that is very popular amongst divers as being a very sophisticated camera, that is yet small so doesn't cause undue baggage worries. In fact the SP350 and housing are quite a bit smaller than the previous C7070 and PTO27 combination. To reiterate what I said in the Mju600 review as regards Olympus housings, we feel they are the best choice of own brand camera housings available to divers, in terms of useability and accessory options, as they offer a filter thread on the front and are also generally the easiest to operate in terms of LCD hoods, button notation and shape etc.

In use the SP350 is as easy as previous Olympus cameras to use. Since doing my initial test in the Cameras Underwater swimming pool I have also been out in the sea with the SP350 and PTO30. Being myself new to taking pictures while diving (only just passed my BSAC open water) my bouyancy wasn't what it could be, also the conditions were pretty murky off Torquay as one would expect in January. My observations in the sea were a little different to the relaxing ease of the pool. On my dive I decided to shoot only in RAW mode as I wanted to get the best image quality. I found the write times of the RAW images to be painfully slow compared to my SLR (as to be expected!) I also found the focus speed to be not as quick as I would have liked, but this might be because of the murky conditions. Of course these are two different situations; one in a clear swimming pool at 1m, and the other in murky British waters at 5-8m. No firm conclusions can be drawn from this without exstensive testing which is not what I have time to do, as this is merely a summary, but I feel the information may of interest to potential users.

In conclusion the SP350 is a good advanced compact camera with a wealth of features and the ability to take high quality images. Just be aware that it isn't perfect, as very little is!