Before you go looking for the instruction manual, let me save you some trouble...there isn't one in the box. You will have to go online to look at it, however, the interface is extremely intuitive and you probably won't need it. Most of the camera settings can be adjusted on the fly while shooting from an on-screen flyout menu that you can control with the up and down arrows. I like that a lot, and it made switching settings extremely easy.
The camera has a nifty little thumb-turn knob, that lets you easily get to 'scene' mode. This is where you want to stay if you are shooting underwater. This mode automatically deactivates the flash so you don't get the debris cloud, and this setting is where this camera really shines. With the press of a button when in scene mode, you can select from the side fly-out menu between "Underwater Action" for fast moving shots, "Underwater Scene" for those nice landscape shots, and "Underwater Macro" for some up-close shots of coral and shells. The underwater mode adds natural looking saturation and color adjustment, to accurately record what you are seeing with your eyes. They did a great job with this.
...but wait, in the middle of shooting you see a Peacock Parrotfish swim by and want to switch to video!...
NO SWEAT! If you are in macro, just a click of the button will put you back in either Underwater Landscape or Action modes, then you just press the red record button. That's it!! I can tell you from personal experience, this came in extremely useful when I came across a spotted moray eel! The battery lasted us about 3 hours of continuous use, so if you are going to be out all day, I highly recommend purchasing 2 additional batteries to bring along, which we did.
There is also a nifty high speed recording feature that records at either 120 or 240 frames per second, for super slow playback when jumping into the water for example. Even though the camera also offers 1080p 60fps, the best quality, color, and contrast was when shooting is at 1080p 30fps.
It does have a lot of other features as well, one which surprisingly, were also of very good quality and just as intuitive. Olympus offers a smartphone app, that is extremely easy to use. You turn on wifi on the camera, and then from the app on your smartphone, point the camera at the QR code that displays on the phone screen. This is a one time action, and from there on forward the wifi will auto connect when using the app after you turn it on in the camera. You can view photos and video from the camera on your phone wirelessly, download to your phone, or share right from the app. With no internet out on the boat, sharing to facebook via this app and my phone was an amazing feature to have! Great thinking Olympus!
I had a lot of fun with this little camera. Even though it is only rated for ~44ft depth for about an hour, I will be purchasing the external case that will allow it to be used for deeper scuba dives. For just over $200 it really is a great buy and I am extremely pleased with this purchase!
NOTE: The photos and video posted are without any post-processing or adjustment. They are displayed exactly as taken by the camera.