When we asked to see your best photos recently, we weren’t really sure what to expect, but we were duly flooded with photos. And the standard? Well, the bar has well and truly been raised. Which made narrowing the choice down to the best ten all the harder.

The photos below, in no particular order, are our favourites from those entered into the first stage of the competition to win a shiny and rugged Olympus [mju:] Stylus 790 SW camera. The final stage requires you lot to vote for the best photo, with the photographer responsible earning a fantastic prize.

1. Andy Paice

 

2. Terra The Trailblazer

 

3. Matt

 

4. qrto

 

5. XCman “I want a new bike”

 

6. Andy Johns

 

7. Fraser Millar

 

8. Tom Shilvock 2

 

9. Snoochy

 

10. James D

 

The great thing about this new Olympus camera is that it’s properly rugged for outdoor use. That means it’s actually waterproof enough to pass IEC 529 IXP8 standards (which means it will survive being up to 3m underwater) and shockproof to MIL-STD-810F (which means a US soldier could drop it from a height of 1.5m onto the roof of a Humvee and still salute it). The battery/xD card slot and the USB port are all hidden behind weathersealed doors too. You can read more about in the review here.

Make your vote count – get into the forum and let us know. We’ll be counting the votes as of 5pm on Friday 15 February and announcing the winner next week.