Olympus TG-6 Caveats

Hello,

I'm trying to gain more insight into the quirks of the TG 6.
My goal is to use this camera for super macro shots in way where I take advantage of all of the effective pixels, least amount of processing, and the best power efficiency 
- Microscope Modes - Does this introduce any crop or loss of resolution/sharpness when engaged? 
- Zoom -  The 4x zoom is this purely mechanical right?
- What settings are there to turn off/on in order to help the battery life? 
 

Microscope mode is purely designed to allow it to focus closer.  It however changes some settings when it is activated and locks out some flash options among other things.  Better to use aperture priority and AF-super macro mode which allows the same magnification as microscope mode but without the restrictions.  You need to be zoomed in at least 1.2x for this to work.

Yes the  zoom switch is purely optical zoom is you turn off digital zoom in the menus.