Waterproof digital camera recommendations wanted

[Big Al]

Anxious to get one soon.

Recommendations?

Any brands to stay away from?

Thanks!

[sbroam]

Pentax and Olympus are the big two. General impressions - the Pentax is easier to use (and less shutter lag?), the Olympus is shock proof. Probably some good deals to be had on the previous models as both lines just released new versions.

[MikeOC1]

I picked up a pentax optio w20 at a good price. The w30 is the newer version. the pentax w10 w20 are still available if you do some searching. I have been very pleased with mine.

[OC1er]

I got an Olympus 799SW, like it pretty well. I've dropped it, frozen it, soaked it, and buried it in the sand and it kept tickin'. Had one instance of water invasion into the battery compartment, they fixed at no cost. Abuse restistance is definitly why I got it, picture quality is ok, nothing to write home about.

[Big Al]

Are they all pretty much the same in terms of ease in emailing photos, connecting with the net, posting pictures to CBoats.net?

[sbroam]

The camera won't teach you how to internet Paul can do that, though!

More seriously, there will be some software that may help you with managing photos that comes with the camera, but that's not going to do all that you asked for. That software may help you e-mail pictures.

To post them to the web, you will need a hosting service (picasaweb, photobucket, etc). Picasa is what I use mainly - it's free and pretty easy.

Posting to C-Boats is mainly getting your pictures posted to a web host (see above) and linking to that.

[Not Elvis]

I am going to suggest a different route--I bought a Panasonic DMC-TZ3 digital camera with 7.2 megapixel two years ago. My camera has a 10x optical zoom, so I can be far away from the action and still capture it. But the kicker is that Panasonic also sells waterproof hardcases for some of their cameras. The case is waterproof to 40 meters, which is deep even for your swims, BA.

Call B&H Photo in NY and ask them about it. They are super helpful, super not pushy, and they hooked me up with both my Panasonic camera and my video camera with hardcase, which I think you have seen.

Just my outside-the-box idea...

Not Elvis

[cheajack]

I like my Pentax Optio. Takes good pictures, fits in a PFD pocket. I wish it had a view finder.

[Big Al]

I think I'ver heard before that the lack of a viewfinder on these types of cameras has been a hassle. Trying to view the lcd screen in river glare is challenging, yes?
Do any of them have viewfinders?

[Paddle Power]

I have the Pentax (so do several of my paddling friends). Some of my paddling friends have the Olympus.

For an other option and a much better camera check out the Ricoh outdoor cameras. The two older 500 series have view finders. The new 600, a better zoom.
http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/business.html


j.robbins wrote

Just my outside-the-box idea...

That was an INside the box idea!

[bambam]

For whitewater photos it's ALL ABOUT THE SHUTTER LAG TIME!

So far, unfortunately, I don't know of an industry standard which has been established to measure that. Some digital cameras take the better part of a second between when you pull the trigger and the camera takes the shot. You end up with a lot of shots of sterns of boats that way.

Having spent a few hundred river trips in my PFD pocket with zero worries so far I'd say my Pentax has been pretty bomber, knock on wood. Mine is an older WPi 6 megapixel. With a 3x optical zoom I have had to do some creative swimming to get the better shots. Shutter lag is quite short so I've been happy with that.

I was recently looking to upgrade and so looked into more recent models. The W30 looked good until I read some reviews and apparently the lag time is awful.

The newer-yet W60 is a 10 megapixel camera with bragged-about lag time (meaning, short, a good thing here) and I think it has a 5x optical zoom which would be nice. I saw one for $223 at amazon.com.

The Ricoh brand mentioned above looks nice but I'm thinking you are in the $600 range for those.

Oh, and yes, not having a viewfinder is an issue but this is probably true of all of the smaller cameras. In bright sunlight the screen can be impossible to view. I frequently just pray / guess, snap the shots, and get lucky.

Happy hunting,

Ken Dubel

[craig]

I use an Olympus SW series. On a bright day it is hard to see the screen. Even worse with sunglasses on! The lag time seems to be related to how many functions its doing at the same time I think. It has a burst feature that takes a bunch of shots in sequence, so push the button a little before the right time and your bound to get a good shot. It takes movies also. All these gadgets take some getting used to.

[bushpaddler]

Stay away from Sanyo Xacti if you want to take pictures.
It's said to be a film cam that can also take 8mp photos. I thought it's a good idea but they the result (pictures) is within the worst 3 I've ever seen.
I checked out the new Rollei X-8 (Rollei used to be a famous brand but was sold), it didn't look very solid, slow focus, poor picture Quality.
I also checked various waterproof models from Olympus and Pentax and all are ok. I'm not yet sure which one to buy, picure quality is just the same, autofocus if good. Friends have both, Pentax and Olympus, for years an love them, so they seem to be a good choice.
I had a canon S70 in a waterproof case but this solution is bigger as I want it to be...mybe better with smaller cams.

Florian

[jakke]

I also use the olympus series (µ720sw, the first of the series).
The lag depends on the function you choose. Same for the shaking.
I also tend to use burst photographing and select the bad pictures out. But lately I'm more into filming, ,or at least, I ask people to film me.
I'm thinking of getting myself a reflex camear for shore based photographs.

Oh, the µ series are absolutely waterproof. I've done quite some swims with it, used it for underwater video for roll analysis, ... . No complaints there.

Photo quality at lower light is quite disappointing. But then again, small lense, internal zoom, no surprise. A cameras possibilities are also limited.

[kenneth]

From one Ken to another, the shutter lag time can sometimes be adjusted with the "quick settings". For example, I have had three Canon Powershot models, and in "auto" mode they take forever to see, focus, then take the shot. However, if I turn the "quick settings" dial over to the icon of a man running then the shot is much quicker because I believe it's set to focus broadly rather than specifically identify focal points.

That might not account for all the lag time, or it still might be too much, but it's something to at least investigate.

As for waterproof cameras, I have no experience except to say that the G4 tv network last night had a very geeky review of the Olympus 1050 SW camera - the camera is water, freeze, and shock-proof. They pretty much said to avoid it because the picture quality was horrible - but added that the earlier Olympus 1030 SW was superior and acceptable. What's unique about these models is that in addition to the usual buttons they can also be controlled by tapping, like slapping the camera up-side the head... which means even with thick neoprene gloves on you can still operate it.

As for software, they're all very similar it seems these days. I've always used Canon software and find it fairly easy to get photos off the camera and organized. I'll repeat what sbroam said and mention that a photo software and service like Picasa would probably be needed anyway.