Waterproof / Water-Resistant Digital Cameras

[Crane]

I took my Pentax Optio Wpi on both the Grand Canyon trip in May and the Yampa/Green trip. Lots of splashes on both!! Good video. Good 6mg photos... even from a photo-idiot!! I picked it up for about $200 & they should be cheaper now... I used a 1 gig SD card and 3 batteries for the week-or-so long trips. The batteries were about $12-$20 each on the internet & I experienced no problems from going generic... Crane

[Trismegistus]

Update:

Pentax is changing out its WP line -- one new addition noted above is the WPi (introduced in Sept. 05?) which sells for about the same price ($200-275.00 on the street) -- which is essentially the same camera with an increased resolution of 6.3 megapixel. The latest addition is the W10 (introduced Feb. 06?) -- which has a slightly different and heavier housing but operates much the same as the WPi -- the biggest difference being an improved resolution for video films (640 x 320), an enhanced auto-focusing system for "people shots" and larger 2.5 LCD screen -- it has a similar list price ($200-250.00 on the street). If you're looking to film a lot of videos or need a bigger LCD screen I'd go with the W10 -- otherwise stay with the proven WPi.

As for the lens -- Crystal Vision makes some very nice magnetic wide-angle and 2x teleconverter lens that work very well with all models. I have seen no degradation in the image even when projected to the screen. The magnets hold the lens very tight -- albeit the lens should be removed and pocketed when paddling.

[Crane]

Will the add-on lenses fit ANY Wpi?

[okieboater]

So, three batteries for a one gig flash card over a week?

I am looking at W10 batteries and a 2 gig flash carrd, any suggestions on how many batteries to buy for a week long trip?

[Crane]

I have several spares... for example, instead of buying spares, Mike Stanley borrowed two of mine for his Colorado trip... I figure I'd take three spares & the one in the camera for a week-long trip... Any more, batteries are cheap enuf to be sure you're covered! The 2 gigs of memory is HUGE!!

[James Canon]

I am looking at W10 batteries and a 2 gig flash carrd, any suggestions on how many batteries to buy for a week long trip?

I believe 1 battery for every 2 days would be enough to keep you pretty well covered.
Here's a pretty good deal on an SD card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820163158

[Trismegistus]

Is a great deal -- fast too! Transcend is a bit of a second tier company but they seem to be flawless. Getting to be more and more options with respect to memory cards -- especially with regard to speed -- some are capable of 20+mbs transfer rates now. And of course the faster the card, the bigger the price.

And LCrane -- yes the lens fit all models -- surf to "Crystal Vision Lens" for sellers.

Lastly -- thanks to my impatient kids -- I have found battery life to be very dependent on how often one reviews their photos -- you spend a lot of time looking at the photos and manipulating the images and the battery will not last near as long as for those who point and shoot and review the photos back home on the computer.

[okieboater]

I got a W10 and really do like the photos

question: what is the secret to taking photo's in bright sunlight? I am having trouble seeing the image in bright sun as it washes out the lcd screen.

[Ham]

Well, I asked for the Pentax and got the Olympus.
I didn't even know about the Oylmpus at the time so...
I've been very HAPPY with the Olympus, but I need to dunk it to test it BEFORE the warranty runs out.
GREAT photos. Built in rechargable battery. Lots of pre set adjustments to take a wide variety of photos. Options of how much memory you want used on each photo.
The photo management software is a little clunky, but I can deal with it. The 720 will be a constant trip companion from now on.

[Crane]

I saw an add for the Olympus & it looked pretty good! 7 gigs is all I'd ever need... now, if I find my Pentax I'll not need one, but...

[cnj001]

I have the olympus...fits perfect in my life jacket pocket and takes good picts. Low lighting pictures can be difficult, but besides that its been a great camera. The camera made it down the Ocoee and Nantahala without much problem...(the lense fogs up in cold water sometimes though.)

[Chester]

I have had my Pentax W10 for about two months now, or ever since it stopped raining. Got it for $230 delivered. The obvious big-time benefit is having a camera handy in your PFD pocket to catch those elusive boating shots. I have found a helmet cam design on the web that would be neat for many activities like rollerblading, bike riding, etc. Playing off that design, I have rigged up a "chest cam" that attaches the camera to my PFD, and have it "sighted in" downstream. Using the camera at UALR pool, it took great underwater videos. Battery life seems good so far. I have not yet got a battery low warning during a day on the river; in the few days I've been on the river.

A note on the media card hoopla and Pentax's official position for what it's worth. Before I got the camera, a Pentax representative stated there was NO benefit to using a high speed memory card. A firmware update is in the works to address some problems with the camera, but it was not to aid in transfer speeds with HS cards. Also, officially the camera has been factory tested and approved with up to a 1G card only. Like ya'll, I got a 2G Scandisk brand, regular speed card, from Office Depot for $44 after rebate last week and it works fine.

Good stuff:
The 640x480 movies at 30 fps are of noticably better quality and much smoother than my old video clips at the 320x200 at 15fps rate. This is one reason I did not get the Olympus 720 as it is restricted to 15 fps. I am always adding footage to a home paddling DVD movie, and the 30fps is much better during action shots. My 2G card holds 41mins of video when set to 640x480, 30fps, 2 star mode (3 star is available).

Poor Stuff:
The overall still picture quality is little better than my 3.1MP Kodak DX6340 with it's high quality Schenider lense. The low light problem that Cowper has experienced seems to have been somewhat improved. I'll know more when we get together and test shoot one afternoon. The weak zoom is 38mm to 114mm equivalent, and I could really use my old 144mm for those landscape shots. I do get fair results utilizing a little bit of digital zoom on some well lighted shots. I intend to order a 2x magnetic lense, but figure it could be cumbersome to use under some conditions, so it would be reserved for those out of the boat bank shots (ummm, like on Spring River). :)

Overall, for $230 or less now, it's a great accessory for someone into watersports or the outdoors. If you have the money, why not get one?

[Trismegistus]

STOP THE PRESSES! Pentax has just released the Optio W20 a 7.0-effective-megapixel upgrade to the Optio W series of cameras. This model features a new Blur Reduction mode, which allows you take sharper photos without camera shake or subject blurring even of low-light scenes or fast-moving subjects. Otherwise it’s just like the W10 with the 30fps camcord-quality video interface.

And speaking of digital image quality, sharper pictures and low-light scenes -- I think it is easy to sometimes be a little too hard on the Optio. It tries so hard to "be everything" and in doing so often fails to live up to our expectations. Unfortunately, one can’t cover all lighting situations with a “point and shoot” and many – nearly all -- images from digital cameras that don’t look to good can often be traced back to poor lighting conditions and the operator failing to take into consideration the lighting conditions. Images may need a boost of their color saturation or brighter midtones or filtering of extraneous noise or etc....

Now the Optio tries to make us all good photographers. Right from the onset we have eight different resolution settings and three quality levels and something like 25 scene modes -- you get the usual range of landscape, portrait and night scene modes, etc. plus, a fair number of really unusual modes – there’s even a special mode for food. As if we take a lot of photos of our meals on the river. Then on top of these 5-600 different settings the W10 with its “predictive AF” has nine focus zones and evaluative, spot and centre-weighted metering plus additional exposure compensation which adds a measure of extra control outside of just picking another scene mode in difficult lighting. And if you want more effects there are also soft focus settings, tinting, etc. Taken collectively the camera – or should I say, its image processing circuitry -- can handle just about any subject under any lighting condition and put out some good quality photos. But if you are like me – who has time to fiddle with all the dials and menus? Just give me the thing, “point, shoot”, and there I go! Only to complain once I get home that the picture I took just really didn't do the subject justice.

Of course, there is not yet – nor will there likely ever be -- a camera as adaptable and impressive as the human eye – what an intelligent design! But I like the idea of having a camera that can be abused, bumped and dropped and thrown in the water and still take a fairly good picture. Ahhh... life be good.

[okieboater]

Jeez, where will it end?

I just picked up a W10 and thought I had the best one yet!!!!!!!!


If they just had a standard view finder the Optio would be just about perfect...........

[Trismegistus]

Don't you just hate it! Planned obsolescence....

But the way I look at you still got a helluva camera and since I can't seem to actually find a W20 anywhere for sale -- you're still ahead of the curve.

I also noticed a couple of other things with regard to the W20 -- one is that is has an automatic high ISO mode for gloomy underwater shots although I wouldn't figure the camera would get much use underwater. Two Pentax claims the W20 supports high capacity SDHC memory cards although I haven't had any problems with high capacity cards even with my old Optio 43WR. And three you can focus the camera down to 1 cm although how in the world can you hold the camera stedy at that distance without a tripod.

One other thing -- a cool accessory for the W10 is the "sleeve" -- a soft cushion rubber glove that protects the camera from drops and scratches -- not a critical accessory but it gives the camera a more "substantial" feel....