Pocketable camera for outdoors use / family snaps - Any suggestions?

[Paul_B]

Basically we use smartphones and own a decent 18x zoom camera with manual options if we want them for better photos. The former is to fragile outdoors, the latter is too bulky and isn't working well. What we need is a camera we will take photos with when out and about in the hills, on the bike, etc yet is easily accessible. I'm thinking a waterproof / tough camera that can be clipped to rucksacks, stashed in pockets, etc..

Anyone got any recommendations?

We just need a camera that we aren't afraid to take out if a bit wet (unlike smartphones) and one that is able to be stashed in somewhere easy to reach. If it doesn;t have these characteristics then we are not going to use it enough. We have a young child and don't seem to be able to take photographs enough. Indoors is sorted by phones, but being an active family the outdoors is not happening if you looked at our family album!!!!

Also what is the best way to store photos. Picassa (shared with family) or some other similar site/app? Obviously also saved on a hrd drive with backup.

 

[rik_uk3]

The Galaxy S5 is very water resistant.

My lad has a Sony Cyber-shot which takes a nice picture.

Re: storage, well I believe in backing up then backing up the back ups. We take a lot of pictures of our stunningly beautiful grand children and pictures are stored on two internal hard drives, DVD, memory stick(s), photobucket, OneDrive and Google Drive.

 

[sandbender]

I have an Olympus all weather pocket camera attached to my bumbag whenever I'm out, it is nice not to have to worry about dropping the thing, rain and such.

It replaced an earlier Olympus all weather model which was more compact, I prefered that one as I was happy to keep it on my belt in the house too.

 

[sandbender]

"...Also what is the best way to store photos. Picassa (shared with family) or some other similar site/app? Obviously also saved on a hrd drive with backup.

The best way to store photos is on DVD, preferably two in two separate locations. For any irreplaceable images that you'd want your grandchildren to enjoy you might consider printing them to decent paper and again storing them in more than one place.

Picasa makes the organising of all your hundreds of digital images easy, Picasa will then allow you to make 'versioned*' backups to DVD and provides an option to back up all your images to Google's hard drives**.

*Versioned - After the first DVD, each subsequent DVD backup will only new or changed photos.

**Google's on line storage for your images is free but reduces the size of the image to 2048dpi (fine for the screen or printing album sized photos). You do not lose control of your photos and no one else gets to see them unless you choose to share them.

Edited to add:

Picasa is now bundled with an additional bit of software designed to allow you to automatically back up your photos to your online galleries, I don't like it, mainly because it makes a new online album for each upload which I find messy, also in practice the earlier versions didn't back up some new images if the upload was interrupted.

What usually does work very well is to sync chosen albums to your online galleries so that when when you drag a selection of photos to a synced album they will be uploaded in the background.

 

[leon-1]

Go into ASDA, they have a polariod weather proof camera for about £30 or £40, I seem to recall it's submersible so it can be used underwater if you so desire. It's not the highest resolution at just 14.1Mp, but it will see most people through for most things. It's at a cost that should it be damaged or lost it won't break the bank, has a high enough resolution that it will cover a multitude of sins and is a compact so it's no like carrying a bridge camera/DLSR/SLR as it'll fit in a pocket or even a cheap case that you can buy there and then.

 

[ZEbbEDY]

theres the clone of the gopro the sj4000, its more for video but can do stills ( it comes with a waterproof case and can be mounted on the bike as comes with all mounts

i use my mirrorless dslr for pictures and stash it in a dry bag and use the sj4000 for video or in the wet

 

[KevStorr]

I've a Sony compact can't think of the model but it super slim and waterproof.

I've taken it snorkelling with no problems. The finish coating is coming off now but it's years old and still takes great photos.
It's my go to camera when I don't want to carry my DSLR or even my Nikon P7100 compact.

As for backup the rule is 3,2,1 3 copies, 2 types of media and 1 offsite. DVD's are ok but most that you buy aren't archival quality and given time even away from sunlight they will degrade.
At home I have my NAS and have backup of this to usb externals. For off site it could be leaving a drive at a friends or family and then every month swapping it with a copy which you've been adding to at home over the month.
For online Amazon S3 storage is about the cheapest as that's what most companies use and then sell on to you. Dropbox is good as you can share your photos and family can view them. Or other is Flikr they've increased there storage for free and you can set privacy settings on you albums.

 

[sandbender]

"...but most that you buy aren't archival quality and given time even away from sunlight they will degrade..."

Verbatim media, the only way to go.

 

[KevStorr]

Yes verbatim are good.
One thing to note. DVD-R and DVD+R are what you want to use for archiving. You are taking about 100 years. Rewritable and RAM dvd's only good for about 25 years.
Other cheaper brands won't be as good and certainly won't offer any information or guarantee.

 

[Paul_B]

At work used removable drives x3. One being added to, one stored in a safe (fireproof) and the last in the boot of someone's car. Basically one in, one out and one off site.

Of course I'll just save on hard drive, cloud somewhere and passed around the family If they're any good. Basically that's as good as I'll bother with. TBH this isn't for me. I like to take the photos but not really interested in looking at them, at most once only. I think it's because I've got a visual memory so the images are better in my memory. Afterall with shutter delay the camera never saves the image the eye has seen. With this in mind I'll probably only get a £70 Canon s3600 cheapo job.

 

[Jjessup]

I was looking at tough cameras earlier this year. My research got me to decide on an olympus tg3. It has given good quality photos, hd video and lives in any pocket without a case. I even used it to teach people to roll kayaks by videoing them underwater in the pool so they can check out thier technique. It's a bit pricey, but at least I use it on walks. Getting the DSLR out is a faff if you are with other people.

 

[samharber]

Olympus TG-3 is expensive, but worth it. Drop proof, crush proof, water proof, very good image quality, easy to use.

Coped perfectly with the Australian desert, rainforest and barrier reef. Not had a chance to test it in sub zero temperatures yet though.

 

[The Cumbrian]

Olympus TG-3 is expensive, but worth it. Drop proof, crush proof, water proof, very good image quality, easy to use.

Coped perfectly with the Australian desert, rainforest and barrier reef. Not had a chance to test it in sub zero temperatures yet though.

Another vote for the TG3 here, very tough, waterproof and simple to use. Of course, you can make it complicated too by adding your own settings, but I've never bothered and I'm very happy with the results.