Waterproof Digital Cameras

[BOD]

In need of advice to replace my Nikon Coolpix with a waterproof camera. It has done fine but it has pushed its limits.

The camera I'm looking for has to

1, fit in a shirt pocket;
2. be capable of immersion up to 2 hours of whitewater Grades 3-4 and waterfalls
3. quick to start up
4. shrug off days of humid jungle, sweat, mud and grit without jamming
5.use ordinary batteries not rechargeable ones
6. take good photos without flash under the canopy.
7. manage a brief breath hold dive to about 10m.

What fits the bill or most of it?

 

[irishlostboy]

well i use the sealife ecoshot. it would manage every one of your requests. and it takes enormous amounts of abuse too.
http://www.amazon.com/Sealife-SL321-ECOshot-Digital-Camera/dp/B000OFXU4Y

hope this helps

 

[nicodiemus]

Irish beat me to it. If you want to spend more than that or get a higher spec camera your only real option is to go for some of the sea-and-sea kit, but their motormarines etc are expensive. Used to use them a lot while diving in the far east.
Failing that, many of the manufacturers, notably sony, do waterproof housings for their cameras.

As a side note, if you can find a Casio GX-10 i think it is, i used one of those rafting in the himalayas and it handled me floating about in the drink with aplomb..
http://picasaweb.google.com/Nicodiemus/Rafting3/photo#5016675360699651794

There's a short vid of me floating about in said drink after being caught in an eddy while my raft carried on downstream...

 

[Bootstrap Bob]

Bod
I used to have a Casio GX-20 (Still have somewhere) but they stopped making it I think. It is shock proof, dust proof and waterproof. It takes 4 AA batteries but it's only 2M pixels.

I replaced it last year with an Olympus Mu720 which is fantastic! 7 M pixels, shock proof, submersible and fits in your shirt pocket but it doesn't use standard batteries. I thought this would be a problem but the battery lasts for ages.

Hope that helps.

 

[irishlostboy]

the sea and sea stuff tends to be pretty big though. totally bulletproof, definately.
the waterproof boxes tend to require you to switch on your camera before you put it in the box, and keep it on. or so i have heard.
there are a lot of great waterproof cameras out there. the only one i know is the sealife one.
i think cannon do a waterproof ixus, which should be pretty small, and i think olympus do a good little waterproof and shockproof point and click. where these will probably lose points is on their depth rating, but may (or may not) give better images. possibly. the sealife gives reasonable images. not world class. but quite usable. if you can get your hands on one to test locally, it would be your best bet. i would send you mine as a tester, but i recon postage would probably cost more than the camera.

nicodiemus, you were not joking about "floating about" were you! lol. i would love to be floating about in the himalayas. or any vaguely clean water for that matter... or any water in any state.

 

[FGYT]

the olympus Mu range are fairly tough and usually there a Olympus housing for them

they are a small underwater unit but still not shirt pocket size
i use one for diving to 40m
but white water rafting is a bit differnt on requierments

maybe one ot teh solid stated ruggedize extreme sport cameras the do vidio to the gadget show likes some but the pics arnt the best but you do get to see them after knocking it about

ATB

Duncan

 

[Buckshot]

I used a pentex when we were in the jungle with you, I think it's W10 but not sure.
I do know it's the oldest version , there's at least a W30 now.
Takes fine pics, here's a few...

The camera was fairly cheap £120ish although it does use a pentax battery (I took 4 in with me and only used 2)

Hope that helps

Mark

 

[nicodiemus]

I can vouch for the water reisistant / shockproof Olympus.. we tried them out for our field staff but didn't meet the sub 100 quid requirement...

I would, however, not guarantee it'd be OK floating about in the water as the (now defunct) casio does.

No, i wans't joking about floating about! Took me nearly an hour to fish myself out as well!
I wouldn't say the water was clean.. i'd say it was .... a cleaner?
I went in having worn a steamer for the drive up to the launch point, so i stank... when i came out after my dip, clean as a whistle!

Apparently the water is quite high in phosphates, result of which is the above effect. I suppose this is why the locals believe a wash in the Ganga will wash away your sins and evils.

 

[nicodiemus]

PS: Damn i miss the tropics.

 

[ilovemybed]

Hi,
Another vote for the olympus.
http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/29_digital_camera_mju__mju___1030_sw_18625.htm

Great little camera even if it wasn't water and shock proof.
Has software based anti-shake (not as good as mechanical image stabilisation like on the CANON models, but good enough to get clear low-light shots)

The option of an external housing for proper diving is also a bonus.

Only thing it doesn't hit is your requirements for normal batteries.

 

[sandbender]

Another vote for the Olympus range, it would fit all the requirements other than 'using normal batteries', that said, were you to find a camera that was using AA cells I doubt that it would 'comfortably' fit in a shirt pocket.

Additionally you'd probably have to carry quite a few spare batteries, the rechargeable batteries used in pocket digital cameras are geared to the requirements of those machines and in the case of the Olympus do provide a very long life. Carrying a few fully charged spares would maybe be a better option, or maybe look into some kind of additional charger, like this one...

http://www.powertraveller.co.uk/

 

[Bootstrap Bob]

Olympus Mju 790 now available at Tesco for a good price.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-8559.aspx

 

[BOD]

Many thanks guys,

You have broadened my search to models i had not thought about at all.

Batteries are an issue if I am somewhere I cannot plug in a recharger and carrying this and spares worries me.

Are the custom batteries that long lived and how soon do they need to be replaced?

Mark, I didn't realise that your camera was waterproof.

This is what happened to mine by Day 5 of jungle living

here is one of Dave and Robin picking on your lad! Taken on Day 2

 

[sandbender]

Are the custom batteries that long lived and how soon do they need to be replaced?

Yes they are, bear in mind that the demands that the camera is putting on the battery are much greater than they have been in the past, faster processors, bigger CCD's etc. Conventional batteries were never designed to power these machines.

Check out this site which provides detailed reviews and feedback from purchasers for almost every Digital Camera there is...

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs.asp

If a camera has a poor battery life it will be mentioned here.

 

[Buckshot]

Are the custom batteries that long lived and how soon do they need to be replaced?

Mark, I didn't realise that your camera was waterproof.

IIRC I only used one battery the whole week we were in the jungle with you - I might have changed the battery for the walk out, I can't remember. Not bad at all though. That's about 150-200ish photos and 8-10 mins of video I guess.

Yes my camera is waterproof, that's why I was carrying it in my shirt pocket on a lanyard around my neck exposed to all the conditions we were and Dave had his in a pellie case and it still gave up after 1 day

The biggest problem I had was trying to clean the lens and screen. With everything so wet I could find anything dry to clean them with so all the blurry photos are down to user error rather than the camera. Wiping the lens with a wet dirty finger just isn't the same!!!

I would recommend an image stabaliser system though I think that would help a lot in the jungle where you can't see the screen very well all the time.
Unless of course the extra electronics push it over the edge, both in terms of battery life and ruggedness in a harsh environment

Best of luck

Mark

 

[Damascus]

If you can push the boat out get a Mu range I have the 770 and just used it on holiday, two weeks on one charge. Took plenty of photo's and video's on it, both in and out of the water no problems and its shock proof. Yes, I dropped it and not on purpose, the technical term a bloody good buy. Battery wise you can buy a power pack to charge the camera battery, as some of the solar power packs ask around the guy in Curry's Norwich was very helpful on that front. Best of luck with your search.