Waterproof pocket digital camera recs

[Neal Osborn]

Dear All,

I am planning on buying either a Pentax or Olympus Stylus camera.

[wayne patton]

I have a Pentax Optio W20. It’s a 7MP waterproof camera. Actually it takes real good pictures outdoors during daylight hours. It suffers some when taking indoor flash pictures. I have a Canon 10D for off river pictures, so I didn’t buy the Pentax for a do everything camera. I bought it to take fishing and to no worry about getting my camera wet. I have even taken underwater pictures with it.

[Neal Osborn]

Cosco has an Olympus 725 SW with a diving case (about $200 value alone) and a memory card kit all for $375.

[Darrin Terry]

Hi Nealpod. I’m just going to give a link rather than re type. We’ve got the same discussion going on on another board I post at. Also, if you take a kook thru the posts for the past couple of months there, you’ll see quite a few UW shots.

http://www.kernriverflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1184784828/5#5

Good luck qith your choice of camera. I don’t think either are bad camera, just need to figure which one fits your needs best.

Darrin

[chad copsy]

Hey Nealpod, I have the olympus 720 sw which is the same camers as the 725 sw. They are designated that number to sell to certain reatail stores and the number is the only difference.
Having said that I have owned the 720 for almost a year now and really like it for all the reasons you are talking about and more. This little gem has many functions including a pretty good macro I’ve used to take some tying pics on the vice. It also has the under water features you so desire and I have taken a few shots under water but without being in the water you are shooting blind, as in you can’t see the screen so you don’t know what your capturing. So that is one drawback unless you want to get wet. There are many other features on this camera that you will probably not use much but they are there if needed. I have purchased a 1 gb memory card and in superhigh quality can still take almost 300 pics and in high quality about 600. You also need the card that says olympus to use the panoramic feature.
I also purchased the silicone cover for it and a screen cover to protect it. Another drawback is the lack of a viewfinder which is not a problem unless it’s really sunny and you can’t see the screen well.

If you get this camera buy it with confidence knowing it is a great little point and shoot that is loaded with nice features if needed. While it wont do what some of the bigger cameras will it’s still a good camera and you will enjoy not worrying about getting it wet. I also saved money shopping around and got a good deal at BUYDIG.com but there might be better deals out there now.

Good luck in the search and hope you enjoy whichever camera you choose!

Chad

I will try to attach a few pics of a boat I just finished building so you can see the photo quality.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s229/cctyer/P7070035.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s229/cctyer/P7060020.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s229/cctyer/P7070030.jpg

[barry evans]

nealpod
I’ve been using a Pentax Optio for a few years now. It’s been dropped in both fresh and salt water, banged around in a Kayak and still works like it did when it was brand new. Plus it does well when taking macro shots. If and when it dies, I’ll sure replace it with a newer version of the Optio.
IMO, great knock around/fishing cameras.

Chad
Good looking boat! “I jus loves dem Pearows”

[chad copsy]

Thanks Barry! Do you have one? not to many folks know what a pirogue is! I really like the boat so far. I just finished it the first week of July. She was alot of fun to build. I am looking forward to building

[barry evans]

Chad
Nope, I don’t have a Pirogue at this time, but I’ve owned a couple in the past. Great little boats, especially if you want to stand-up and pole. At this time my fleet consists of 6 Kayaks and one Canoe.
What plans did you build the boat off of?

[chad copsy]

I used Uncle Johns plans/ kit it had the stem and stern cut and the three ribs rough cut. The rest was up to me and how I wanted it to be. She is 15 ft long and has a 30 inch beam on top. the sidewalls are 10 skinny inches and I kinda wish she had a tumblehome to give me a little more freeboard. She weighs about 45 pounds and is glassed inside and out with a grafite/epoxy coated bottom for protection. She car tops very easily. It was fun to build and I would like to build some other boats as well.

Do you build ? How many of your fleet are wood? I like plastic boats also but there is somthing about a wooden boat!

Thanks for the kind words!

Chad

[barry evans]

Chad
I don’t want to Hi-jack this thread because of some of the useful information in it. So……I’ll start a new thread on the Fly Fishing Discussion Forum that we can use.

[Neal Osborn]

Thanks to all for posting such detailed replies (and thanks to Zach for moving the thread to the camera section).

[Mike McKeown]

I have the Olympus 770, and love it… however, it has a few downfalls, exactly as the Pantax has…

I think you need to find a shop that sell both, and spend an hour or 2 checking them out. There is nothing like playing with them for an hour…

Pros
– Rugged Design
– Great Shooting Modes
– Fast Memory Writing
– Long Battery Life
– Long Movie Lengths
– Great Camera Pouch, really great…
– Awesome Macro Modes

Cons
– Shutter Lag
– Lenses Positioning

But as I say, you need to play with both before you choose…

[none]

How about wide angle mode?

Wide angle shots are rarely included in the specs when people look for a compact camera. I for one like to get close to the object yet still want to see enough of the surroundings.

Jay

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