Anyone have experience with the 'tough' compacts?

[sper]

Anyone have experience with the 'tough' compacts? I'm not super comfortable with any digital that doesn't shoot raw, but I'm traveling to Costa Rica and I want something that will go in the water. The Panasonic TS3 seems promising, but I don't know about the Olympus or Pentax equivalents.

I just want good pictures, and the ability to not worry about sand, water, moisture, or knocking the thing against a tree when I'm ziplining.

Once I get back I wanna mount the camera to my bike when I cycle around NYC.

Anybody have one of these, and like it?

I also have a Nikon P7000 which has great image quality, and SHOOTS RAW. Which is the only way I bother. Underwater housing though is out of the question, because honestly I want to sell the P7000 and get an X100, plus a 'tough' compact.

 

[RussK]

I have a couple of TS1's at work for construction and environmental restoration. Nice little cameras, a bit slow. My biggest gripes are the flash and the lens cover. The flash seems to be too close to the lens and washes out anything light colored. The lens cover is a piece of glass that covers the internal zoom and is always getting smudged. So I don't use the flash unless I really need to and I keep a microfiber cloth on hand to wipe the lens off.

 

[skibeerr]

A lot of kayak photo's on my Flickr where made with one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wim_b/sets/72157607249067220/

 

[mrware]

I've heard the Panny's have about the best IQ. I've heard the new Pentax coming out will be better than the W90 IQ wise, which could mean it's as good or better than the Panny. Time will tell. I'm looking at getting one of these this summer myself.

 

[schaki]

Well. The Olympus and also waterproof Fujis are not that good. As Dpreview pointed out about the Pentax W80, It have worse image quality than the W60 which seems to be rather good. The W90 sample images at
Photographyblog didn't convince me at all with detail being smeared and a marginal waterpainting-look.
One can only hope that the new Pentax Optio Wg-1 with new sensor is an improvement. So far no reviews of it that I know about.
The waterproof groupteest at Dpreview from 2009. Unfortunately no such test in 2010 http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q209waterproofgroup/

Actually the Ricoh G700 which is built around the same zoom and sensor as the W90 have marginally better image quality even though I doubt it is in the exactly same league as the Panasonic TS3. But on the other hand, Panasonic still may have to battle with their detail-smudging that the TS2 suffered from to some extent.

Not that many sample-images from the G700 yet. But at least there is something
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1013&message=37858023&q=G700&qf=m
I've written quite a bit about some of the water and shockproof Ricohs. All of them bought used on Ebay of course as they are rather kind of expensive as new. I don't exactly intend to buy the G700 for a tryout. It is that similar to the G600 with the same zoom and an almost identical button-layout which might be just about as loudly clicking as on the G600.

It turned out that the 500SE and 400G wide suited my needs and preferences pretty well and both operates very silent except for the autofocus on the 500SE. I let the two other go again.


If you are on a tight budget, I would look at the Canon D10 and perhaps also the Samsung AQ100/Wp10. These two starts only at 35 respectively 36mm.
The Pentax W60 is as good as the Pentaxes get unless the new WG-1 turns out to be a major improvement image quality wise over the w90 which it replaces. So far no reviews of it when I tried to find one at alatest.com and also dcviews.com
Also nowadays a used Ricoh 500G or SE can be a bargain these days. It shows up on Ebay.com regularly, though not in big quantities.
Except from bulk, another downside is that purple colorcast that it randomly can produce outdoors. Thus, I always set the white balance to cloudy/overcast for outdoor use regardless if it is cloudy or sunny. The result is consistent white balance and marginally warmer colors.

 

[gekopaca]

IMHO you might carry TWO P&S :
- one for "normal" use, with good IQ (and Raw files) : Nikon P7000, Canon G12, Ricoh GR-DIII… and keep it in a Zip-Lock plastic bag.
- one for "extreme" use, with bad IQ… because waterproof compact camera with good IQ doesn't exist (yet).

 

[mfunnell]

Despite the demonstable fact that they are utter crap a wonderfully waterproof one-time-use-only waterproof-only plastic-lens 35mm sh1tbox will usually get you better pics than any "tough" digicam.

Try, and you'll believe. Even with a low-res commercial scan. Scan and post-process yourself (if you know 1/4th of what you need to) and you'll do better.

Try it.

...Mike

 

[sooner]

I have a friend who has a boat and really likes her tough Olympus, and used it in the ocean around her neck while we discussed it. I thought her pics looked fine, and my Canon was onshore for fear of sand and water. I think you guys sound hyper-critical, bordering on contemptuous, of what may be a merely average camera. I say go for it and get the shots on the zip line, which is better than not getting the shot at all.

 

[skibeerr]

Last year I met a couple of Monegask pro photog's in Anglesey and they opted for a canon g10 in a underwater house for doing their rough stuff kayak images.

I am on the look out for a second hand Olympus ep-1 under water house, I believe this will give good results, of course this is no portable solution.

W

 

[skibeerr]

I have a friend who has a boat and really likes her tough Olympus, and used it in the ocean around her neck while we discussed it. I thought her pics looked fine, and my Canon was onshore for fear of sand and water. I think you guys sound hyper-critical, bordering on contemptuous, of what may be a merely average camera. I say go for it and get the shots on the zip line, which is better than not getting the shot at all.

A Pentax wr 33 bought in 2003

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IMGP0148 by wim_b, on Flickr[/IMG]


Olympus u1030sw

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2008_08260005 by wim_b, on Flickr[/IMG]

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2008_08260026 by wim_b, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[schaki]

A Pentax wr 33 bought in 2003

I had that Pentax 33WR some time ago and since gave it to a friend of mine after having bought it cheaply on Ebay. Like for the Ricohs, the macro is great and image quality is OK as well with some parameters to adjust.
I bought that one on ebay as a backup just in case I wouldn't find any used Ricoh replacement, before the summer, for my then dead Ricoh 400G wide which had been struck by mist.

Also tried the Pentax Optio 43WR some years before that and boy what a disappointment. Definitely worse than my old Coolpix 700 2mp.
So the 33WR was a rather nice surprise.

 

[Krosya]

Dont know about the digital, but some old film P&S cameras can do a pretty good job in water and sand.