Waterproof Cameras 2012

[eric]

I had a free ticket to a camera show in Melbourne today so I had to go. Partly because my Olympus 6010 is coming to the end of it's life, but because I really wanted a FREE HAT from Compleat Angler while I was in the City. It's a weird experience, lights kept popping on and off, men with beards would push you out of the way to steal brochures and they had real live models you could just ask to stand still and pose a bit while you tried out the toys.

There are a few other things that I'll have to wait for a proper review on, like how good the sensors are, pin cushioning and other zoom issues, saturation concerns, etc. You can't really get much past specs and aesthetics in the few minutes I had with each of them.

Canon's first contender was the Canon D10, a staggeringly ugly camera that looked like a brightly coloured kids toy, but was in fact wall to wall hardness and goodness. I can't imagine it sold heaps.

Enter D20. Canon looked at all the other cameras and realized that that theirs was perhaps too distinctive. This year we have a more typical pack of smokes shape, but angled on one side. And this year's must have feature - GPS. But one of my criteria is that is must be able to fit in the pocket of a pair of jeans. Staff at the show found this to be very exciting behaviour.

http://www.canon.com.au/About-Canon/New ... ure-camera

Fujipix had two newies, but no exciting change of shape, just more pixels and one with...... GPS.
http://www.fujifilm.com.au/products/dig ... 1&pid=1240
http://www.fujifilm.com.au/products/dig ... 1&pid=1220

Not for me, but these are great cheapies, TFM has been using an earlier one for years and he seems happy enough. But he's a happy guy.

Nikon, like Canon, left their run into waterproofiness til fairly recently. In the case of Canon it was because the design team weren't able to decide on what stupid shape the camera should be celebrating. But Nikon went hard with the AW100 and it shows with a solid product that makes sense and looks pretty hard to kill.

http://www.nikon.com.au/en_AU/product_d ... D=gqomobq3

Almost the best in class.

But they also have a solid kiddies camera, 10 megapixels of brightly covered plastic. Nice big buttons though.

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/nikon ... view-18889

We don't talk about Pentax much here do we? They've had a product out in this sector for ages, the old Optio W series. Last year they changed the series to WG and brought out WG1 - in your choice of standard or GPS. This year it's the WG2 - still in your choice of standard or GPS.

http://www.pentaximaging.com/digital-ca ... loss_White

These are very likeable cameras. Distinctive, yet reassuringly rugged looking shape, nice rubbery grip to them, it's all good. And the WG1 (Non GPS) is only a bit over $200, very reasonable in this market. I also really like the lens in the centre of the camera.

But Olympus have the winner, the TG 1

http://asia.cnet.com/product/olympus-to ... 195242.htm

Dead set this is the sexiest of them all. It has nice buttons. It has the same looking menu as mine. It has a huge screen at the back. And look - it has accessories, a fisheye and teleconverter for extra optical zoom. Good solid feel. I'll wait and see what the colour range is, but I'm getting ready to say bye to this years tax cheque.

And at $400 for the main toy, pretty reasonable. I've had bit of a look for the add on's prices, and it's looking somewhere between $150 and $200 each.

There are a few other makes missing, like Sony and Panasonic, which is bit of a shame, We've got a Panasonic here somewhere and it seems fairly likeable. The Sony is small, possibly too small, but it does have a cover for it's screen which is bit of a plus in gritty environments. And for almost all the other cameras you can get a waterproof box to use them in, but almost at the cost of any of these models above.

[dru]

Interesting review.

I had a Panasonic lumix. Within 8 months it had died. They blamed me. Maybe they were right. So I bought another one. Within another 8 months it also dies. My fault again aparantly. Probably right too. But I'm not buying another one.

Now I have the Pentax WG 1 which has managed the 8 month hudu. It'll do for now. Both nice waterproof cameras but the WG 1 seems to be Dru-proof. I like it.

I also found a waterproof soft case for my Canon SLR. Looks good, seems to work, but haven't been game to take it out on the kayak yet. Especially when the Pentac quality is more than good enough for the pixel size of pics that work on the forum.

[camel]

I've had the Nikon AW100 for the last 6 months. I'm very happy with it and can't fault it, takes lovely photos for a point and shoot waterproof and excellent 1080P video with good sound.
My last waterproof was a very long lived Olympus U720 SW I got on my honeymoon in 2006. I think that was the first waterproof they put out, the one from the ad. It served me well and took a hiding but seems positively stone age compared to the new Nikon.
That new Olympus looks good and the accessories are a nice option. You should be very happy with it. I'll be looking forward to a review.

Ant

[CanuckChubbs]

Wow, that Olympus looks great. I think that it might be time for an accident to happen to my Lumix...

[dru]

I also like the Olympus shock proof and crush proof stats. I think my original cameras were distorted from being squeezed in tight in my PFD. Those specs should take care of it.

Like the lens attachment options too, not sure I would use them though. At that stage I'd be thinking of the D-SLR.

[Occy]

I recently picked up 2 (yep 2) Fuji XP30's at Hardley Normal for $179. I recently noticed the price has gone back up to $179 each. I can't actually see much change (in fact I can't see anything different apart from the shape) from the latest model (XP150) in Erics link, and so far all looks good. Picture quality seems just fine, and it certainly has all the bells and whistle features one could want. I particularly like the added extras I got with the adventure pack (especially the floating strap and silicon case) as they give me that extra bit of re-assurance when using it on the water. I haven't played around with the GPS much yet, and to be truthful I think it's bit of a gimic, but I suppose we have to move with the times. Like many of us I suspect we don't really need a camera in our phones either, but when was the last time you saw one without it.

[keza]

The big question is do any of then shoot in RAW.
It still seems you have to use a housing if you need to shoot in RAW. Considering they all shoot in RAW and then covert and save the image as JPG, you would think they could ad the option to keep it in RAW.
Whinge over.
And out.

[eric]

I just had a quick look at them all, and there's nothing for the likes of you.

[BigGee]

I have the previous version of the Fuji Fine Pix, I must say I'm really underwhelmed by the quality of the images it produces to be honest. Hardy little thing though, the waterproof claim is solid in my view.

Gee

[Occy]

The big question is do any of then shoot in RAW.
It still seems you have to use a housing if you need to shoot in RAW. Considering they all shoot in RAW and then covert and save the image as JPG, you would think they could ad the option to keep it in RAW.
Whinge over.
And out.

Keza, I'm not certain of this but from what i know you would be hard pressed to find a ruggedised camera that shoots in raw. Canon do have that option on some of their higher end compacts, which I'm told are superb. It seems the only real option at the moment is to use one of them in a case, or alternatively your DSLR.

I've been toying around with the idea (using my Pentax K20D) for some time now as I have the case, but must admit being a bit nervous taking it out. Although from some of the shots I've seen on here with a DSLR ( I think they were yours if I'm not mistaken) it could just be worth the risk in the right circumstances.

[eric]

Olympus have brought out something slightly new - the OM-D.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusem5

They had a couple of variations of this to play with at the show. Aside from being brand new and with what I found to be a really attractive retro look and feel, this camera is also claimed to be weather proof, and there are a couple of lenses that have come out that are also supposed to be weather proof.

Weather proof is in no way waterproof, but it does imply more hardiness in the elements.

[mingle]

Not really sure why you'd want to shoot in RAW with anything less than a DLSR, since most of the image-processors these days do an amazing job
of getting great-quality JPGs in-camera. My new SX40 was a case in point - I had a go at processing the RAW output, but found it hard to get
results as good as the JPGs straight from the camera - even ones where white-balance and exposure should've been an issue.

There is an open-source firmware-addition for most Canon cameras that give the ability to shoot RAW (as well as a host of other
amazing features):

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_in_Brief

Not out for the D20 yet, but there's a version floating around for the D10...

Cheers,

Mike.

The big question is do any of then shoot in RAW.
It still seems you have to use a housing if you need to shoot in RAW. Considering they all shoot in RAW and then covert and save the image as JPG, you would think they could ad the option to keep it in RAW.
Whinge over.
And out.

[keza]

I only ever shoot in RAW but processing them is my job so I can get the look I want from it.
Once the files are processed to JPEG a huge amount of the information is thrown away, so if you want to play with the image, you need the RAW file.
I usually carry my canon 5D on the yak in a housing but you have to be there as much for the photography as the fishing as it does get in the way. If I don't want to focus too much on the camera, I take my canon G9. The images that come out of the cameras are very flat but that do contain the maximum amount of info for you to start playing with.
I would love a pocket sized camera to whip out for a quick snap but without being able to manipulate the RAW file, it wouldn't look like one of my shots.

I have looked in to CHDK before but haven't found hacks for many good waterproof cameras unfortunately.

[paulthetaffy]

+1 for the Nikon AW100. I love mine, though I haven't had chance to try it underwater yet. I'm off to fiji soon so will try it out snorkelling then. It's great in daylight but, as with just about every compact, struggles a bit at night without playing with the settings or putting it in the right night mode. The "easy auto mode" that attempts to detect what you're shooting and adjusts the settings accordingly is suprisingly good (so it recognises a sunset for example and puts it in an appropriate mode). You don't have to rely on this though and can put it in your desired "auto" mode yourself (such as night/portrait/macro/action/ffireworks etc). The GPS / map is good for geotagging your pictures and can also track your route but I see that as more of a gimmick than useful. I've turned the GPS off on mine as it eats battery. It has an electronic compass too which some people will like but again I see it as more of a gimmick. The other nice feture of the AW100 is the action control button which is a big fat button on the side designed so that you can press it with gloves on. You can configure this so that it either opens the map or puts it in action control mode, which is the real use of it. When in action control mode you can give the camera a quick nudge forward and it will skip between the main settings (photo/movie/playback etc) so you can navigate the main controls without using fiddly buttons - great if you're in the snow or on water and have gloves on. It has 5x optical which is surprising in a compact, and the lens is one of those fixed types so startup time is fast and less moving parts to break. The big winner of the AW100 though is recording movies. It's one of the few already on the market that records in full 1080p (many are 1080i) and I've been seriously impressed with the quality. Again it will be interesting to see how well it performs underwater.

That new Olympus looks like a real contender though if it is comparably priced.

[bildad]

I have a Nikon AW100 also, after reading all the reviews this was the one.