# Water Proof Cameras



## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

A few of the members have had them for a while, I'm wondering how they are going for you now you've had longer to live with them???? My wife, god bless her cotton socks splurged on a digital camera for me for xmas and a very good one at that(12x optical, anti shake, great auto features and really flexible manual settings, a fast, fast processor and a nice macro set up). The only prob. is I'll be too worried to take it with me fishing, I'm thinking of biting the bullet and asking her to take it back and exchange it for something a little more durable and possibly less expensive. If she changes it and I get something I dont enjoy using, the I told you so's will haunt me for a long time. So some more feedback would be handy.
Cheers,
Shayne


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

I'm still testing my Fuji A500 + waterproof cover.

As I've mentioned before, I bought it because it has a solid (but not brilliant) performance, uses rechargable AA batteries which fits my other gear, has a waterproof case (to 3 m) and I think is good value (about $260).

On the negative side, it is a little thicker than the Olympus waterproof ones due to size batteries it uses and due to the case adding extra bulk.

When I took it out on the water the other day, the lcd screen is not bright enough at its standard setting so I will have to get it brighter. Also, the optical viewfinder is a little hard to use as the waterproof case has a sticker on it practically in the way!

The controls were 'easy as' to use, though I would like it more automatic so I could take photos while paddling and while fighting fish. But maybe I need extra hands.

Overall, I am happy with it so far.


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## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

I recently saw one on sale for $79, 1.3 megapixels probably very few features but might be good for the yak. I want to say I saw it in a fishing magazine or someting that came with it. I'll have a look as I am interested in it.


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

I saw the $79 or so camera in several fishing brochures that came over the Christmas season. I wouldn't buy a 1.3 megapixel as I like to get more quality in my photos. The A500 is, surprise surprise 5 megapixel and for me that is okay. Gives room for cropping and prints to a reasonable size.


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi Shayne, i have the fuji 500 waterproof camera , and like Troppo , i am still testing it , the first lot of photos i took were a little dissapointing , but that could be because i dont know how to use it and the waterproof case may have needed a clean, if the weather is o.k. , i will have it on the water tomorrow and will post a photo , hopefully of a fish, i think it only cost $240, so was not expensive


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Thanks for the info, so far. I'm looking foward to the pics. This might be stretching things a little but any chance of a comparison photo from your normal camera as a comparison?


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Gday Shaned,
I got the olympus 720, does the job great no need for a case i just tie it to my pfd and put it in the zip pocket.
As for the photos 7mp and to post them i have to resize them down from 3000x1000 pixels to around 500x300 so the quality i post on here is a huge downgrade from the original.
Bit expensive but i got mine on sale for $530

cheers Dave


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

justcrusin32 said:


> 500x300 so the quality i post on here is a huge downgrade from the original.


Dave I'm not an IT buff but post on the forum at 800px wide without a problem, don't know if that improves things for you


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## WayneD (Jul 11, 2006)

Shayne

I got the Olympus 725 for christmas and whilst I haven't tested it yet, I bought it because my friend has one that he has taken to Seaworld and into a few pools with him. From what I have seen it is an excellent camera and takes good photos under water, that is why I got one. He took underwater photos of coral and fish at Seaworld and then in the pool he took some good photos also, he just swam around with it in his pocket until he saw a photo opportunity. I took over 100 photos on Christmas day and was very happy with it out of the water. It still has 7.1 megapixels but the zoom is nothing great at only 3x optical (I think) but there has to be some downside to having a totally waterproof camera. I had heard reports of the menu being hard to use but I found it very easy and have no dramas with it. It also takes about 30 mins of video footage which I think is great, although this might depend on the XD card you get for it. Kylie got me a 512mb card, you have to buy these seperatley, about $55.

Kylie picked mine up from JB HiFi here in Brisbane for $510. While most shops retail for $599, I found it on the internet and could get it delivered to my door for $511 so she went in and asked them if they could do the same and they did. Makes it easier for waranty claims should they arise.

It sounds like the you beaut one that your wife bought would be above or around that price so you should be able to swap it over easily.


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Doing the net trawl and I come across this site, has anyone had any experience with these soft cases?
http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.a ... y282_1.htm


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## WayneD (Jul 11, 2006)

A bit scary if you ask me when they say

*Warning: use only after following instructions carefully (including testing the unit without the camera). ABSOLUTELY NO liability accepted for damage to cameras, whether used in accordance with instructions or otherwise.*

I would be wary if it was my camera, but then again they might be OK. Are you willing to risk an expensive camera on a $66 waterproof case without any guarantee?


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi Shayne, well unfortunately didn't get out on the water today , the weather was ok, but my back was not , so went to archery instead, now my main man, have taken some home happy snaps with both my cameras, firstly my older camera is an olympus 3.2 megapix, the other camera is new and its a fuji finepix 500 in a waterproof case, i have taken one photo with each, the first photo of Jerry is with the fuji still in the waterproof case, the second photo underwater is with the fuji in waterproof case, the third photo is with the fuji out of the waterproof case , and the last picture is with the olympus normal camera,,,,,,,,the results are there for you to compare,,,,,i am actually quite pleased with the fuji after this test


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Shhiiiii,   got it right, hope it helps mate


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Bazzzzzzzzzz, you legend, thanks very much. You certainly can't complain about the photo difference between the fuji in it's case and your normal camera. Thanks for the effort mate, it helps a lot and it also answers another important question. As in what the hell happened to Lassie?????

Good looking dog mate. :lol: :lol:


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

thank you sunshine, am pleased i could be of help , Jerry is also pleased as he sees it as a further opportunity to further his film and moddeling career, hes such a tart! :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

shayned said:


> Doing the net trawl and I come across this site, has anyone had any experience with these soft cases?


Shayne when I got my Kodak digital I looked for cases and got a soft waterproof from Whitworths for about $40 with a 2 year warranty [the pack] from memory.

You could take pictures while the camera was inside OK and all my early shots were done that way and was happy with the system...it was no good with a zoom lens [mine is digital zoom so no worries].

The seal was really good and OK to 2m deep according to the instructions..I only took a few underwater shots as an experiment, and with a camera value of $100 was totally at ease, another of the kiwi members also had one and was happy but found the case had some scratching which detracted from performance...my result was same with camera in or out of case

Aquapac AQ410 Camera Case with lenzflex plastic .

With a modified hatch in the Swing now, I am back to my ziplock plastic bag as camera case rather than the fancy case


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Shayne, the underwater shot should have and would have been better, but i am currently having some pool filter problems and the water in the pool is very cloudy, also foprgot to post a photo of the camera to complete the set , so here it is , cheers mate


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Tried to talk the hugs and kisses into returning the camera and getting something cheaper and stronger. Turns out even though she had done all the research on the camera, her Scots nose for a bargain kicked in and she got it for well below cost at a closing down sale and consequently can't return it anyway. So I'm stuck with it, not that it's an issue, as it is a nice unit which will keep me occupied and happy for a long time to come.
Best of all though, as she didn't spend way too much on me, I don't feel guilty about tipping a little more money into the cunning kick and purchasing a camera for the yak. From the info here, I reckon for the money the Fuji will do just fine. Don't you love a happy ending?????
Thanks for the help guys.


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## reefcheck (Jul 20, 2006)

Hi Shayned

Those photos from the Fuji looked OK to me too.

I'm no hot photographer, but here's a few thoughts of mine based on 20 years using all sorts of waterproof cameras for my work as a marine biologist and now as a keen kayak fisho.

Camera size can be a factor in how you use it. Small is easier to stow and you might tend to have it close to hand more often, which means you can catch those spontaneous moments like the dolphin popping up longside, the school of mullet jumping or your mate falling in..... Sometimes you want to use the camera with one hand also, so small can help.

Don't worry too much about the megapixels. A good lens and anything above 3 megapixels will deliver great postcard size shots or even 8X10" ones if you have a steady hand. Best judge is how good a camera is for you will be if you are happy with the photos. Someone will always have a "better" camera. I reckon plenty of great value digitals are around with say 5 megapixels and you will not really see much difference in 7-10 megapixels unless you want to make big blow up photos. Lesser megapixels means smaller file sizes too, so you get more photos on the same size memory card. Good if you are away for a while and can't get to the PC to download or you have the camera in a housing and do not want to have to open it at sea.

Battery life. A long battery life is great if you have the camera in an underwater housing. Means you do not have to open it to change batteries. Check out the camera specs on the number of photos. These days some of the small cameras can give you 2-300+ photos and recently I've found a couple that give 700 before the battery dies. The ability to blast away and take heaps of photos, then select the good few later, is a key asset of digital cmaeras, so getting a camera with a big memory card and lots of battery life means you can shoot heaps all day, or over a camping weekend etc while everything stays safe inside the housing. If you have do not have such a system then plan aroudn poping open the hosung when out to change memory card and or batty. Ususally this means finding somewhere dry, uless it is really calm, then squirting the houing with some clean water form your drink bottle, then drying it before opening. One of those small microfibre towels form cmaping stores or at the supermarket cleaning section are great for this and fit into a ziploc.

Waterproof housings - the hard bodied plastic ones (usually polycarbonate) are the go if you can get one for your camera model. Some cameras make a light version that is waterproof to 3m while the heavier versiosn will work to 40m and can be usedfor SCUBA. Either is fine. They all usually let you operate all the funtions of the camera by having push buttons going thorugh the housing , sealed with little o-rings. As always, O-rings needs care, maintenance and sometimes replacement. Might want to check about getting spares, servicing etc, although generally the main hosing O-ring is the one you will need to look after. If, after a couple of years the other rings fail then your housing will leak. In saltwater this will be terminal, but in freshqwate you have a chance of salvage. Anyway, look at these housings being good for 2-3 years and then get a bit fatalistic about it if if all dies on the water one day. Time for a new one by then?? Part of the problem with spares is that the housings change with the camera models, so as new cameras come out from Olympus, Canon etc every year, the one you buy today quickly becomes discontinued stock. This is not such an issue with more professional/custom housing manufacturers, who genrally keep a good like of spare and will do annual servicing, but they are expensive mostly and overkill for what you want.

The soft housings like Dicapac and Ewa make will certainly do the job OK. However, they are vunerable to cuts, so you have to watch out for them when packing and in day to day use. I have used them, but they are a compromise compared to the hard bodies. Nonethless they provide a useful option when no alternative housings are available, they are cheap and they do work well provided you take care with them. Cheap too. If you can get a hard haousing go htat way, if not give the soft one a go and be carefu about holes from hooks etc.

Happy snaps

Reefcheck


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

Good info, Reefcheck. And welcome to the forum.


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

welcome to the forum reefcheck , and thanks for sharing your experiance, nice to have a marine biologist with us


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Cheers for the info reefcheck, I'm sure it will be invaluable to other members in the same position as me. Glad to have you on board, hopefully you'll enjoy the site as there is a great bunch of people here.
Shayned


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## reefcheck (Jul 20, 2006)

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Having owned a South African mackski kingfisher for 6 months I'm learning the ropes fishing around Perth, so this forum is a great source of info for me. So far just spinning for flathead in the Swan and trolling up a few herring, trevally and tailor beyond the surf zone near Cottesloe. My experience with the kayak fishing so far is that I always start chasing a new species or fishing a new spot a little over ambitoius and experience (disasters) teaches simplicity!

Glad if my thoughts on the camera stuff were of use and sorry about so many typos.

reefcheck.


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Mate you know how to use those punctuation and paragraph thingies so that puts you a long way a head of most of us here, typos are how I communicate normally so i didn't notice anything out of the unusual.


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

reefcheck said:


> . . . . sorry about so many typos.
> 
> reefcheck.


Lots of people say the same, that there're sorry about troppo.

Oh, my mistake, you said "typos".


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

troppo said:


> reefcheck said:
> 
> 
> > . . . . sorry about so many typos.
> ...


Nah Troppo, it was actually a typo, reef check was trying to type troppo, so you were right the first time!!! :lol:


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## shayned (Jul 12, 2006)

Hey HI-YO, 
Glad to see you found your way across, does this mean you've taken your obsession with plastic to the next level?


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

shayned said:


> troppo said:
> 
> 
> > reefcheck said:
> ...


Oh dear.


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## Dust (Sep 29, 2006)

I'm obviously not concientious enough and don't get around to getting on the net as frequently as most of you.

Shame on all you selfish people - I did the honourable thing and bought my wife a waterproof camera.

She uses it as an everyday camera and it's great when you go down to the beach (or in a kayak).

I bought a Pentax Optio W10. 6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, waterproof to 1.5m and it also claims to be dustproof.

I had a pretty good trawl through the camera forums and they seemed to be pretty unanimous in saying that the picture quality was better than the Olympus.

I bought mine from digital camera warehouse. It appears to have been superceded by the W20 which is on sale now for $368. Main difference between the W10 and W20 (at a quick glance) seems to be that it has gone from 6 to 7 MP.
(http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/category124_1.htm)

I've been very happy with the quality of the W10.

It doesn't have a viewfinder (large lcd screen on the back only) but the screen is good in even the brightest of sunlight.

Cheers,

Dust


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