Small Waterproof Camera

[mock1]

I'd like to buy a small waterproof digital camera that would work for kayaking, hiking, mtn biking e..-----Any suggestions, Pros and Cons? Thanks

[Telemarketeer]

I have an Olympus that is water/shock/freeze proof. 1080sw? maybe.

Works great, I've beat the shit out of it and it still works well. Picture quality seems to be lacking though. Might be that I haven't really worked with the settings. No viewfinder either, just a screen. Awesome battery life.

[farmer]

I've got the panasonic TS2. Much better image quality than the olympus versions that I've used with work.

A friend of mine has the canon d10 or whatever their waterproof p&s is, and it seems to take even better pics. The downside is that it is much bulkier than the others.

[crackboy]

Pentax used to make good waterproof ones but it seems like within the past 3-4 years there has been an explosion of new cameras and now pretty much everyone makes one

[The AD]

Panasonic just came out with the TS3, so you can probably get a good deal on the TS2 these days. Sony also has a new model out that's cheaper than the Panny. The TX10 maybe? Pentax has a new model that looks totally different than all the others and is very small. Reviews I've seen on their past models have suggested the image quality isn't great, though.

I've been looking for one, too, and at this point I'm leaning toward the TS3. I'd really like to see a comparison review, but haven't found one yet for the latest models.

[spindrift]

IMO the TS2 blows. Got one recently. Snow color - even in snow mode - is meh gray under any but perfect conditions. Something about the camera results in me shooting more out of level pics than any other camera I have used. Autofocus seems "challenged". Shutter lag is variable - I'm guessing maybe due to said autofocus issues - but it can take anywhere from a second to 3-4 after I hit the shutter button for it to decide it is damn well ready to click. Rapid fire will only do 3 top quality pics at a time. Then it is "hit the shutter and guess at lag" time again. Oh, and uploading is painfully, irritatingly slow. Way slower than 14MP should require. Yeah, under perfect conditions it seems to do a nice job - but you do not buy a shock/cold/waterproof camera for perfect conditions. Huge fail from my point of view.

[Sagamoron]

I wanted to bump this up and see if anyone has any feedback. Seems like I can buy am Olympus Stylus Tough for around $150, which is far cheaper than a waterrpoof case for my other point and shoot.

Any thoughts?

[tillPOWdidwepart]

I had an Olympus 1030SW (Tough series I think) and as stated above, the image quality sucks! I was actually a little excited when one of the screws came out of the front panel and water leaked into the housing... I don't know anything about the others as I haven't replaced it yet, but I was always sorry I didn't get the Canon for it's image quality.

[Kai]

I also had an Olympus 1030, and agree that the image quality was terrible. (Worse than my much earlier Olympus 760)

You might want to look at this one:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/05...t-camera#specs