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Cameras...


Ken_Potts

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  Good evening fine mariners,

  In March I'm heading to the Bahamas for a week-long cruise aboard a Sea Pearl.  We'll be camping on the beach and sailing and snorkeling etc. while working our way northward in the Exumas.  Plenty of Kalik will be consumed and a good time is expected for all.

  I did a somewhat similar trip a couple of years ago but I haven't filed the trip report here yet because I'm still waiting to get photos to post.  My amateur photographer friend took upwards of 500 pictures but I never got to see them (Aargh!).  I took a single-use camera and didn't take many pictures because she was the official photographer for the trip.  This brings me to my question:

  What should I look for in a digital camera that will survive this trip?  I'd like something waterproof so I could take the occasional snorkeling shot of a shark nibbling on my toes but that's not a requirement.  The main use of the camera will be onboard and on the beach.  It absolutely must be able to survive an accidental quick dunk in salt water.  I don't want to lose the camera just because I stumble getting into or out of the boat (because I will at some point).

  I'm not a photographer and I don't need anything really fancy but it would be nice if I could turn the flash off for low-light long distance shots so I don't get an underexposure (I'd rather risk the blurriness of a long exposure than have the camera make every single decision for me and try to get a shot of something far away with a flash).  This is not really a requirement - I'm just looking for the right camera for the trip because it will be a good camera for all of my trips.

  What has worked for you? is there a reasonably priced waterproof digital?  Would I be better off with a cheap digital and a waterproof case?  Do they have that sort of thing?

  And remember - This is a very very important subject because if I get the excellent advice that I'm used to on this board I'll be able to post pictures - Some of you may have noticed that I'm good at making verbose posts but not so good at posting the pics that are worth so much more :)

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I have occasionally looked at waterproof cameras.  West Marine has a 35mm camera that looks like it will fit your needs for under $200.  I have never seen a underwater digital camera for less than $600 (they have one of those at West also).  The prices I have seen in camera shops on waterproof digitals are in line with West.  I have found that for taking pictures of sailboats, a good zoom (optical) is a must.  The better zoom lens you have, the farther away from the boat you can be and still get a picture of the boat that doesn't look like a speck.

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Ken,

I've had a Pentax optio W20 (there is now a newer version) for ~2 years  and it has never failed me on any sailing adventure. When I race or just head out the lake, it just goes in my lifejacket pocket. I cannot begin to count the times its been dunked or submerged. It also survived the Everglades Challenge last year as well as a trip to St. Thomas to the Rolex Regatta. Both extreme tests of the cameras durability as it was wet for a long periods of time on end. I don't use mine for skin diving because I know what "waterproof" really means but I always gladly dunk it in the drink for those occasional disbelievers. It's well worth the cost IMO. This only begins to describe the times I have flipped, swam, dropped and otherwise abused my camera and I have zero complaints. Oh, and this is the camera I will use in the 2008 Everglades Challenge as well, still going strong.

Oh yeah, my family also has an older opto waterproof camera (W10) I believe that has also never had any problems and loves the water.

Here is a link to the NEW Pentax optio W30 (the newer model). Amazon.com sells it for around $250. Make sure you get a 2GB sd card. Mine can take ~45min of video or ~1000pics depending on quality.

http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-Optio-Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/B000LXZYKW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1201835288&sr=8-1

Reading some of the reviews, it sounds like this one doesn't like snorkeling very much but I am not surprised by that. Just because it is "waterproof" doesn't mean its snorkel proof. But I stand by my experiences and wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. Its already paid for itself in my book. If it died tomorrow I would have gotten my moneys worth and would definitely buy a new one. 

P.S. Stick it to the man and don't buy from West Marine unless its an emergency. If you knew how much they were making off what they sell it would make you sick.

P.P.S. No I don't work for or am in anyway affiliated with Optio Camera company...or WestMarine.

-Alan

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  Thanks for the input guys.  I'll reward you with pictures of beautiful tropical island scenes and I'll try not to spoil too many of them by being in them.

  I looked at the specs and some reviews for the Optio W30 and it is more "waterproof" than the W20.  They claim the W30 is okay in 9 meters for 2 hours as opposed to (IIRC) the W20's 1 meter for 30 minutes.  I even found a review that rated it from a snorkeler's point of view (not the best but okay).  The snorkeling thing is probably the least important to me, though.  I'm just looking for something that can survive my lack of attention to detail in everyday life.  I have a strong feeling that any camera that can survive Alan can probably survive me - Alan, can you adapt the robot-airplane camera mount for masthead deployment? :)

  One thing I've got to get past is the lack of a viewfinder - I guess I'm just old but I like to be able to frame a shot even in direct sunlight...

  Kidd - Good point about the zoom.  The optical zoom of the W30 is only 3X but I think the resolution is good enough that I'll still be able to get decent pictures of far away boats by taking the highest resolution and cropping it.

  I'm going to shop a bit online this evening and git me one.  Hopefully I'll be able to find a competitive price clicking-through this site so Frank can get his share.

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Ken, thanks to you and your darn thread I am now $300 poorer  :-[ with an annoyed wife  ;D !  We had one good but nonwaterproof camera for the family and I had bought a real cheap one for boating.  However, the family camera wasn't available much for my boating and I stressed out about getting it wet so didn't get many good pics.  The cheap one took horrible pictures and had a shutter speed of 3 minutes  :o (or so it seemed).  So, your thread pushed me over the edge into buying my own camera...for work use during the study abroad trip I am directing of course  ;D . 

I looked at the Pentax Optio and the Olympus Stylus cameras.  The reviews on the Olympus were better and one of the cameras even goes down to 30 foot depth.  I also like the size and feature.  However, I ended up going with the Pentax for one reason alone: they use SD cards including the new high-speed ones.  The olypus uses it own (non-high-speed) storage cards and one of the negative comments was it took awhile for the picture to write to storage.  Besides, SD cards are everywhere and most new computers have built in readers. 

So now I am eagerly awaiting my new camera hoping that it is a good (nonleaking) one that will capture many happy memories on and in the water.

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   Scott,

   Feel free to tell your wife it's my fault.  Hopefully that won't annoy her even more...  ;D

   You're not $300 poorer, you're one camera richer...  Think of the peace of mind you'll feel knowing that camera is waterproof and not bouyant  :o  I'm thinking about adding floatation to the wrist strap - Wait... Is there a wrist strap?

   Never mind - I can duct-tape it to my neoprene beverage insulator thingy (I'll never lose that).

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Hey, if you guys are really worried about dropping the camera in the water, check out the new little mini-PFD at http://www.water-buoy.com/

Its an annoying flash site, so if you are on dial up stay away.  But for broadband connections, the site works fairly well. 

It was one of Sail Magazine's Innovation Awards for 2008.

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Wow that site is pretty "flashy".

It's pretty cool but I couldn't find a price tag or place to buy it - I guess I'll have to stick with taping the camera to my drink for now  ;D

I'm not really terribly worried about losing the camera - My GPS and sunglasses are both non-bouyant and I don't seem to stress too much about taking them on the water.

It's just more incentive to keep the boat upright...

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Thanks a lot, didn't think about sinking the camera  >:( .  Actually, I was hoping it would have a wrist strap and I was thinking of seeing how many of those key chain floats would be needed to float the camera.  I can get lots of those foam floats for free!  I think a lanyard attached to the boat wouldn't be a bad idea either.

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The camera arrived today and it does have a wrist strap.  somewhere early in the (surprisingly thick) manual there is a suggestion to attach flotation to the strap.

I haven't got it set up and loaded the software on my computer yet, etc.

Initially I pulled a little padded bundle out of the big box and laid it aside thinking it was the battery pack.  Then I came across the teeny tiny little battery pack and unwrapped the bundled item - It was the camera.  Now I feel really old :)  It's a compact little beasty.

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  Here's one of the first pictures from the new camera.

  My friends Aubrey and Dan were jsut finishing a climb.  Aubrey did a great job but I think Dan might be getting a little old to be hanging around on cliffs  ;D

  He's probably going to hurt me when he reads this...

post-402-12949766612_thumb.jpg

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