Waterproof, shockproof and decent image quality?

[Kermit power]

Following on from my recent thread regarding finding a camera for my daughter, my thoughts have now swung off in a different direction, and I'm thinking of spending a bit more on something shockproof and waterproof which I can then also use underwater on holiday and the like.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I'm happy to be more flexible on spec here, although I do want decent image quality, and would prefer something which shoots RAW, as it would difficult to go back to only having jpeg to play with.

As far as I can see, Olympus offer 5 different models - the 850SW, 1030SW, 1050SW, Tough 6000 and Tough 8000.

Canon have the Powershot D10, Panasonic the Lumix FT1.

Have I missed any?

Does anyone know why the 1050SW, which I would assume to be considered by Olympus to be better than the 1030SW can be had for about half the price of the 1030?

[SamHH]

Kermit power said:

Does anyone know why the 1050SW, which I would assume to be considered by Olympus to be better than the 1030SW can be had for about half the price of the 1030?

Just from looking on the Olympus website, I'd say it's because the 1030 is more waterproof and rugged and has a much wider lens.

[Kermit power]

SamHH said:

Kermit power said:

Does anyone know why the 1050SW, which I would assume to be considered by Olympus to be better than the 1030SW can be had for about half the price of the 1030?

Just from looking on the Olympus website, I'd say it's because the 1030 is more waterproof and rugged and has a much wider lens.

Indeed it is. And yet the 850SW has the same spec as the 1050 in those respects. Odd.

[Fezant Pluckah]

My advice would be to get a "normal" camera and get a housing for it. The so-called waterproof cameras are rarely good for more than 3 or 4 metres (though I know some are more), whereas a housing should be good for 30 metres (you may not get that deep, but at last you know it will be OK in less!)

You can buy housings for almost any compact digital camera nowadays, and most allow you full functionality of the controls. And the housings are not much bigger than the cameras, so no need to lug bulky kit around (like wot I do)

[Kermit power]

Fezant Pluckah said:

My advice would be to get a "normal" camera and get a housing for it. The so-called waterproof cameras are rarely good for more than 3 or 4 metres (though I know some are more), whereas a housing should be good for 30 metres (you may not get that deep, but at last you know it will be OK in less!)

You can buy housings for almost any compact digital camera nowadays, and most allow you full functionality of the controls. And the housings are not much bigger than the cameras, so no need to lug bulky kit around (like wot I do)

I had thought of that, but 3 metres or so is fine - it's just for snorkelling and rock pools really. The other side of it is that my 6yr old daughter will be the main custodian of this camera, so the shockproof side is equally important.

[Fezant Pluckah]

Ah, in that case shock proof may be the way to go

[CVP]

We got one of the little Olympus' (think 750 SW) for our Galapagos trip to try and get some underwater snaps. Overall it's functioned pretty well but...snaps is all you'll get.

If you want to print bigger than 6*4 I find the quality really struggling because it's a tiny sensor. In addition the flash is very close to the axis of the lens so if you choose to use the flash underwater you get a lot of scatterback of the flash light from any crud in the water. Of course you turn the flash off and then have to ramp up the ISO and get noise because of the small sensor, damed if you do and damed if you don't.

The other thing I find about ours is there is a considerable delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera actually taking a picture. If, like me, you're a beginner snorkeler and there is any kind of current it makes composing and shooting somewhat tricky.

If I were to do this all again, I'd take Mr Pheasant's advice and go for a housing on the Lumix compact.

However the big caveat to this is we did get some reasonable snaps of turtles, white tip sharks, and movies of sealions etc that otherwise we would simply not have got. If you do the beach with the kids / any water sports I'd thoroughly recommend having a little compact either in a housing or of the waterproof variety. I recall ours was in the region of GBP 150 ish and is allegedly good to 10m which is deeper than I'll ever go. Overall pretty good value from my point of view

Chris