Waterproof Digital Camera under $250ish

[GreenLantern]

The last thread I could find about cheap digital cameras was 2008... and I couldn't find one about water proof camera's.

Ok so this time I did a little research and found that the Olympus Stylus Tuff seems to be the best deal for water proof. I have heard a lot of good things from reviews on the internet about Olympus and the quality of photos it cant take while still taking a beating.

I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC FX12 (older model, but still takes great pictures) that I love. But I am always worried when I bring it on lake trips.

You need a camera to document your catches on any fishing trip... and this one has almost gone in the lake a few times already. Couple this with my Mexico trip I think the timing for a Water proof camera is just right.

I have a few questions for the knowledgeable base of posters here. This is what I love about CP, it is like the Druid of message boards.. it can do a little bit of everything.

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...p?product=1483

Bam, there it is. $229 American retail price, I think it goes for around $250ish in my city. (Again Saskatoon, not Calgary). Is that a good price? In your opinion best on the market for the price range? Quality of pics going to be satisfactory?

The mega pixels actually surpass my current model since it is a few years old, and this is a newer model of Stylus than the one I looked at a few years ago.. so I imagine the quality has to be maybe even better than my current camera. In fact if I bought this one, I could probably do away with my old camera?

[gargamel]

I would think that you could get a slightly better deal than that, but I don't have any suggestions, so I'm mostly useless there.

I have one and I love it, but the zoom is pretty bad. For the whole thing to be encased to be waterproof, the poor zoom is inevitable unless the camera is huge, so that's something that you'll be stuck with. If you aren't trying to zoom in on anything, I don't see why you'd need another camera for basic shots, and there are enough megapixels that you can zoom in digitally without making it look too bad.

I haven't done anything too crazy with mine, but it was nice to be climbing up a ladder on a snorkel boat with it banging around and not worry having to worry about it getting damaged.

[HalifaxDrunk]

You can also go the cheap route and but a soft underwater case.

This one (DICAPAC WP-410) fits your camera.

$39.99 CDN here

It may not be quite the same as a dedicated underwater camera but I bought one before our trip to the Bahamas last fall and it worked fine for what we needed (snorkeling, swimming, sand, cruise ship's pool). Absolutely no water or sand got near our camera, the case worked great.

[kaotik]

I have one and I love it. I've had no problems with mine and have taken it snorkelling, to the lake etc...

[bluejays]

I have a lower end Olympus Stylus 850SW camera and brought it specifically for vacation last year. Perfect until the last day when a bunch of us were jerking around the pool, got hit and used the camera to crush my fall. Water seeped in the huge dent and that was the end of it. Went to Futureshop and got an exchange. It's a tough camera, but I wouldn't put it in water or anything in hindsight. When it drys, sand and salt get stuck everywhere on the thing in the most minute places. Furthermore, my cousin had the same model on the same vacation and somehow one day water seeped in and it was ruined (saltwater nonetheless). I think the rubber around the battery/memory card bay warps when water is continuously around it. Picture quality is nowhere Canon's quality, but for what it does on vacation, you can't complain (the quality isn't bad, Canon is just much better). I bought mine last year for $200 with taxes all in IIRC. Every now and then these things go on sale. I bought mine in May. My parents own the heavy duty, more expensive one and that one is pretty cool too. I really do love the camera in the event it gets wet or drops, but I wouldn't do it intentionally, because stuff just seems to happen when you mess around with it.