Grant Glazer <grantglazer_at_clear.net.nz> wrote: >I am looking at getting a waterproof digital camera. One that takes my eye >is the Pentax Optio 33WR >http://www.dpreview.com/news/0309/03090301pentax33wr.asp At face value it >looks like an ideal camera for paddling, but has anybody else used one? I >would like to hear an independent review from a kayaking perspective. I drive a truck and don't get to read my paddlewise threads very much, so I hope I'm not just repeating something others have already said, But have you looked at getting a regular camera, and then purchasing a waterproof bag for it. There are two very good reasons for this: First, a waterproof bag is also sand proof, and, if there is anything more detrimental to a camera than water, its sand. Second, It opens up your options for cameras. I really wanted a camera with a high optical zoom, and, at least when I was looking, I couldn't find any water proof camera's that fit that bill. I choose the Olympus C-700 (I think that serires is up to the 750 now) digital with 10x optical zoom, and got a bag for it. With this combo, I've taken some really great pics on my kayaking trips. The two companies that I know about that make water proof bags for cameras that you can take a picture through is Aquapac (www.aquapac.net) and Ewa-marine (www.ewa-marine.com) Aquapac makes two sizes, and one of the two fits most non SLR cameras. They are light weight, very reliable, and degrades the picture quality very little as long as you make sure the bag is tight against the lens while taking the pic. The company also has excellant customer service. Its disadvantage is that you can't use a flash through it. If you want to get a little more expensive, you can go with an Ewa-marine case (as far as I know this is your only option if you have an SLR camera), that has a glass lens to take the pic through. these bags are generally fairly specific to a type of camera, so you would need to make sure they have one for the type of camera that you want to buy, but the company has a fairly wide selection, so chances are good that they have one that fits what ever camera you choose whether it is digital or conventional, SLR or point and Shoot. The biggest disadvantage to these bags (other than price - you could easily pay as much or more for the bag as you do for the camera) is there bulkiness. On a side note - if you're willing to spend this much, I think the Olumpus C-750 is a great camera for kayaking. Namely because it is such a small camera to have a 10x Optical Zoom. You will appreciate that much zoom the first time you try to take a pic of some sort of wild life that you either can't or would prefer not to get very close to, but still want to be able to tell what it is later :-) It has plenty of other great features to appreciate as well though. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Nov 03 2003 - 06:08:24 PST
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