Best all - around Camera.

I Love taking those great senic views and sharing them with everyone. I need to buy a new camera and want something that is trail tough and trail lite. Something I can get those great rain shots with. Let me know what you think about your fav camera.

Trail tough and rain shots? Are you looking for a waterproof camera?

A little O.T. but I thought I'd share this.....I once dropped a digital camera in a lake. It was turned off at the time and my first instinct was to turn it on to see if it worked, which I did. It was fried.

I later learned that was the worst thing I could have done. Wet circuits = shorts. Better to dry it off for several days or even weeks before switching it on. My son sent his Ipod through the laundry and I found similar advice on some Ipod forums.

Even more off topic.......my son's Ipod was fried (he turned it on too). We had we had written it off and bought him another one for Chrismas. But two weeks ago it magically came back to life!!!!! I guess it took a while to dry out!!!!

I got a Pentax Optio W30 for my birthday. Water & dust proof. Doesn't specifically mention shock proof, so I'm taking normal camera precautions. Accepts greater than 1GB SD cards, which gives you a lot of movie taking time. Performance is pretty mediocre with low-speed (cheap) SD cards - great with 10MB/sec cards.

The microphone isn't great, but I believe that's because it is waterproof. You will hear the lens motor drive if you are zooming optically while filming. No noise if you zoom digitally.

Waterproof is real. My daughter has the older W10 and took underwater movies while swimming in a river. Movies came out great. I just wanted a camera that wouldn't die if it got rained on. Or that I can wash off in the sink.

Picture taking is good once you change the auto-select sensitivity to no greater than ISO200. Has lots of useful modes. Spend a little time getting used to mode selection and foolproof picture taking is a snap. Has a very good macro mode in case you want to take a picture of a bug, or a sliver in your thumb.

I have used it in the mid-30's, I suspect that it isn't the type of camera for cold-weather camping.

Olympus makes the ultimate waterproof, ruggedized, extended operating temp camera for less than $100 more than the Pentax Optio W30. I'm happy with the Pentax Optio W30.

Hope this helps.

I was recently in the market for a camera also (I'm going to Olympic National Park in August and want some pics). I wanted something that had realtively good picture quality, was mainly point and shoot, was compact, and was light. I found that in the Cannon PowerShot SX 100 IS. Here's a link to the Circuit City info...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Canon-Pow...roductDetail.do

Quick summary of it...8 megapixels, 10x optical, 4x digital, 2.5" screen, and weighs officially 9.4oz. I would recommend rechargeable AA batteries, and you'll need to get a case and a good SD card separately.

All-in-all, I'm really pleased with this camera. Since I only got it in December though, it hasn't been used nearly as much as I would like. So far I've only made it 3 places, and I've posted the pics from 2 of them on my photobucket page. Once it warms up a little, I'll be going out much more often. Feel free to check them out, but please please please remember that photobucket shrinks pictures and these have indeed lost some quality.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v313/bpwwrestling/

I hope this is helpful info.

I've been using a Pentax Optio W20 for about two years now and I'm very happy with it. I've taken shots and movies underwater and it works pretty well. I fish high lakes a lot so I really need a waterproof/resistant camera (in addition to living in Washington's Cascade wet country).

I've been wanting to get into photography the last year or so, so I purchased a Canon S3 IS. It's a great camera, but I find that I revert to my little Pentax more often while hiking. I weighed it on my scale and it tops out at 5.4 oz.

Cliff

Not sure what exactly you are looking for (point-and-shoot or something more advanced). I have a point-and-shoot Canon Powershot A570IS, and I am happy with it. It takes nice pictures, and officially weighs 7.2 oz with lithium batteries (takes 2 AAs). It's not waterproof, which was mentioned by others, but a camera being waterproof is not a requirement in my opinion. Just make sure to store it where it won't get wet, and wipe it down if you are taking picutres in the rain.

What ya' need is to put this in the right forum to find that camera. There's a reason we have so many here, ya' think <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

If weather/shock proofing is important, the Olympus SW790 is the one, for the moment. Less rugged but possibly a little bit better (less noise/grain) and still waterproof is the Pentax W30. Soon Olympus will have a wider lens version (28mm ) with the new SW1030. If you are after image quality, one that I am waiting for is the Fujifilm F100FD (28-140mm,1 1'6" sensor). Another that could be considered is the Sony W170 (28-140mm, possibly the same lens as the Fuji)
For a high quality compact on a smaller budget, you may still be able to find the Fuji F30 or 31, the cleanest image you'll get from a compact.
Franco
BTW, from 38mm to 28mm you gain more than 1/3rd in angle of view.....
All of the "weatherized" compact cameras use the "folded optics" (Konica-Minolta) design. Unfortunately this means an extra prism, small lenses and sensors= relatively poor definition and poor low light performance.
( I use the Pentax WP i...)

I would opt for one that takes Double AA batteries after having a Canon with proprietry batteries that need a wall recharger <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I carry an Olympus 725 SW. Waterproof and all that jazz. like it.

Had a nikon coolpix, hated it, even though it took AA batts, which at 2500 MA/hours each had a lot more jam in them than proprietary batteries, the camera eats juice like mad, and has horrible battery life.

Had a canon digital elph, it was good too.

Years ago, I had an electronic Nikon 35mm, I think it was the N70, and was hiking on a hot and humid creek in the North Cascades. Stopped to take a closeup. The sweat ran down my arm, down my index finger and into the gap between the camerabody and shutter button. Zap! That was that.

I took it to the repairman that fixed the Herald photographers' cameras and he said to pitch it. Being a cheapskate/packrat, I stored it away. I bought an old, heavy-metal Nikkormat, the antithesis of ultralight. A year and a half later I turned that N70 on and it worked. Like Trailrunner noted, it finally dried out. I used it for a year before it gave up the ghost.

Back to the original post: I've still got to say that if you want a digital camera with creative options -- a digital SLR -- then the Canon XTi -- now being replaced by the XSi -- is still one of the best options.

It's not a pro camera -- but look at the size and weights of those pro cameras, especially Canon's! I have a friend who moved up to a Canon pro camera and said she has to do arm exercises so she can hold it up.

The XTi /XSi are small and light. You can get an 8gb card and have enough image storage for the trip. A couple spare battery packs and you're set. So for bp'ing, when you want more than a PnS, this is still a great middle ground.

My A570 IS is just a month old and already dust has worked into the lens extension system, it still functions but now makes a noise it didn't at the start, a great little camera if you can keep it clean and dry. I'm disapointed cause I bought it for carring everywhere in my coat or shirt pocket. Got a used Dimage X1, a hard camera for me to hand hold, no viewfinder and a slick shell. But put it on a tripod and it does wonderfull. Nonstandard battery, but really small size, big 2.5 LCD. If they had made it lighter, use the EVF screen from the A2 and a case covered with the grippy stuff like on old IBM Thinkpads........But Konica/Minolta as a camera maker is no more. Love my A200 but wouldn't hike with it.

Don't know whether you followed the corpse, but K-M is now Sony branded, at least for purposes of giving them entre into the dslr world. Their compact digicams are all kaput, though.

They've heaped in a lot of new features and imaging chips, etc. into the bodies, and are teaming with Zeiss on new lenses, but one can only hope the cameras don't exhibit the typical spotty Sony QA/QC, which was once a K-M strong suit.

A bit more on KM and Sony.
Most are under the impression that Sony suddenly "bought" KM. Those two had in fact shared technology and manufacturing for some time before that. The Sony T and H series originated from a KM design (Dimage Z and X) and shared sensors and lenses between the two makers. KM is still alive inside several new cameras, the ones using "folded optics" and the ones using sensor anti-shake, both KM patents. Sony have been using Zeiss lenses for many years before the KM take over and it's entry into the SLR market. Another not so obvious connection is Tamron (partly owned by Sony) a company that supplied lenses to both KM and Sony

Thanks to Rick and Franco, knew of the Sony deal but not about the P&S models. Unfortunatly the H series moved the control positions from their Z series positions. My first digital was a Z3 and almost all other layouts feel akward in compairson. On stevesdigicams I did see a Ricoh non-zoom 28mm wide angle in the 8 megapixel range that was intresting.
Update: the GR Digital II is both pricey and rare, a Maxxum 5D looks more appealing.

I know someone said that they didn't like the coolpix, but I have had a good experience with it. I take it on every backpacking trip...but not waterproof by any means. It can be annoying...the limitations of a point and shoot...but I am always impressed by the photos it produces given that it is a point and shoot. I also love my canon xti. Heavier than the coolpix...haven't taken it on a trip yet...but probably will now that I use it so much. I am renting a macro lens for some test shots I am doing for friends this weekend...and I'm excited about my first foray into the macro world!

I have the Pentax W30 and it is fine. I just finished a 2 week group trip. Another person on the trip had the W30, and two people had the Olympus.

FWIW, I found the image quality -- sharpness and color -- of the Olympus to be slightly better than the Pentax.

Better image quality...
looking at the screen playback or at prints ?
Franco
This reminds me that since the W30 was launched (Feb 07) alongside the SW770, Olympus have come out with the 790 and the 1030. We should see another Pentax soon.........

Better image quality based on images posted on Flickr and Kodak.

That's just my opinion, though.