Waterproof digital cameras

I'm thinking about checking this one out.  Sanyo E1 waterproof video camera with 6MP photo support.

http://us.sanyo.com/entertainment/cameracorder/index.cfm?productID=1495

My cousin has that video camera, she loves it.  She regularly takes it out in the boat, drops it in the snow, ect.  I had a chance to use it, I thought it was pretty cool.

I'm mulling the Sanyo too---here's a review with sample pix and videos.  They're about $325 or so from ebay

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2008_reviews/sanyo_e1.html

his conclusion:

Bottom Line - Sanyo's Xacti VPC-E1 has crossed a major line, becoming one of the first fully submergible video cameras. Fitting in the palm of your hand, this very easy to use camera captures high quality 640x480 video while allowing the photographer to capture a full 6- megapixel photograph, while recording video. The performance was a little slow, however the image quality of the photographs is good and the quality of the videos is excellent in and out of the water. With a MSRP of US$499.95 this would be an excellent camera for a person or family who does a lot of traveling or outdoor living.

I can tell you the Sanyo is a decent cam.  At my previous company we lost a design win for the video compression engine in that cam.  So I've had a chance to eval the quality in detail.  We had damn good quality in our product so if we lost it to someone with better quality, it must be good.

What I don't remember are things like battery life.  And I want to cradle that thing in my hands a bit more to get a better idea of feel and usability.

-Allen

I found a bunch of reviews for the Sanyo at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000QSNQ9S/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

It seems that the biggest drawback is the still photo quality. Great reviews for the video though!

I bought an Optio W30 last year from BuyDig.com. The seller was legit and delivered with no problems. The camera cost about $200. I haven't used an Olympus for more than a shot or two (to compare). The Pentax does seem slow on the focus, especially in low light. I am happy with the quality of the photos. My battery/card door snaps shut and does not need any additional locking, unlike Wali's. BTW, I bought a card with USB. Pull the card, Fold it to expose the USB and plug in to 'puter to download. No worrying about finding the cables, very easy to do.

My battery/card door snaps shut and does not need any additional locking, unlike Wali's.

That must be one of the improvements between the w10 and w30. Good for them! Sad for me

It's a beach, getting old, isn't it? Darn stuff becomes obsolete too quickly!

Adorama and B&H are the only New York dealers that seem totally honest and reliable. fast shipping too, they don't rip you off on handling charges.

Thank you for the recommendation for Adorama - it is always appreciated when satisfied customers tell others about us.

If you ever have a problem with an order from Adorama, please do not hesitate to contact me directly: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com

Sincerely

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

I too have ordered stuff from Adorama and have no complaints about the service.

Just curious ... Helen, how did you find your way here?  Thanks for checking in.   

-Allen

Wow---now there's some customer-oriented service!!!  Wonder if Helen fishes from a kayak???

Wow---now there's some customer-oriented service!!!  Wonder if Helen fishes from a kayak???

I must admit to have failed to progress beyond 5 sticklebacks in a jar - and a very cross squid off the side of a boat in Portuguese waters!

Please don't hold it against me..............

To the previous question - my job is to find postings on the Internet that relate to Adorama, and respond. Frequently there are compliments for members of the sales team (I really enjoy being able to pass those on to department managers); sometimes there are great suggestions from photographers that I'm able to pass on to the Senior management Team who discuss whether to incorporate them into Adorama strategy; often there are technical queries that I pass to the relevant experts within Adorama.

Then, as for any company, there are problems or problems relating to supply, delivery hiccups, customer service etc. I try to sort them out!

Hope you'll find my availability of use: I don't always catch every posting, so contacting me directly: helen.oster@adoramacamera.com, is always a good idea if I don't appear to have responded in the forum to a query.

Best wishes

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

As a followup to my original post, and after a lot of time researching various cameras, I would like to report that I am the proud owner of a Pentax Optio W60. Great picture quality, waterproof to 4 meters, and takes 15 frame HD video or 30 frame VGA video. I found a Kingston 16 gig SD card for $50 so there's lots of memory. The only problem that I noticed so far is the sound on the video. If you use autofocus in video mode, there are numerous loud clicks that record while the camera is focusing, which is constantly. You can turn off the autofocus, but then you probably can guess what happens, blur. The solution, edit in some music instead. Time will tell how the camera holds up to the vigors of kayaking. My wife is taking it to Mexico next month to film some whale sharks. I don't think the sound issue will matter much for that!

Dave

Found the 8mp Sanyo waterproof videocam on San Francisco Craigslist, the guy is willing to ship USPS, woohoo!!  Now to dig up the pesos!!

As a followup to my original post, and after a lot of time researching various cameras, I would like to report that I am the proud owner of a Pentax Optio W60. Great picture quality, waterproof to 4 meters, and takes 15 frame HD video or 30 frame VGA video. I found a Kingston 16 gig SD card for $50 so there's lots of memory. The only problem that I noticed so far is the sound on the video. If you use autofocus in video mode, there are numerous loud clicks that record while the camera is focusing, which is constantly. You can turn off the autofocus, but then you probably can guess what happens, blur. The solution, edit in some music instead. Time will tell how the camera holds up to the vigors of kayaking. My wife is taking it to Mexico next month to film some whale sharks. I don't think the sound issue will matter much for that!

Dave

i read in a review that if you turn on a feature called infinite focusing or something like that you don't here the clicks...i don't know anything about just repeating what i remember...i ordered this camera just a few minutes ago to ship here on wednesday
the olympus turned me off because of the 10 second maximum on video...i don't know why they do this it seems kinda stupid...only thing that limits pentax is the amount of memory u have apparantly...ive heard that the quality of either video isn't great...but then again its not a video camera lol

This is the camera I used at our last dino-fest. SeaLife ReefMaster Mini:
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/reefmaster_mini_pro.html
I bought it at the local dive shop, I've dropped it & taken it underwater with no problems. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to take decent close-ups of little stuff. In auto-focus, it sometimes will focus on the background, not what I'm trying to picture. Probly me not knowing what I'm doing. Haven't tried the video mode yet.