Does anyone have any experience with this camera for boating purposes?
I'm especially curious about the quality of whitewater action pictures
in typical boating (i.e. less than optimal) lighting conditions.

I was hoping to find some relevant info at Bill Tuthill's old
comparison site (http://creekin.net/cameras.htm ), but I found that the
domain was taken over by some company.

The only review that I could find that gave more than just the basics
was this:

http://www.digicamreview.co.uk/olymp...lus_review.htm

Still, I prefer to hear first hand from someone who has used one for
paddling before paying so much money...

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

Wilko wrote:
Does anyone have any experience with this camera for boating purposes?
I'm especially curious about the quality of whitewater action pictures
in typical boating (i.e. less than optimal) lighting conditions.

Sorry no, several of my friends own the Pentax Optio WPi and are
generally happy with it, although they all say it's not one of the
best digicams, although it is waterproof.

Other friends have a regular digicam inside a waterproof case.
This might produce better results, especially when you remove camera
from case and use it in landlubber mode. But cases are costly.

I was hoping to find some relevant info at Bill Tuthill's old
comparison site (http://creekin.net/cameras.htm ), but I found that the
domain was taken over by some company.

Yes, I sold that domain name and moved content to cacreeks.com
so try http://cacreeks.com/cameras.htm instead.

The Pentax WPi and Olympus 730 SW look similar except the Olympus
has more megapixels.

Bill Tuthill wrote:
Wilko wrote:
Does anyone have any experience with this camera for boating purposes?
I'm especially curious about the quality of whitewater action pictures
in typical boating (i.e. less than optimal) lighting conditions.

Sorry no, several of my friends own the Pentax Optio WPi and are
generally happy with it, although they all say it's not one of the
best digicams, although it is waterproof.

Yeah, I also know a few boaters who have one or who have the predecessor
(the Optio WP), and at first I thought about getting one, but then I
heard their negative experiences. So that one's off of my list of
possibilities.

Other friends have a regular digicam inside a waterproof case.
This might produce better results, especially when you remove camera
from case and use it in landlubber mode. But cases are costly.

Yeah, that's not what I had in mind. The Olympus with two 1GB cards and
an extra battery pack costs about 500 Euro here. I already think that's
a lot of money, and I definately don't want to spend more.

I was hoping to find some relevant info at Bill Tuthill's old
comparison site (http://creekin.net/cameras.htm ), but I found that the
domain was taken over by some company.

Yes, I sold that domain name and moved content to cacreeks.com
so try http://cacreeks.com/cameras.htm instead.

Thanks Bill, I'll change the links!

The Pentax WPi and Olympus 730 SW look similar except the Olympus
has more megapixels.

That's what I thought at first, but now I'm not so sure any more.
Besides the depth and impact resistance, I also like the lens-protection
on the Olympus, and it looks like it doesn't eat batteries as badly as
the Pentax.

I just got an email from a lady on BT who has bought one. She will send
me some pictures and tell me more. I'm curious to hear about her
experiences and see those pictures.

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

Wilko wrote:

I just got an email from a lady on BT who has bought one. She will
send me some pictures and tell me more. I'm curious to hear about
her experiences and see those pictures.

Please let us know what you think. It would be nice to have a "cult"
waterproof digicam, like the Pentax WR series used to be for 35mm film.
The previous Olympus Stylus 310 and 410 were not highly regarded.

Most digicams are too slow at default ISO setting, or too noisy at
higher ISO settings. The Fuji F10/F11/F30 and E900 are exceptions,
but are not waterproof.

Bill Tuthill wrote:
Wilko wrote:
I just got an email from a lady on BT who has bought one. She will
send me some pictures and tell me more. I'm curious to hear about
her experiences and see those pictures.

Please let us know what you think.

I think that most of the pictures looked rather well, but some looked a
bit grainy. She had two hitewater pictures, but with the amount of light
present, I could probably have taken the same quality picture also with
my WR 105. Also, I found some of them pretty dark. I'm not quite
convinced yet that this is the camera I have been waiting for to make
the switch to digital. But maybe I'm just too critical or too old
fashioned... :-)

It would be nice to have a "cult"
waterproof digicam, like the Pentax WR series used to be for 35mm film.
The previous Olympus Stylus 310 and 410 were not highly regarded.

Yeah, tell me about it. :-)

I have two Pentax WR105 camera's that I like a lot. I almost feel sorry
to stop using them, since they both still function just fine, despite
serious abuse on my account!

Most digicams are too slow at default ISO setting, or too noisy at
higher ISO settings. The Fuji F10/F11/F30 and E900 are exceptions,
but are not waterproof.

Yep, I'm rather hesitant to go digital, in part because of that. On the
other hand, being able to erase bad shots and take as many as you like
without worrying about the extra cost associated with using more film
also has its merit. I'm also not quite convinced that the digital
pictures last long enough, with CD's and DVD's losing their data after a
couple of years. Maybe it's time to invest in a RAID 5 array to store
digital pictures? :-)

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

"Wilko" wrote in message
...
couple of years. Maybe it's time to invest in a RAID 5 array to store
digital pictures? :-)

Now there's an idea! :-D

Rebecca

I just got the Pentax Optio W10 - the newest of the Optio cameras. It
has 6 mg pixels and no viewfinder. All of the newest digitals are
being made without viewfinders. I had all of the old film Pentax WR
cameras and loved them. I also have a Pentax Optio 550 that is not
waterproof that takes great shots. I put it in a bag and took pictures
on the San Juan River last year, but that is not a really good option
for anything above Class II. The Pentax I just bought came out a
couple of months ago. I'll try to get some whitewater pictures and get
them loaded to my smugmug site. I just have a few surfing right now.
I may try to get them loaded tonight. I'll post here if I do. I chose
the Pentax over the Olympus because the motion stabilizer reviews are
better than the Olympus. I take a lot of shots from the kayak, so
that's a big consideration for me. Also, Pentax seems to try to get a
niche with the whitewater cameras. However, it still doesn't have a
lenses cover. That would have been nice. It also has a "green" mode
to save the battery. Haven't used it enough to see if I really like
that feature, but it sounds good. Good luck, and let us know what you
decide. Renee