Not-very-hypothetically speaking, if one were to be taking a trip in the near future to a location that will involve a lot of swimming, under- and on-water activities, and the occasional downpour, what would be everyone’s recommendations regarding an affordable waterproof image-capturing device?
From what research I have been doing, options still seems strangely limited, despite camera manufacturers producing arguably weather- and water-proof cameras for almost as long as they have been producing cameras in general, much less digital cameras. Likewise, SnapSort is a wonderful first resource for camera comparisons, but it also does such silly things as automatically giving the Sony DSC-TX20
(And in relation to the title, given that there are cameras with onboard wifi, and given that some phones feature inductive charging, which requires plugging no wires or cables into the device being charged, why have camera companies not developed cameras exploiting both technologies, and thereby alleviating the single biggest source of all waterproof camera failures – the battery/memory card door? Sure, the batteries might not be user replaceable, and, sure, the onboard memory would be a fixed amount, but that seems like the easy way to seal up the internals tighter than a… well, tight thing.)
Re: combining Wifi and inductive charging: I blame Fox executives. They canceled Firefly, I’m sure they’d take a dump on that clever idea too.
Seriously. It is not even that revolutionary of an idea, nor would it require the development of any technology that does not already exist. There are some marked downsides, but if it could reliably waterproof a camera longer and at greater depths, I would be all over it.
Not going to be a “high-end” solution, but…
When my family went to Hawaii about 5 years ago(wow, that long?) my mom took a special clear plastic waterproof bag for her digital camera(like the ones for MP3 players). My sister took a Zip-Lock bag. Photographs were taken with the cameras sealed inside the bags.
Both were of comparable effectiveness. Press the bag up to the lens when taking the picture and you shouldn’t notice it’s there at all. Of course, you’ll want to select a bag which you’re quite sure will not leak…
I would go with a MUVI, GoPro, or sony hdr as15, that way you can have fun mounting it to all sorts of other things after the vacation. A day in the life of Linogues pets video anyone?
This comes in around the price you were thinking
http://www.amazon.com/Veho-VCC-005-MUVI-NPNG-Handsfree-ActionCam-Waterproof/dp/B008KFMVZY/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1361408546&sr=1-7
I think i will try for one this summer, discretionary spending budget allowing.
but if high quality stills are your thing, 8mp might not cut it for you.
http://www.pentaximaging.com/digital-camera/WG-3_Black_
waterproof to 45′ depth, built to take a beating.
If you haven’t already looked at GoPro cameras you might want to check them out. They come with a protective case for use underwater.
@ Volfram: So Better Half actually has one of those special-designed bags, with the special-designed acrylic window for the lens to look through, but, honestly, I cannot say as though I was terribly impressed by the results. The acrylic window tunnel-visioned the lens unless it was zoomed in, and now you have two surfaces to worry about keeping clean. On the flip side, you can leave it full of air, so if you accidentally let go, it will definitely float.
As for using a straight-up ZipLoc… urk.
@ dave w: Yeah, honestly, we were looking more for still recording than anything else. Granted, that thing is nice and tiny, and beats the GoPro for having a viewscreen on the back, but these days, all of the waterproof point-and-shoots are capable of recording some level of HD video, and while their mounting options are more limited, I do not do any highway luging or anything
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@ Gunnutmegger: Have you used that one at all? In reading the reviews of the WG-2 (the 3 is a bit out of my price range at the moment), and it sounds like the picture quality can suffer. No one has any complaints about its durability, and I do love its design and the macro light ring, but…
@ Mike: The GoPro suffers from not being a dedicated camera. It does what it does remarkably well, and there are few that can really compete with it on that field, but when it comes to swimming around a reef, I think I want stills, rather than video, and more importantly, I want to know I am aiming at the right thing
. The lack of a viewscreen on the back is something of a shortcoming in that case.
So I’m a bit late to the party, but the GoPro is what I’d recommend. The lack of viewscreen can be solved by adding the viewscreen to the back of it (also waterproof). Color correction can be done via available filters. Small, cheep, and waterproof to 200′ as I recall (none of this 2 ATM business of most of the “waterproof” class cameras that really like to stay near the future. All of this in a package waaaay less expensive than a m4/3 or SLR with housing (never mind the strobes). There are even some really good lite kits out like the UK Aqualite. Granted I’m more focused under the water than above, but I’m a believer in the package.