Best Canyoneering Camera

[canyonguru]

I have a Cannon D.10 and i love it. The camera after about 3 years of abuse started to leak and wouldn't work. I sent it back to cannon for a repair, they said they dont' repair those models so they sent me a brand new one for free, Awesome. I would also suggest getting a Go Pro Hero. they have a wide lense they shoot in HD and you can just film the whole canyon, go home and take out snap shots of what you want. And they are way cheaper than most other cameras.

[msmnificent]

I'm expecting to be in the market for a new camera soon too so I'm glad you bumped this thread, thanks.
Almost everyone I know seems to think that the Panasonic Lumix TS3 is the way to go. I am also very partial to the Sony Cybershot TX10.

Here are some reviews that might be useful:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q311...pactgrouptest/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366987,00.asp

I am interested to hear what others think of the trade-offs between the Sony and Panasonic.

Thanks,
Malia

[ghawk]

This one has been on my radar for awhile. Reviews seem good so far. http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...p?product=1621

[mzamp]

I have the Panasonic Lumix TS-3 and leaking has not been a problem. I like the ease of the WP because we simply clip it to the gear loop and it is readily available for shots. We end up with hundreds of photos. About 50% of my shots are worth sharing and only about 15% of my GFs shots are any good or in focus. Occasionaly I will take my 10D or in rare instances my 1D. I never get many shots becuase it is time consuming getting them in and out of the dry bags. However, you can get some killer shots. So like mentioned above it comes down to what you want. Most of the time I just want memories...

[mtn_dude]

It's hard to see what you're really setting up(unless you buy the LCD backbac) but the new GoPro camera's work awesome. Wide Angle Lens, waterproof, high quality pic...has worked really great for me!

[maarten.1975]

I am interested to hear what others think of the trade-offs between the Sony and Panasonic.

I have been using the Sony DSC-TX 10 during my last 2 Utah trips, and it is a very nice camera. Below some of its features and my experience with it. I can't compare it with other camera's, but I'm quite happy with this one.

Picture-quality is quite good in my opinion, and I've made and printed many pictures. The camera has a great 'backlight'-picture mode. It takes 3 pictures very quickly after one another and calculates this into 1 end-picture. In canyons (where often the light from outside the canyon is very bright) I think this works great. This trick works very very well with non-moving situations. Moving images may cause some strange effects though:


In general I think (and see this confirmed in many opinions on the internet) the general picture quality in low light situations is very good.

Fantastic is the sweep-mode, which mostly makes great pictures of landscapes (after a short training and experience with the modus). (Original resolution is 10480x4096)



Movie-quality is proper/ good as well I think. I hardly ever make movies, so not much to add here.

Camera-construction - the camera is quite small for a water- and dustproof camera, but even though this camera looks quite fragile, in general it has kept quite good, being dropped out of my hands a couple of times.
The mechanically-opening and closing lens cover gave me some trouble though. Read more about this at 'dust-proof' !
Another little thing is the fact that the lens is located all the way in the top-left corner of the camera. Occasionally when not paying enough attention, it may happen that the last piece of index-finger is in front of the lens... making the proper hand-position (how you hold the camera when taking the picture) a habbit easily solves this.

Water-proof - no problems so far concerning this, and I've been swimming with it in about 10 canyons.

Dust-proof - well, this depends on the definition of dust. After my first holiday (of the 2 holidays I've had this camera), the lens cover didn't appear to like sand. Sand (not dust) got into the closing mechanism and about 2 mm of play between camera and lens cover was the result. Sony repaired this properly and freely for me, I had bought it about 3 months earlier. Last holiday, a lot more canyons and no problems anymore. I was more careful on the camera: properly wash the lens cover system in a pool of water if you feel friction, and of course rinse out all the sand at the end of the day. Washing is done by opening and closing the cover while below the water surface or below the tap. In dry canyons I have experienced less problems with sand up untill now. It more easily falls off, being less sticky without water.

Battery-life - incidentally I need my back-up battery during a day, and in general I do take quite a lot of pictures. If I have to make an estimate.... I'd say you can take 200 or 300 pictures without problems on one battery. If you use the special modes a lot (takes a lot of energy to feed the processor), the battery will go more quickly of course.

Touch-screen - incidentally it doesn't wanna work. That is frustrating, however turning the camera off and on works and solves it. To me this happens lets say once every 2 or 3 days or something. Furthermore the touch screen works very well.


In general I'm very happy with this camera. It is easy to use, great pictures, it is nice and small. I didn't wanna add to many example-pictures to this reply, but you can check my latest trip reports for some (in size reduced) examples.
I would buy the camera again, for sure! Probably the big DSL camera's make much better pictures, however they are so expensive, so heavy, mostly so not waterproof and in general so complicated...

Any questions left... feel free to ask!

[Scott Card]

That picture is blurry.... and there is a mysterious green arrow. Is this a feature of the Sony?

[Byron]

I love my Olympus Stylus Tough. It performs as advertised. I have a trip report in the backpacking section with all photos from it. I recommend the camera.

[maarten.1975]

That picture is blurry.... and there is a mysterious green arrow. Is this a feature of the Sony?

Hehehe, nope, that is a feature of Maarten...