So off to the Caribbean in a month or so and need to buy a new camera.

I’d love a micro 4/3’s camera but to be honest I don’t think I can justify the price. Looking to spend under £200, and want something that’s easy to use and takes decent pics with little fuss.

If anyone has any experience with waterproof/shockproof cameras what’s the verdict? Do they come with any warranty against them not standing up to water/drops etc? I know our 6 year old really wants to take pictures of some fish while we’re on hols

A mate of mine used to work for Fujifilm and could get cameras to use at crud drop of a hat.
We took a couple of Fujifilm xp10’s on holiday to Spain & they seemed to do the job.

Not as good as non-rugged cameras, but to be expected for a given price. We chucked them in the pool several times and they were fine, and they are simple to use.

They now do the xp30 and one further up the range called the xp150.
For what you want it for – I reckon the xp30 would be ideal – comes in way under budget from the look of things, or even the xp150 will just be under budget.

I’m quite tempted to pick one of these up, just to give m4/3 a go, and under £200 (just)…

E-PL1

Big fan of my waterproof pentax optio camera for taking watersports pictues. It’s great for snorkelling, sailing, etc but it’s not that great on land. The small lens struggles with the light if it’s dark or shadowy or if there is glare. I wouldn’t be happy if it was my only camera but it’s great at what it does do.

I’d be tempted to get a cheapy waterproof (~£50) and a £150 everyday camera (Lumix TZ?, 2nd hand LX3). If you just get a 4/3 camera you’ll miss half the good pictues as you’ll be in the sea, the pool or on the beach a lot of the time.

I’m loving my Olympus tough 820 – waterproof and shockproof (think you can get them at £205)

I’m not sure of the warranty, but I let our 7 year old use it on holiday last week. It was dropped a couple of times (by me not her) survived kayaking, beach and swimming. It replaced a 5 year old Olympus mui and I am very pleased with the huge improvement on shutter speed and colours over the mui.

That said, I am only looking to take holiday ‘snaps’ and and not anything more detailed. It has two sports modes for taking fast shots of moving objects that I like (but it does affect the quality so only for 6×4’s), a really cool panoramic setting which links three shots with just one click of the button and various other settings including one to compensate for flouresent lights inside which is useful. You can also change it to a ‘tap’ setting meaning that it will respond to a tap on the case rather than having to hit fiddly buttons… not sure how useful that will be, but I’ll be giving it a go in the winter. The only thing I miss is a better optical zoom, something that you seem to have to compromise on with a waterproof lens.

I will post up a couple of snaps, just to show you the colours, I know I’m not great at taking photos, so please just live with my dodgy composition!!

On the river in the sun (well as sunny as Yorkshire gets..)

A very, very grey day at Filey

Inside in natural light (but under the stairs)

Inside with the flash.

thanks flowerpower – that’s exactly the sort of thing I’m going to be using it for.

At the moment it looks like it’s between the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT3 and the Olympus TG-820. I’m tempted with that 4/3’s in the link above but then I’m not sure I can really justify buying that and a cheapo rugged camera.

Have thought about getting a gopro but to be honest I think I’d use that less than the 4/3 after the holiday