Water Proof?

[Ttam]

I'm a snowboarder and Im finally getting really good. My friends and I have talked about getting a camera to mess around with. Couple things though. Snow = water and Im sure to most cameras dont agree with water. Am I right? Next I would like something that can shoot a nice picture and shoot some decent quality video? Is there like a good hybrid that does both? Next is price. A lot of these cameras are sick....... But I cant afford half of them. Im looking for something around the 300-500 range. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks!

[frog4gators]

I've got the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW. I use it strictly for underwater pics. Its 10 megapix and takes a pretty good pic. They've since come out with a newer version that is 12 megapix. Very well built.... 10ft drop proof, 30ft depth underwater. I think they run around $300. Very good point and shoot camera!

[drg]

Check out PhotoJohn's article here at Photography Review:

Outdoor and Waterproof Cameras

for some more information. He's a skier and spends a lot of his shooting time in very difficult (weather wise) conditions.

[Photo-John]

Definitely read my article that DRG linked to. Some new cameras have been announced since I last updated it, though. There's only one camera in that batch that I think does worthy video - that's the Panasonic Lumix TS1. It can do 720p in the AVCHD Lite format. Panasonic just announced an updated version, the Lumix TS2, which has some upgraded specs but is more or less the same camera. Olympus also announced a new waterproof camera, the Stylus Tough-3000, that can capture 720p HD video. There's a tradeshow coming up in a month so it's likely more cameras will be announced. I'm sort of partial to the Olympus waterproof cameras since I've used them the most and they've worked well for me. But I think Panasonic makes great cameras, too.

[Stina]

Photo-John since you have experience with waterproof cameras, I was wondering how well they work with gloved hands. I've been looking at getting one for my husband to use on motorcycle trips. He usually just ends up with my hand me down when I get a new one but this year for Valentine's Day I wanted to give him a new camera.

[Photo-John]

Photo-John since you have experience with waterproof cameras, I was wondering how well they work with gloved hands.

Olympus makes waterproof cameras with "Tap Control." I reviewed the Olympus Stylus 1050 SW, the first one they included that feature in. I thought it would be great for skiing or mountain biking, two activities where you always have gloves on. The tap control actually works really well. However, for me, it didn't access the controls I really care about. It's possible they've updated it but I don't really know. I expect that for more casual shooters it's probably nice, too. But I just always ended up taking off my gloves anyway - even skiing when it was well below freezing.