OK well first things first. I’m in the beginning steps of being activated for deployment to Afghanistan and am looking for a camera that will hold up to some pretty shitty conditions that would normally hurt/destroy other electronics.
Some of the things I’m looking for in a camera were :
Being dust/sand proof
able to take some abuse
simple to use ( I’m NOT a photographer)
withstand the temp’s
small/light
able to take video
not too pricey
reliable
and so on…
After a little looking around i found the Olympus Stylus SW 1050. It’s a 10.1 MP camera that claims to be waterproof, freeze-proof and withstands shock. It has a pretty cool “tap” feature to move around the cameras options when you have gloves on or w.e. Now my logic is that if something is waterproof it HAS to be sand proof too… correct? This was rated to operate up to 104 degrees and storage up to 140. I know it’ll be hotter then 104 when I want to use it, do you think it’ll be OK?
has anyone on here used this camera before? I’d like to know how fast this powers up and takes a pic. I’ll be in positions that I want to take a pic. FAST so waiting on a camera to turn on isn’t something I’m going to deal with.
What do you guys think? good camera? suggest something else?
Performance from the Stylus 1050 SW is disappointing compared to previous SW models. When starting the camera, it took a disappointing 3.6 seconds before the camera was able to capture its first image. When the camera is pre-focused, the shutter lag is approx. 1/10 of a second, however, when you allow the camera to autofocus it takes 9/10 of a second. In single shot mode I was able to capture 5 images in 19.6 seconds without the flash and 5 images in 23.3 seconds with the flash.
I have the first version of this camera (Stylus 770SW) and bought it for the same reasons as you… I’ve dropped, swam in the ocean and have gone snowboarding with the thing. Best camera I’ve ever owned as far as taking a beating and taking decent pics.
With the waterproof stylus models, you are sacrificing durability for other things like speed and quality. However, the picture quality on those things certainly isn’t anything to laugh at anymore.
I would say that for what you need it for, it will do everything you want and more. They are decent cameras, and are definitely durable as fuck.
Well there’s Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 and Pentax W60
If you can wait until may/april new stuff just got announced:
Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TS1
Canon PowerShot D10
Fuji Z33WP
3.6 seconds to be ready doesn’t seem like too long. Im going to go to a few stores and see if i can find one and play with it and see how i like the tap feature. And i want to know how fast it takes pics… like from when i hit the button till it captures the image.
olympus is definitely the brand you want with those specifications. don’t take startup time too lightly though, anything over ~3 seconds is going to get annoying.