Best camera for backpacking and packrafting?

I have no experiance with the Pentax, but I have been happy with my Olympus 720SW.

I have the Olympus 770. I read a lot of reviews before buying it, and found it was the only lightweight camera that fit my needs (waterproof to 30 feet). If I wasn't planning on diving with it, I would have gotten the Pentax. Overall it seemed to do a little better in some of the reviews that I read.

Check out digitalcamerainfo.com for some in depth reviews of the Pentax. The Olympus 790 isn't in their system yet, so the 720 will be the closest option (790 is an upgrade to the 720).

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http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Olympus/oly_stylus790sw.asp

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Pentax/pentax_optiowp.asp

You might get more comments from the forums there as well.

(I'd go with the Oly based on build quality.)

I agree that the Olympus is well built. My 720 has a all metal body. (And weighed about the same as the W20 which was the Pentax offering last year)

The issue I have will all currently available waterproof digital cameras is that they don't shoot wide enough. A nice wide angle of 28mm is right on for the landscapes we so often get the pleasure of seeing. Unfortunately, the Oly and Pentax offerings are at widest in the mid 30mm's! The Ricoh 500g is 28mm on its wide side (see http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ricoh/ricoh_500g.asp) however, the thing weighs a pound!

I got the optio w30 over the summer for use hiking, kayaking, skiing, and just for general pictures. Although it does take nice pictures, I am a bit disappointed in the camera. I do like that is waterproof and it feels solid in the hand and is laid out pretty well. I didn't like the lens in the upper right corner of the Oly's, and figured my kids would invariably have their fingers over that when they held the camera. The menus and features are fairly straightforward. The movies come out very well (higher resolution than the Oly's) except you have a choice to either lock the focus or listen the motor clicking in the audio.

It has a lot of lag in low light, and sometimes can't focus. If I switch on manual focus I can force it to shoot. Indoor performance has been hit or miss, and sometimes I get these weird reflections when using the flash:

I have been messing around with the settings, but can't figure out what causes this or how to prevent it.

Outdoor pics are much better, particularly in strong light. It sometimes doesn't know what to focus on, and so I have to manually focus on infinity or lock the focus. But although I am generally happy with the outdoor pics, many times they just don't seem as crisply focused as I would like. This is an example from my deck, camera on a small tripod:

That pic has been cropped and reduced, but even at full scale just didn't seem to capture the mountain. I should say that I am probably not a very good photographer, and maybe messing these things up. The optio was almost half the price of the Oly 770, so I appreciate that, but given the choice now I would really like to try the Oly and see how that performs.

[no idea if the uploaded images will work, and no preview, so here goes…]

I've handled a digital camera for years in the outdoors that was not made to be rugged or waterproof. I keep it in a ziplock in case of rain, and generally don't take pictures in the rain. It's worked very well for me. This opens up a lot of options for cameras with better image processors and wider angle lenses.

For packrafting you may still want a waterproof camera.

Hi Michael

> sometimes I get these weird reflections when using the flash:
Those are dust particles floating in the air just in front of the camera. Possibly off your clothing?
You should see what it's like when you get steam off your body rising up in front of the camera (with a flash)!

Cheers

Hi Richard,
Are you leaning toward a particular model yet? I'm eagerly awaiting your findings. For now I'm limiting myself to a non-waterproof camera to take advantage of a wider lens and more features – but I'm keeping an eye out for a good all-weather choice.