Pentax coming out with a new waterproof Point and shoot

[midger]

http://www.pentaximaging.com/digital-camera/Optio_W90_Pistachio_Green/

Anybody in the market for one may be interested, and it generally means good sales on the earlier models.

May be time to consider upgrading from my W10, eh?

[beachbum]

That looks pretty sweet! I like my Olympus waterproof, but this has more optical zoom, and better features. Hmmm....

[Jim T]

Mike,

Thanks for the heads up. I was leaning towards the new Panasonic but was a little nervous with it being their first entry into the waterproof game.

Jim

[Artin]

Well, I have a Pentax now, I had an Olympus until it ended up in the ocean ... some diver will probably find it
between the two I must say they are both good and I have dropped both and used them under water.
Both are solid buys.

Artin

[Rockstar Fisherman]

Thanks for the info Mike, but there are a few things to keep in mind that I didn't think about when I bought my new camera. First off my original camera is a Sony 6.0megapixel, and my new Pentax is a 12.0megapixel.

I bought the Pentax Optio W80 and I wont buy a new camera until I buy a new laptop that can handle such memory they require. The W80 is my fishing camera and it's killing my computer memory big time, and if you read the "off topic" area, putting these photos onto an external hardrive isn't a 100% safe bet either, as I've experienced.

Ok, in other words, keep in mind when you buy a "better camera" you also might need a "better computer." I'm getting by, but the W80 is eating my memory alive!!!!!!!!!!!

And one last word, I LOVE my W80 camera, just haven't quite figured out how to handle the memory it requires. Thus I highly recommend it, and I'm sure the W90 is even better both photo and video wise.

Mike

[midger]

Mike,
Unless you are shooting shots you plan on making enlarged prints of, you don't need to shoot at 12.0 mp. I often use the camera's menu to reduce the resolution I'm shooting at, hence the space needed to save the images on both the flash card and on my computers. If I'm shooting for internet useage, like ebay, I shoot at 640 by 480, for this site, 1024 by whatever it is. You'll find that that 2 gb card will hold 1000's of pictures at lower resolution instead of 100's. Most shots I take on the rivers are shot at 2 or 3 mp.

Our computers have many GB of storage, plus we have a Western Digital backup drive that we back up the hard drives to every 3 weeks or so. So far, nothing lost, and we run 4-5 computers in our network continually.

[Rockstar Fisherman]

Mike,
Unless you are shooting shots you plan on making enlarged prints of, you don't need to shoot at 12.0 mp. I often use the camera's menu to reduce the resolution I'm shooting at, hence the space needed to save the images on both the flash card and on my computers.

This is something I need to read up on. One thing I'm bad about is getting a camera and learning how to work it by taking pictures without understanding what is really going on, hence my current situation to an extent. Thanks for the info Mike, I'll look into this with my Pentax.

[midger]

Mike,
You'll have a small button (all of them are small, eh) on the back that says "menu". Push it and it will bring up many of the items you can set. One of the first listed will be pixels of resolution. Click the down arrow to scroll down into the options. Once you get to pixels, click a right arrow (these are the little buttons in a circle around the button labelled OK and yours is probably has a little flower printed on it) and it should bring up a drop down menu that lets you select the pixels you want to shoot at. Scroll down using the arrow keys, hit OK twice(center button in the circle of buttons) on the resolution desired and it will reset the camera to shoot at that resolution. On mine with a 2 GB card I can get 522 images shooting at 6 mp or 6136 images shooting at 640 by 480. That's with quite a few pictures already on the flash card. That's a lot of difference in required storage space.

[atomicfly]

mike.... from what i read the only problem you're experiencing is the photo files sizes are so big as you have it set on the camera that they are taking up space quickly, is that right? it's not memory, it's storage space size you're dealing with, no? just needing clarification.

eric
fresno ca.

[Rockstar Fisherman]

Thanks Midger, I'll check that out when I get back to my place later this evening. That will save me a lot of memory! Granted I still have my sony, but I prefer not to take it when fishing since its not water proof.

[rkfiske]

Wow I was thinking about getting the Canon D10, but now I'm not so sure... maybe I should wait for this new pentax? The HD movie mode really interests me. Anybody have anything to chime in here with as far as if I should wait or not?

[rayfound]

Wow I was thinking about getting the Canon D10, but now I'm not so sure... maybe I should wait for this new pentax? The HD movie mode really interests me. Anybody have anything to chime in here with as far as if I should wait or not?

If you're half the canon * I am, then this announcement doesn't matter much.

If you're a fair, rational, consumer, then this Pentax announcement may be interesting to you.

The D10 is huge, and not cheap... if one of those two things were changed, I would own one.

[rkfiske]

Wow I was thinking about getting the Canon D10, but now I'm not so sure... maybe I should wait for this new pentax? The HD movie mode really interests me. Anybody have anything to chime in here with as far as if I should wait or not?

If you're half the canon * I am, then this announcement doesn't matter much.

If you're a fair, rational, consumer, then this Pentax announcement may be interesting to you.

The D10 is huge, and not cheap... if one of those two things were changed, I would own one.

I've seen the pictures from the D10, it takes nice photos. As far as cost goes, apparently the new Pentax is going for 330 which is more than the D10 can be had for nowadays. So the cost issue is sort of in the other direction. I do like the size on the Pentax more, and the HD video is really really tempting

[midger]

The pentax also appears to have a better optical zoom at 5X.

I don't know anything about the Canon, but have owned 3 Pentax waterproofs and had no problems ever, plus this is their 11th waterproof model, so they do have a long track record. I'd get the one that suits your needs best, as they are pretty closely priced.

[duckdog]

waterproof may be the way for me to go. i just got my first didg. camera and being a clutz almost sent it for a swim the first time i tried to take a picture of a fish with it . a great kick save sent it into the mud on the streambank. i could have used the cute little lanyard that sony gave me with it but NOOOOOOO, it's the hard way for me or noway at all. i should just give that little sony to karen before i kill it and start saving for something water proof.