As someone into boating and sailing, I have always only bought waterproof or water resistant cameras -- starting with the Canon Aqua Snappy 35mm and Minolta Weathermatic APS film cameras. My first digital waterproof camera, was the only one available at the time -- Sony Cybershot U60 (no longer made). Nice little 2mp camera and I liked the memory stick compatibility with Sony Vaio laptops, but the lack of zoom was a real limitation and the requirement to use rechargeable batteries was inconvenient for longer trips (if you don't need zoom you might be able to get a good deal on a used U60).

To get zoom and a significant bump up in mp, I bought the Optio 43WR about 5 months ago and, although only water resistant (not for diving!) it has proven to be a really versatile on-the-water camera...

(1) for shots from a boat, optical viewfinder is critical for bright sunlight (LCD washes out), plus for bracing camera against your face,

(2) movie clips are for real with the Optio, so no need for bulky waterproof camcorder/housing (get a big SD card though),

(3) easy, obvious rear panel controls with minimum menu-based manipulation enable you to get the fast shot while out on deck,

(4) AA battery power is also critical, for extended cruises (since no AC power available for chargers),

(5) subtle but really practical point, unlike some super-thin cameras, the square box shape of the Optio WR43 enables you to hold it easily and almost completely within your palm and therefore protect the lens from spray while moving around the boat,

(6) and with the optional neoprene case (search Amazon for product PTX-L70), a pretty rugged total package.

Waterproof/water resistance camera options are getting more numerous... you might want to check out the Ricoh Caplio 300G/400G if you want a waterproof, large-body camera, though I believe these Ricohs are only available from Japan.

I'm also considering a move to the new Pentax Optio WP, a 5mp, waterproof (JIS8 standard - 5ft depth) camera, or the new Sony DSC-T7 with optional waterproof housing (9.8 ft depth)... note however that both of these are LCD viewfinder-only units, so the key will be LCD performance in bright sunlight.

Excellent camera in every respect but one. Shutter speed for night pics is very slow and pics are easily blurred by the slightest movement over the seemingly interminable amount of time before the pic is complete. i would still recommend it, just either use a tripod for night pics or have hands like stones. its really nice to have a digital camera that can get immersed in h2o, since so many of my vacations involve water. pentax cameras in general take exceptional pics, far better than my sony digital camera.

Pros:
- Good flash: take your own snaps by holding the camera, and the flash throttles down nicely. Although don't expect to light up a room: the flash illuminates subject only.
- Loads of features: gives you the same amount of creative control as an amature SLR.
- Excellent outdoors camera: compact and unobtrusive, great picture quality during daylight.
- "Hip to be Square" kinda looks: I got three compliments from cute girls!
- Great videos: If your SD card can support 9MB/Sec write speed (also called "60x" speed SD cards), this camera takes pretty good videos.


Cons:
- Slow shutter speed when taking indoor pictures with flash. Didn't get a chance to try the "Snap" mode, which is supposed to speed up the response time.
- No lens cover: I always manage to splash something on it.
- Eats regular alkaline batteries like a monster: my 2300mAH rechargeables AAs fare way better.

Conclusion:
If you ever go outdoors, this is the camera you want. Can any other camera take pictures while you are playing beach volleyball in the sun, or splashing around in a raft, or enjoying a romatic rain-walk in the downtown?


UPDATE: It's been almost six months since I bought this baby, and took it with me too all sorts of activities like Skiing and Rafting. I could use this camera with thick winter gloves on without too much trouble, and it survived plenty of dunks in freezing water without compromising picture quality. I recommend this camera to anyone with an active lifestyle.

I bought this camera so I could take pictures while standing in the rain - literally! I don't know if I will actually do that, but it 'is' supposed to be waterproof (or at least water-resistant) and can supposably remain fully submerged in shallow water for a little while. I also needed for it to be able to take excellent quality photographs and based on examples I saw posted on the web I decided that this camera was good enough in that regard. The first day I had this camera I took about 60 or 70 pics with it on a beautiful sunny day using a Viking brand 512MB SD card that I purchased with it. I have to say that the pictures were excellent including some really amazing "macros" that I took of some bright yellow flowers. Also, I think that the camera is kind of "cute-looking". It is smaller than what I had expected it to be. I thought that it might be something like 5 or 6 inches square, but it is only 3 by 3 inches and about an inch or so thick. I like the fact that it is that small. That is about all I know to tell you about this camera. I think chances are very good anyone considering buying this camera would not regret it.

The first reviewer gave a very low rate to this great camera, not fair. So I feel I should jump in.

When I decided to upgrade my old Canon S100, I was very clear on four things:

1) It must use AA batteries. Firm, very firm on this. As long as you must carry a charger, you end up never take the camera with you. As simple as that.

2) It must have macro mode to take good close up pictures. Without this, for example, your gadgets look horrible when you sell them on eBay.

3) It must do good enough video recording for occasional and short motion pictures. I always hate to take a camcorder with me, but I do find sometimes I miss it.

4) It must use SD or CF cards, not XD cards. SD/CF are popular and cheap and they have large capacity. Easy to insert them into my laptop, PDA or image bank to transfer images and/or view them.

So, that narrows down my searching to three models: Nikon Coolpix 3200, Kodak CX7430 and Pentax optio43WR.

The video taken from 3200 sucks, especially indoor video is garbage ¨C way too noisy. It¡¯s ruled out first. BTW, if you are going to take some video of your children indoor, don¡¯t get this 3200. The CX7430 takes fantastic indoor video, but I never be able to get a focused close up picture. Sadly put it out of this game.

The Pentax fulfilles all my needs and is clearly the keeper. It uses just 2 AA batteries and it is very compact. If I want longer battery life, I can use widely available CR-V3 batteries as well. Perfect. Its super macro mode is even better than the 3200 (1cm vs. 2cm). I could take a picture that just covers a dime with sharp focus, or a picture of my SMD circuit boards showing clearly the tiny components and their printed values. This is a surprise, because Coolpix series is well known for their super macro capability and Pentax only claims 10cm macro in its specs (a typo?).

It takes fantastic video outdoor and indoor. Even at very low light conditions, the video still look good (like CX7430, with some noise, but not annoying at all). Video recorded at 640x480@15 is smooth enough and, at 30, it is totally free of jerkiness. However, I did find that recording is not reliable at 30fps, it pauses every 10 seconds or so, but it might be due to my slow SD card (a SanDisk 256MB, not an ultra one). Anyway, 15 fps is good enough to me and I¡¯ll never need to carry a camcorder again, that¡¯s for sure.

43WR has many more features, but I cannot list them all. Unique water resistant, of course. Its lenses do not extend out like most cameras, very nice. It starts up very quickly (less than 2 seconds) and lags between shots are very short (about 2-3 seconds with flash). I have no idea why some reviewers such as Steves-digicams say it¡¯s slow. Actually, it even has a quick-start feature: when this feature is enabled (not by default), you don¡¯t need to press the power button first; you simply press the shot button and the camera will turn on and take a picture right way within about just one second, very handy. Its buttons and menus are very well designed. The LCD screen is very good, even under the sunlight. You can see thumbernails and zoom pictures. It displays multiple languages including Chinese. There are no doors at the bottom side; so you don¡¯t need to take the camera off a tripod to change batteries and SD cards. Overall, a very thoughtful product, which is harder and harder to see on market. Oh, for those who cares, the camera is made in Japan (other accessories may not).

The bottom line is: if you don¡¯t care about the video side, the Nikon 3200 is fine. If you don¡¯t take dime pictures, the Kodak CX7430 is decent. If you want all, the 43WR is the one, the only one right now.

You still can't have it all. I have taken 100's of pictures with this unit in just about every environment imaginable. You do sacrifice something in image quality with this camera. The flip side of that coin is that I have taken pictures places where other digital cameras would have been destroyed. I have gotten some amazing and beautiful pics with this camera, it just does not take GREAT A+ quality pictures as consistently as other cameras I own. If you're looking for a unit to take on your outdoor adventures where you are concerned about killing your camera during that swim or adventure in the sand and dust this is a great camera to own.

Though it's been many moons since I bought this camera (let alone since it was cutting-edge), I still feel this camera is a far better choice for adventure photography than other, newer cameras.

Here's my take on this:

1. It takes AA's. That's worth the price of admission, right there. You can be in the middle of the jungle in Ecuador, but you'll find someone or some place with AA's (or you can bring some Nicads and a solar charger!). Not being tied to an outlet is key.

2. There are no lens elements outside of the housing, and there's nothing to move/slide/click-into-place while taking pictures. The more stuff that moves or wiggles, the higher the chances of water getting in. The KISS principle in full effect: "Keep It Simple, Stupid".

3. It uses SD cards. There's no little pins involved like with CF cards/readers, and the cards' ratio of storage to physical size are great. I don't think the software in the camera can handle newer, "roomier" cards, but my one-gig card can take 395 pics at max quality. I called Pentax to ask what the largest card size could be, but I don't remember what they said. It might be 2 or 4.

4. The video and audio quality is surprisingly good. I did NOT expect that. Great for fishing/hiking trips, etc. You can get some graininess in shots (outdoors OR indoors)... I set the ISO to 200 to be safe.

5. The most obvious negative is the image quality. At the time of writing this, there are pocket-cameras with 10MP sensors... AND they're optically stabilized. If you're not going to blow up images to silly sizes, this will do fine to capture once-in-a-lifetime experiences in wet or harsh places.

6. Size. While it's no SLR, it's also not a tiny PowerShot. Oh, well.


I hope this camera lasts for a long time, as I'll be very sad when it dies.