Water proof Olympus or Panasonic Lumix camera

I don't know about the Panasonic but I've got an Olymopus Mju Tough 8000. Its good for happy snaps and getting wet, but for immerson in water its not all it claims to be. Shove it in your pocket and go for a swim and its ok, go any deeper and my screen blanks out and only comes good a week or two later when it has dried out. The shutter lag isn't too good either, so if you want action shots look elsewhere.

Though the latest Olumpus Tough's may be a bit better sealed against the water with only one door and a different sealing lock. The sensor also had a hard time with really bright scenes (ie at the beach...) on video, gives the picture a purple tinge and lines across the image.

In saying that they are a robust camera and can take a flogging in day-to-day use.

I haven't heard anyone speak ill of the Go Pro...?

I have a Lumix TS2 (same as FT2) and it is a bewdy. I did a quick shoot out with Tough and Lumix cameras in a store in average lighting and mving around a fair bit (making tricky for focus/exposure) and the Lumix IMO was streets ahead.

I have also had a bit of purple tinge when the sun is low, but when not copping direct sunlight the vid from the kitecan rig is very good.

Image stabilisation is great.

Underwater shots are superb (even tho reviews i read rated them as so-so). I only snorkel so I'm talking about 3m duck diving here.

The Lumix unit comes with a great silicon cover that helps protect from sand and also accidental door opening (even tho it has 2-stage clips)

Bonus is that the camera is a very good happy snaps (and more) camera/vid out of the water and really easy to work with.

I was super stoked to pick mine up for under $400 - now I believe you can find them for under $300. Wow! Awesome at that $$.


Only downsides at all are no lens cover (careful with sand at the beach) and no interval shooting (but stills can easily be captured from vid - at good res - internally in the camera)


Here's a few pics from 1st time snorkeling with it using the underwater mode. That green blob is a seaslug sorta thing curled up. Water was pretty cloudy that day and it was about 3m deep.

Talked about this before - still annoyed with not so tought Olympuss (10metre one). Not recomended. A couple of models back now but basically the same.
This was No 2 ( a warranty job) - the first one died when the battery leaked (!!)
No1 great for 6 weeks - No2 Not well made.
This one compared to the first was a total lemon - poor focus poor auto what evers - bad lense set-up - paint flaked off - and it had a micro-leak and tortured me trying to keep it working. (Shelved for last 18 + months must chuck-it - Ahh first resolution 4 2011 - not hard to keep either!!)

Have gone to a GOPro HD but not as useful - not a family / general purpose camera - not a hands on camera more set-up attach to your kit and forget - can't tuck in wetsuit and paddle over a wave quickly - can't pull out your pocket and snap - pictures are very local (no focus) hard to know if it has taken a picture alot of the time (in a bomb proof case) - but for video gives good results (better than Mju).

Family camera - Definitely go the Lumix - well made - fiddled with on on 25th liked it - (Bro-in-law's - goes well, but he is not such a water duck).

It is a trade-off between lense performance and sensor - most models have big sensor and limited lense. So if it is well put together and your shots are in focus (i.e the auto bit works well) + you lense is clear (water drop(s) / sunscreen etc) - dry inside (!!) you can get some great results on/in the water due to sensor definition.

Alternately treat as a disposable and get the cheapest possible and throw as soon as it stuff's up. (My kid's Fuji is hanging in there and cost $180).

Time to pump down the pool again another 160-180 mls did it Box Day AM (& we aren't having it too bad!!)

AP

Front profile comparison



Width Comparison



Swim puddle

canon d10
this got top review of these type of cameras compared on ?dpreview.com
a bit wider than the others, but better picture quality and zoom

does it all on our family trips skiing, gnaraloo, snorkelling
stills and video

I had an Olympus and took it underwater a lot in ~7yrs and never had a leak or any other issues. Having said that I wouldn't buy another, there were a few things that annoyed me. (Short battery life, bad night shots, hard to clean salt off lens, info all over pic playback screen, etc)

I would recommend the Pentax because of the interval shoot but also because it has the centre lens arrangement which means you can buy cheap kite strut mounts for it.

PS funky I always imagined you as slightly older than that, guess that explains some of the posts

Got an Olympus Mju Tough 8000 and is showing corrosion and its impossible to lock on to stuff most times for a pic, the quality of shots is also often pretty dodgy:(

Sweet! Just read that you picked up the Panasonic, nice choice

Nice advice Gstar and i looked at this option a while back.

However.. FAIL.

For most cameras the custom housing costs more to buy than the camera. The FT2 housing on that site costs 200 pounds!

Bonus is you get uber waterproofing.

Downside is bulk and weight so not compatable with kite mounting etc.

Keep it simple. Go a tough or Lumix (nah go the Lumix) add a $100 kitecam rig and you are ready to rawk.

I have the lumix FT1 and think its pretty good. Straps to the kite and takes long periods of AVCHD vid (have a look at link - utube has reduced the quality)

i used Free AVCHD Converter V1.0 from Kyote Software - loses slight amount of quality soon as you convert to mpeg then edit in whatever eg premier elements or moviemaker, then it loses some more quality when you compress again or save out of the editor. then you lose some more going to youtube unless you upload into the HD one.

thats comin from a back yard butcher as far as video editing is concerned.

I dont think there is a simple answer for the avchd mts files, there was a topic on seabreeze awhile ago explaining a lot of it and the best solution was spend more on the vid camera and maybe go to standard def with better frame rate, lens, etc etc etc and its a simple edit and better final video.

heres the result of decompressing, edit then recompress with the panasonic lumix dmc-ft1 - sun is allways a problem at this time of day on the west coast

might have some, will have to dig through it and check, will edit a section out if i can find it and pm you or put it on youtube