Are waterproof cameras any good?

[kneighbour]

I see that most posts (that I have read) in this forum cater to the more serious camera nuts. ie $1000 cameras and the like. I am currently using my cheap Chinese (although a good Xiaomi) phone as a camera, and it has been a mixed success. Some images are ok, but probably half are out of focus or have some other quality issue. I only send the images to Facebook generally, so they do not have to be outstanding.

I have been looking at the waterproof cameras - specifically the Olympus Tough TG-4, the Panasonic Lumix FT6 and the Nikon Coolpix AW130 (with perhaps a few even a bit cheaper). These are around $350-$400 or so and fit within my budget.

I don't really need a waterproof camera - just one that can handle a bit of drizzle for a second as I take a shot. I am also not into the technical stuff- I just want to point and shoot. I never/rarely use the zoom, so that is not an issue. But I do want good poor light images as a lot of shots are taken under the canopy or in forest areas. And as I am moving into overnight walks, will also need a few night shots, I guess.

I am in Queensland (so no snow), and would like a good enough camera that I can tie to the front of my backpack somehow and bring out when I see a waterfall or something.

Any suggestions?

[GPSGuided]

Your last requirement 'I do want good poor light images' is at the crux of the problem. To achieve that, you'll need either big sensor or lenses with large aperture. Small phone cameras and other point and shoots just won't do as well under those conditions. So it comes down to compromises and shooting techniques. Getting a point and shoot will generally improve the image than a cheap phone camera. The other is to learn to brace your camera when shooting in poor light eg. Tree trunk, rock. Going back to the original question, all on your shortlist will improve the quality on your present.

[kneighbour]

No problems. I am willing to compromise on that. My cheap phone does fairly well in that area - just not consistent. But I am certainly not up for spending more than $500 on the camera, so I am willing to be realistic.

[GPSGuided]

Then I suggest you should find solutions to optimise what you have. If blur is your present problem, then learn to brace or get a mini tripod like phone holder. If its image resolution under poor light, then you don't have much choice but to upgrade.

[kneighbour]

Do you think that any of the (3) waterproof cameras I listed are up to the task? The Olympus Tough TG-4 seems have pretty good reviews. My current (good) camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 which takes images that to my eye are flawless. This is an out of date camera now, but if I can get images as good as that I will be thrilled. Since I like the Panasonic, I tend towards getting the Panasonic Lumix FT6.

And while I have been looking at waterproof cameras, I don't think I really need one. Perhaps I would get better image quality in a compact? ie Canon IXUS 170 (although that is probably a poor choice, but you know what I mean)

[GPSGuided]

Absolutely! All reputable brands and for your non-obsessive requirement, I'd shop on price and features that you feel are important. Check out dpreview.com for comparisons of those cameras, a well respected site in the field.

[wayno]

id got for an olympus or panasonic, i dont think cookpix rate that well. nikon are far more into their dslr's than anything compact.

[kneighbour]

I agree re Olympus or Panasonic. I don't like that Olympus still has their own custom USB cable though, but I guess I can live with it.

[wayno]

olympus is still stop quality, they have specialised in making compact cameras for a long time,, their usb cables are a lot more robust than the default ones.

[wayno]

i've got the cheaper lumix ft, an older model. just as a backup in severe weather or for in water. i was surprised at the photo quality for a compact camera, even in bad weather still does reasonable shots.. one day i forgot to take my main camera and my next camera was flat and it rained most of the time, so i resorted to teh lumix and was pleasantly surprised by the images

http://www.panasonic.com/au/consumer/lu ... -ft30.html

[kneighbour]

i've got the cheaper lumix ft, an older model. just as a backup in severe weather or for in water. i was surprised at the photo quality for a compact camera, even in bad weather still does reasonable shots..

That is very heartening to hear - and that is the older model, so the FT6 might be even better.

[BethJ]

+1 for the Olympus. I have the TG-3 model and it's a great little camera. It goes everywhere and I never have to worry about it getting damaged.

[BethJ]

Oh and FYI, you can get add on lenses for the Olympus. This is only a recent discovery for me and I haven't tried any yet, I just thought other people might be interested.

[kneighbour]

good replies. I was starting to think that these cameras were a bit of overkill on the waterproof side, and not good enough on the image side. I too lean towards the Olympus TG-4, even though it is $100+ dearer. I had an Olympus (OM-01, I think, way back in the '70s).

Thanks for your advice..much appreciated. Nothing seems to be on special at the moment, so might just duck into Harvey Normans and see what they will do for me.

[Aushiker]

This thread reminded me I have an Olympus FT4 which does not get used ... time to dig it out as a maybe leave in the glovebox camera.

eBay has a 20% off on cameras code at the moment. Might be something in the list worth considering. The code is CTEC20. Also I think JB Hi-Fi might be discounting some camera models at the moment going by the junk mail yesterday.

[kneighbour]

Took the plunge today and ordered the Olympus Tough Ft-4. The deciding factor was the f stop of 2.0 which was a lot better than any of the alternatives.

[GPSGuided]

Took the plunge today and ordered the Olympus Tough Ft-4. The deciding factor was the f stop of 2.0 which was a lot better than any of the alternatives.

You have mixed codes in the model. Olympus is Tough TG4. Panasonic has FT-4. TG4's 25-100mm zoom would come in handy.

[DaveNoble]

Looks like you can do just as well these days with the new iPhone 7. It seems to tick most of the boxes - shoots in raw, optically stabilised lens (the bigger model has two cameras with different lenses - wide angle and portrait), waterproof, lots of image processing ability, 4K video etc.

Dave

[wayno]

iphone 7 sounds water resistant, not as waterproof at the galaxy 7 which i believe can be immersed in water

[GPSGuided]

iPhone 7 satisfies IP67 spec, so can immerse to 1m go 30mins.

[farefam]

deleted by user

[farefam]

After much research I just bought a Lumix FT6 ($337)instead of the Olympus TG4 for an upcoming 10 day rafting trip. Although the TG4 has some nice features (such as RAW), at the end of the day I couldn't bring myself to spend $130 more for the TG4 given its high level of audible noise when taking video's. So far as the FT6 goes I haven't tested underwater performance yet, but test images in normal daylight (overcast or full sunshine) seem quite acceptable for a compact camera and the sunset mode gives better automatic exposure/colour results than my DSLR does (these images are straight out of the camera other than being downsized to 800 pixels wide to fit this website).

sunset mode

bw_090.JPG (218.53 KiB) Viewed 69274 times

I'm pretty impressed with the automatic panorama mode (works very well if the light across the field of view is fairly even).

auto panorama

bw_089.JPG (217.83 KiB) Viewed 69274 times

Auto white balance seems to give fairly good colours most of the time and I like that you can take photos in different aspect ratios (6:4 or 16:9) since I'm not particularly keen on the standard 4:3 format of compact cameras. I also like the ease with which you can quickly manually adjust the exposure or autobracket. Full HD video performance looks good. My only significant let down is that there is only a choice between two apertures if you want to shoot in fully manual mode (f3.3 or f10). F10 is quite acceptable for landscape shots though. The camera's LCD screen is very bright, making it quite usable in bright sunshine. However, as has been the experience with all of my digital cameras, the actual image may look a bit dimmer on your computer monitor than it does on the camera's LCD screen (even though my monitor is fairly bright). I found that images straight from the camera were acceptably sharp, but to my eyes they did sometimes benefit slightly from applying additional auto sharpening in Photoshop Elements. I will be able to report back in a couple of months how it fared on the river for casual snaps of the trip (I will still use a DSLR for the more important shots though). I bought two extra batteries for this 10 day trip, as I suspect it will chew through them pretty quickly (at least the second party batteries were pretty inexpensive compared to DSLR batteries). The FT6 will also accompany me in my shirt pocket on future bushwalks so that I don't have to put down the backpack and pull out the big camera if I just want a snapshot. As none of the waterproof cameras I've seen seem to have a lens cap (they usually appear to have the lens sealed safely away behind a piece of toughened glass) I also bought a small camera bag so that the front of the camera needs less cleaning between uses on a trip.

[dunamis]

I have the original FT1. It travels either in my shorts pocket or shirt pocket and I also have a pouch on my pack shoulder strap. Perfect for just whipping out and capturing quick shots. I run in manual exposure usually and pull it down a couple of notches as it usually blows out the highlights. Other than that it's served me very well.
Not the sort of photo you want to be taking with your dSLR!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[farefam]

Here is a link to some of the photos I took with my recently purchased waterproof Lumix FT6 on my recent 10 day trip on the Franklin River. The only editing applied to some images has been minor level adjustment or cropping.

https://goo.gl/photos/pyDqMjS7utMzEB5p6

All of these candid shots were taken in auto landscape mode, as I found it fairly impractical to use manual exposure when on the go (especially paddling in the raft). Overall the photo image quality is noticeably poorer than my Nikon D5500 DSLR, but I am very glad I took the Lumix with me as it allowed me to get so many shots that time and accessibility constraints would not have allowed me to get with my DSLR on a commercial trip such as this. The memories they bring back are much more important than the image quality.

In cloudy and overcast situations skies tend to overexpose, as did highlights in high contrast situations (as was to be expected). Compared to the photos I later edited from a companions Canon Powershot D20 waterproof camera, the Lumix FT6 had much more accurate colours, although the images from the Lumix seemed slightly less sharp than those from the Powershot.

Battery performance was pretty good. I was not used to the camera and a bit paranoid about battery life, so I took 5 batteries with me. I needn't have worried. Although I took 338 photos and over an hour of full HD video, I only had to use one spare battery. If I hadn't been also using my DSLR when at camp and some other stops, then I reckon 3 batteries would probably have been sufficient for the 9 days of use. Another companion used a borrowed Olympus TG4 waterproof camera and much to his regret he ran out of power from his single battery after only 3 days of use.

Where the Lumix FT6 really did shine was in full HD video mode. To my eyes the Lumix has very good full HD video quality and proved much easier to handhold steadily for video than my DSLR was. This allowed me to put together a video of the trip that captured the experience much better than photos alone could.

Overall I was satisfied with the performance of the camera for candid shots in situations involving the need to take a quick shot or the risk of water immersion/exposure. I will use it on my future rafting and kayaking trips and snorkeling. I expect the image quality results will improve a little with more familiarity with the camera and when in situations where I'm not under pressure to put the camera away and resume paddling!

The other group these waterproof/tough cameras would be useful to would be rockclimbers or mountainbikers, so they can take some impact punishment and still work.

However, I wouldn't use any of these waterproof cameras as my only camera on a bushwalk, due to the limitations that the lens arrangement and small sensor place on the photo quality. If only worried about drizzle, then it's probably better to use a normal camera and simply shield it from the rain with your hand or a hat.

Regardless, unless you are using the camera completely underwater, it is vital to keep condensation and droplets off of the lens of the camera, otherwise your shots will be ruined. So a dry cloth kept in a small waterproof container is a must have accessory.

[farefam]

Looking back on this thread almost 7 years later I find that I rarely use the Lumix FT-6 anymore. I did use it on a couple of other packrafting trips and bushwalks after making that first Franklin River trip, but my general dissatisfaction with the image quality compared to my DSLR (less sharpness, poorer colour accuracy in overcast conditions and blown skies and highlights in high contrast situations), led to the Lumix becoming primarily relegated to video duties, due to its ease of use and reasonable battery life in that limited function. However that lower photographic image quality comparison would be true for any sort of compact camera. I find the photos that the Lumix took are good to look back on, but I wouldn't want them to be my only ones.

If I found myself doing any more social trips, the Lumix would still be useful for action or on the go shots, or in the rain, as it saves having to take off the pack to get at the bigger camera, meaning you don't get left behind so much. The only other potential use would be if I was out paddling on the ocean in a decent swell. I'd hate to lose the DSLR overboard into the briny deep. A GoPro mounted on the helmet would be better for whitewater river action, but not for myself, as I find point of view video to be nausea inducing.

[headwerkn]

[double post - pls delete]

[headwerkn]

Olympus TG series is still a high water mark for a genuinely waterproof compact camera, but if you large(r) sensor, removeable lens quality in a smaller-than-DSLR package and just need weather resistance, look at weatherproof Micro Four Thirds cameras like the Lumix GX8 and Olympus OM-1/5. Both can tolerate plenty of rain without issue and - unlike a touchscreen phone - remain reliably usable in the wet.

They're older cameras now but still deliver 20mpx images and can be picked up quite cheaply secondhand... I got my GX8 with two lenses a few years ago for all of $700. I use mine primarily with a 12-35mm f2.8 but with a small fixed prime - 15/1.7, 20/1.7 etc. - they're very compact yet still deliver that 'large sensor look'. They don't quite have the see-in-the-dark performance of more recent Sony full frame cameras but they do still work exceptionally well in low light thanks to their excellent image stabilisation. The Olympus OM-1 Mk3 in particular is downright voodoo- I've taken 1-2 sec exposures handheld and they come out tack-sharp.