Help!! Small digital camera

Dave

Member
My digital camera that i have had for the last few years has just died, it was used for caving and all other sorts of photography.
Can any one please give me some advice on a replacement camera-small enough to fit in a small bdh as its use will just be to take pics of normal everyday trips-nothing professional. i just want something that is robust and small so i can use it for caving and other sports etc..


  Thanks
 

AndyF

New member
I fancied the Pentax Optio W10 as it is waterproof

Bit dated now, but you can get it cheap!
 
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wormster

Guest
Kodak Easyshare,

though if you're taking it u/g i'd bung it in an Aquapack & then in your BDH.

I killed mine in Swildons, I didn't put the lid on Darren drum properley and it got soked :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
 

Dave

Member
Thanks for your advice guys. i have been using my mates camera but the pics i am ending up with are c**p.The pics appear very misty, i know this is caused by the flash showing up any moisture in the air-caused by breath or any other watersource near by. Do i need to make sure that my new camera has a bigger/stronger flash to overcome this problem-i know there are other ways to sort this but any advice is more than welcome.

                                                  Thanks for your time
 
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wormster

Guest
There's plenty of advice on this forum, but in a nutshell:

put a strip of exposed 35mm film over the onbord flash & use a slave unit, that should sort the misting out. Either that or use a timed exposure and piant with light, led light is better than oldham type.
 

Les W

Active member
Dave said:
Do i need to make sure that my new camera has a bigger/stronger flash to overcome this problem-i know there are other ways to sort this but any advice is more than welcome.

A bigger flash will equal more reflected light off of the moisture droplets in the air, so brighter spots and more of them in the pictures!  :(
The trick is to get the flash away from the camera so that the reflected light doesn't come back to the lens. Wormster's advice with the slave and a piece of exposed film is sound. Your on camera flash will fire but the exposed film will only allow light from the infrared spectrum to pass through, Fireflytm slave units trigger with infrared light, so they see this and fire a slave flash, this will solve your droplet problem. ;)
 
C

Cave Monkey

Guest
I just got an Olympus Stylus MJU 720 SW for 'on the fly' shots....

From all the gumph it should be able to survive a cave dunking and a trip in the bottom of a bag, plus you can have up to 4 seconds to fire remote flash units to get around the fogging and spots (halo) issues.

 

ogofmole

Member
I too have this camera, Olympus Stylus MJU 720 SW and it has been well used underground, It is really waterproof as I have had to wash the mud off it many a time underground, and when I get home in generally goes in with the washing up. The 4 second exposure with mini tripod and self timer works well and gives plenty of time to fire flashguns off in a larger passage or a single flashgun sideways for lighting up formations. For action shots I use a Firefly 3 with a infra-red tape over the camera flash. The only thing missing is some sort of manual over ride, but besides that I would recommend this camera to anyone wanting a sturdy point and shot camera that can produce good images as long as you experiment with lighting as the camera does not know what light output you are producing, plus you will need some sort of light source for the autofocus to work, but once focused you can remove the light source as long as you keep you finger on the shutter release button.
 
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Paul.Wheelhouse

Guest
AndyF said:
I fancied the Pentax Optio W10 as it is waterproof

Bit dated now, but you can get it cheap!

First forum posting ...... I bought the W10, specifically for stuff like this, and it was cheap for a 6 meg a pix.  Compared to my Canon, which i have a waterproof case for (making it too bulky to be bothered with, unless all you are wanting to do is photography)...it has been harder to get used to.  It has no view finder, so you are literally working in the dark, when pointing.  I also experienced the flash problem (which i never had done so with the canon), so will have fun trying the ideas above.  I suspect the diffusing the flash idea with film is good, as the canon waterproof case had an underwater diffuser on it.  Lots of fun still experimenting.  Had lots of shots of my misty breath down a cave last week.  Once you get used to the modes it takes good overground pictures too.
 
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