Tough Compacts?

[sinar]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with tough/weatherproof compacts?

I was walking out in a snow flurry yesterday, disappointed because none of the cameras i have are suitable for using in bad weather, so i'm considering getting a waterproof tough camera to take out in conditions when i'd not feel safe bringing my regular kit.

I"d use it when i'm out mountain biking ,or doing any potentially hazardous pursuit, which might mean the camera gets wet, dusty, muddy or risk getting dropped.

I've been doing a bit of research online and suitable models seem the Olympus TG-1 (or updated TG-2), Canon D20, Panasonic FT4 (FT5) and similar.

My main priority would be image quality, i've been looking at some TG-1 pictures on Flickr and a lot of them don't seem so great, they have an almost faint watercolour look to them, quite unnatural, I wonder if it would be expecting too much from them.

I"d love to hear what owners think of the image quality, especially compared to more conventional cameras

Thanks for reading.

 

[a1ex2001]

I have one bit of an old fuji now and like everything it's all about compromise, image quality isn't as good as it could be and the performance handling and controls are not fab either but it does let me take pictures when snorkling or messing about at the beach etc. I would never use it for anything oter than that as I'd always prefer a decent camera as for the snow yesterday I would happily have taken any dslr they are not so fragile that a little snow will ruin them!