Rugged Digital Cameras? Whats Good and Whats not?

mtb_novice

My wife is buying me Digital Camera for my Birthday, I want something that can take some bumbs and will not explode when wet!

I have looked at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT, looks pretty good?

Anyone else brought one or know of something better?

All advice would be happily received!

SE_Rich

I got one of the Olympus tough cameras last year and I would highly recommend it.

It's a compact, 8mp job. Supposed to be shockproof for small drops (1.5m ish) so it does fine in my camelback when out riding getting banged about. Dropped it once and not even a scratch.

Waterproof to around 5m (could be wrong there) - used it in the sea a number of times, just rinsed it off afterwards and it's still working fine. Used it fully submerged for a bit of snorkelling but not taken it any deeper so not sure about that. Means I can leave it in my shorts pocket when riding too and not worry about sweat damage!

Picture quality is very good too IMO.

That was a year ago, so there might be better ones available now.

Northwind

DO you want an actual ruggedised camera, or just a tough normal one? Canon Ixuses run on the tough side, mine's proved impossible to kill- it's been dropped down stairs and bounced along a road at 20mph (the casing broke, but I taped it together again and it still works perfectly), it's been literally filled with rain while in a flooded pocket, it's been attacked with australian sand and new zealand sulphur, malaysian rain, scottish snow and english lager, and right down the front of some ridiculous gigs, and it still keeps on going. 2 weeks ago I lost it in a field, it lay out in the rain for 2 days but didn't even notice. I kind of want a new camera now but it just won't die