I need a rugged camera.

[mcoppadge]

I am about to leave for a 3-month trip to Baja California, Mexico, and I'm looking for a camera that will suit my needs for those three months. The camera needs to be waterproof for sure. I also need a camera that (preferably) doesn't take it's own rechargeable batteries. I won't have access to any electricity for those three months and therefore can't recharge a dead battery and I don't want to buy 5 or 6 of them because I assume that would be an expensive ordeal.

I've looked at the the Olympus Stylus 790SW, the Pentax Option W30, and the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1.

I like the Olympus: it's waterproof, crushproof, and seems to be built pretty well for what I'll be doing. But from what I've read, the image quality leaves much to be desired.

The Pentax is okay, and I've actually looked at it myself (as opposed to the other two, which I've only looked at online), but it's only waterproof up to 10 feet and I wasn't really all that impressed with the image quality.

The Sanyo looks pretty cool but that's only waterproof up to 5 feet.

All of them appear to only take their own batteries.

Has anybody had any experience with either of these three cameras? Or would you recommend something else? Should I stop trying to find a camera without it's own battery and just buy the extras? Any help is appreciated.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

just a heads up, the Olympus is only waterproof to 10 ft as well.

 

[Don Simon]

For general ruggedness, you might want to look at the Fuji "Big Job" HD-3W, which is specifically designed for tough environments. And it takes AA batteries.

As for waterproofing, 10 feet is about as much as you can expect... if you want something to go deeper than that, I'm afraid you are looking at a dedicated waterproof casing, not a camera with waterproofing built in.

 

[mcoppadge]

Actually, I was looking some more today and realized that the Stylus 770 is waterproof up to 33ft. So I think I'd do that over the 790.

Thanks for pointing out the Fuji. I'll look into that some more. At this point I've ruled out the Pentax.

A side note: I found a waterproof DSLR today but cannot for the life of me remember the make and model.

 

[Sideburns]

Ever consider a waterproof case instead? using a camera above water, you probably won't bang it up TOO bad...but you could always get a powershot and the required waterproof case to take it scuba diving or whatever....