Looking for a waterproof camera.

tecboy · Dec 11, 2015

I'm more of an outdoor person. There are some public places prohibit dslr. My only option is to shoot a p&s camera. During this season is a bit rainy, and I'm looking into a Pentax water proof camera. Any suggestion?

waday · Dec 11, 2015

I use an Olympus Tough camera for work and play. I think the Tough TG-4 can capture RAW, which is pretty darn cool... Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 to offer Raw capture

I've been sold on their tough cameras ever since I accidentally:

Dropped it onto rocks from standing distance,
Dropped it into riffles in a very large river (found it only by it's brightly colored red strap),
Dropped it on concrete when opening the car door, and
Banged it up by throwing it into bags/boxes/crates/etc.

It's held up surprisingly well.

Peeb · Dec 11, 2015

Anyone have any experience with this underwater housing for 70d? ($349.00 btw)

Polaroid Underwater Housing for Canon EOS 70D and PLWPC70D B&H

idcanyon · Dec 11, 2015

waday said:
I use an Olympus Tough camera for work and play. I think the Tough TG-4 can capture RAW, which is pretty darn cool... Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 to offer Raw capture

Yes. This is the best P&S water camera right now, no question.

TCampbell · Dec 13, 2015

BTW, the 70D body is weather sealed but most lenses are not. So even if you use your DSLR, be careful with rain. Most of Canon's "L" series lenses are weather-sealed but you have to read the documentation associated with each individual lens to know which lenses are weather-sealed. Of course you can get a rain-sleeve to fit over any DSLR (probably a good idea if the weather is especially bad even if the camera is weather-sealed.)

What "public" place prohibits a DSLR? Is this really private property (e.g. the "public" is welcome to go there, but it's not actually owned by the "public" it's owned by a private party??)

There are some legitimate restrictions against photography on public land *if* you are photographing a secure area (the screen area at a public airport -- for example).

On other public (legitimately public lands) there are no restrictions against type of camera. I have seen restrictions against commercial filming (require permits) but this is generally because the production company plans to bring in a trailer full of equipment. They don't restrict photography of private non-commercial photography even if the photographer own a very nice camera. That would be a very difficult ordinance or law to enforce considering it runs afoul of the 1st amendment rights of the individual (courts won't allow it unless a public interest -- typically a safety interest -- can be shown. The burden is on the town to prove the public interest and it would extremely difficult to prove. In fact... if they allow someone to do photography with a non-DSLR camera but don't allow the use of a DSLR camera then I'd say the public-interest is pretty much impossible to prove.)

US National Parks, for example, require film companies to obtain permits... but if you read their rules it's pretty clear that they're interested in protecting the wilderness areas of the parks, keeping people on the trails, and when someone rolls in with a semi-trailer full of generators, lighting, backdrops, models, props or products to be filmed or photographed, etc. they realize that they probably need to make sure these people know the rules AND they might even need to assign a ranger to monitor the filming for safety and for the protection of the park. But they do not require a permit from an individual photographer with a very nice DSLR camera and tripod who just wants to take photos of nature, behaves as other visitors, stays out of areas marked as off-limits, and otherwise obeys all the rules (those same rules apply to all visitors -- even the ones who don't have cameras.)