Best "rugged" digital camera £150-£200?

firestorm84

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Hi,

Before I set off to South America I was thinking about buying a digital camera which won't be affected by rain and a few drops etc.

I have about £200 to spend, any recommendations? Picture quality is of course all important, also I'm looking for a camera which captures sound well (as I've always been dismayed with the performance of my current EXILIM when filming in a noisy environment). Cheers!
 
Ahoy!

Can you be a bit more specific to your requirements? I would look at the prosumer/bridge variety, though the models listed are of the type within your price range from Camerabox.

Fuji Finepix S8000fd, S9500, S6500fd
Panasonic DMC-FZ8
Sony DSC-H3
Kodak Easyshare Z812 IS

There is a product called Camera Armor (see Amazon), but doesn't seem to me made for all makes/models. Circa £35.00 though.

For full camera weatherproofing at your budget may require an external case (mega bucks), though having trawled for camera model suggestions, I couldn't see any that are already weatherproofed.

If you intend to go 'point and shoot', there maybe options there, but not in the image quality (IQ) department methinks.

EDIT: If you are going into a damp or cold environment, even a weather sealed camera will suffer from condensation problems. Cheapest idea would be to wrap it in a poly bag or similar to keep the moisture off. Take a zip-lock bag and some silica gel packs. Put camera in bag with gel pack and seal. Ought to get most if not all moisture out of camera. Leave for about 10 minutes.
 
If you want a relatively basic but extremely rugged camera go for the Olympus 790

Waterproof to 3m, drop proof from 1.5m and quite compact

Little bit lacking in manual controls but extremely durable
 
I think andyUK101 summed up my requirements- I don't need anything with a huge number of manual controls, as I am relatively inexperienced with digital photography.

The fact that my existing Exilim has been sent for repairs three times now as a result of minor knocks is my main inspiration to get a new model, just want to be confident that I'm leaving the UK with a sturdy yet good quality camera. Thanks for the suggestions in any case!
 
There's also the Pentax Optio W30 with a similar spec (and price) to the Olympus.

I'm not suggesting this is better than the Olympus (it might or might not be - specs look pretty similar, I don't have first hand experience of either), but it's another option....
 
The gadget show tested 3 'rugged' cameras a while ago, but i can't remember which one they considered the best. May be see if the test is still up on their website?
 
Then when you've checked the gadget show's website, disregard what they said and find some quality reviews for the three products ;)
 
think the olympus 790 is looking like a good buy, certainly looks like it ticks all the right boxes
 

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