Im considering getting a digital water proof camera;
Choice Pentax optio W90
or Panasonic Lumix DMC FT1
They both seem really good. THis technology blows me away. Face recognition of up to 32 faces , It recognizes a face and will automatically focus on it. Hows this though..auto pet recognition..automatically recognizes up to 3 cats or dogs. Pretty useful when your SUPing.
www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/panasonic-lumix-dmc-ft1-waterproof-digital-camera-121-megapixelhttp://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod6822.htm
I have the older pentax which is ok. Bit slow to focus. Panasonic may have the edge with the surf setting and mega burst and better video.
Bigger problem is getting someone to sit in the channel on a good day and use the bloody thing. 
Pretty sure the Pentax only lets you take x amount of video footage.. but has the take a photo every 5 second option..
The Lumix is an awesome camera with HD vid.. But i have seen a fair few of them take in water (mate owns a camera shop)
I have the Olympus tough. and tough describes it perfectly. I think the new ones come out with a HC card rather than the old XD 2Gb.. IMHO this is the best camera for wear and tear.. I strap mine to my kite all the time and it takes an hour and half of footage..
The new Olypus tough cameras take SD/HD and XD cards or so I was told - fret not if you have old XD cards.
The one thing the Pentex has the tough cameras don't (at least they used to) is time delay shooting ie take 1 picture every 30 min (or so on).
I have gone thru 3 x Olympus tough's. The seals didn't last long at all as consquence all 3 got water inside and detroyed them.
But they replaced it with a new one every time it stuffed up.
I ended up getting a $300 housing for the new tough.
xx angie
I have the Pentax Optio W80. Had a nightmare when I first bought it. Stopped working after 2 days and I had to return to shop. They couldnt fix it and had to send it back to Japan to get a new circuit board installed. All up took about 10 weeks and 2 surf trips went unphotographed 
On the flipside though it has been pretty good since. One thing about the pentax is it doesnt take very good photos in low light conditions.
It's low light situations where the Olympus excels with all its different settings.
DJ
Just saw in the new domayne catalogue this morning - fujifilm waterproof cam (3m) - various colours, 12mp, 5 x zoom etc for $227. You can also get a floating strap for them I think. Seems pretty cheap.
I have also used the Olympus and seals failed too.
The impact rating clearly does not take into account surfing wipe outs
Replaced twice gave up after that.
As Angie says housing or good quality EWA bag is the go IMHO
Phill
I'd be really interested to know what people think of the Canon Powershot waterproof camera. I've been looking at point and shoots for a few months and the the usual reviews aren't generally written by people like those that use these forums. So if anyone has any feedback on it I would be hugely appreciative 
http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod5971.htm
Thanks 
An older review but good detail here: www.dpreview.com/reviews/q209waterproofgroup
www.dpreview.com/reviews/q209waterproofgrouppage17.asp
as a large electrlcal store owner and as fully unbiased as your to far away to sell to . nothing comes close to the new dmcft2 panasonic, the fuji is sh-t and you all said the olympus is sh-t the hi def video quality is as good as a purpose built camcorder.
I have had good advice from forum questions i have asked about, due to only sup for a year and half , and now i can return some advice from someone who been in electrical for 20 years
Got the Lumix last Christmas and cant fault it, the only issue I have is trying to get used to the shutter delay when taking a surfing photo as opposed to a SLR camera
My son has the original Olympus which has done a full season snowboarding in Canada with him and which we have used surfing/supping a few times. He is pretty hard on gear and it has a few dents in it, but still operates perfectly ok. XD card is a bit of a hassle (think the new versions can use sd, now) and, coming from years of using Canon digital SLR's, the shutter lag takes getting used to and can mean you miss some shots. I have also found the image quality to be not quite as good as some Canon compacts we have had.
If size wasn't an issue, I'd spend $300 and get a full-on Canon water housing rated to 30m for the Canon S90 - which when I bought it 6 months ago is their top of the line compact. It is the same "insides" as the Canon G11, but in a compact body. Takes very good images.
However, if you just want something to tuck inside your wetsuit or boardies then a waterproof compact seems to be the only option. The new Panasonic looks to be built more robustly than the first version (FT 1?) - which probably is the reason for increasing it's rating from 3m to 10m.
Has anyone tried the new Sony waterproof compact? It's the one with the sliding lens cover which also powers the camera on and off.
Waterproof cameras is there such a thing????.
Got agree with Scotty100..... I had the 2 olympus 1050/1080 cameras and they both stopped,I took it back and they fixed it 6 weeks later only to have it die again and got it fixed again as it was still under 12 months old.
I then went to Bali recently and paddled out to Ullawatu only to reach into my pocket and find it dead (pissed off paddler).
Took it back and the store manager was really great and gave me the new Sony waterproof camera and it had condensation in it after the first use taking pictures of my son on his bodyboard at Burleigh.
Straight back to the shop and the manager gives me the new Panasonic DMC FT2 and a free 5 year warranty and tells me with the Olympus underwater camera every second one comes back for repair.
I must say that none of the cameras stopped from water leakage, except for the Sony. They all had electronic failures and the repairer couldn't explain why this had happened.
I now have the new Panasonic Lumix DMC FT2 which so far has been great.
The new Panasonic FT2is HD video and has a really cool silicone case to protect it which I think is a great idea.The picture quality is great and it is 14 megapixcel.
Go the Panasonic and get the extended warranty.
Waz
awesome movie I am guessing you used a kite cam rig available right here on seabreeze.com..
Olympus has been bagged here !!
I have a 10x Optical Zoom Olympus (not water proof), probably 7+ years old now, only 3 megapixel, but it takes a great photo. Massive aperture lens, lets stacks of light in, during low light situations. Takes a pretty good surf photo from the shore. There's always seems to be a treat pine log or post to rest it on (when on full zoom - no anti-shake) !!
Mine only has a little 1"1/2 screen. Still going strong.
It has plenty of features, takes decent video. Also has a setting, for 8 frames per second, for sequential surf photos.
I'm thinking about upgrading it, for a later version of the same camera.
Plug and go into the computer. Acts like a memory stick. I even transferred some Excel files via the camera once, when I was stuck without a memory stick!
Might have been said, too tired to read all the posts,
but I have an Olympus and I rekon the lenses are crap. It takes pretty average photos IMHO. If you play with the settings it gets a bit better but the the point and shoot photos are average at best. Also the auto focus delay is takes way too long. Also the power up is slow. Iturned it on the other day to get a photo of the Spirit Of Tasmania leaving the dock but by the time it was ready to take a photo the boat was through the heads!
The Lumix has a much better lens and the best feature is that you can zoom in and out while recording video. When I got my Olympus no digi cams had this feature that I could find and I did a lot of research. The best thing about this means you can sit on your board and film a mate 200m away and still get up close with the footage and zoom out as they get closer. I'm not sure about the reliability (letting water in etc).
I don't know much about the latest models (last 6 months) but I'm sure every brand has something that would do the job.
Thanks guys ..what a comprehensive review..way better than any review i could have googled. Prior to this post Belle had told me about the Panasonic lumix .....looks like he's right. Okay I'm ordering my birthday present.
