For those interested, jere's a pretty good deal going right now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ARIV7M/ref=nosim/102-3248576-8863347?n=502394

piced up one a touch cheaper at prestige camera a few weeks ago. not sure if thier deal/sale is still going on.

I got mine for $285 from TriState Photo NIB, and that was before X-mas. Factor in shipping and take the rebate off I'm sitting at $270 out of pocket.

Here's what you get or how much:

Pentax Optio WPi 6MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom +
Viking 256 MB Secure Digital Flash Card (SD256M) +
50 Free 4x6inch Prints = $269.94 at Amazon.com


Perosnally, I'd take the credit towards a bigger card ... even though I rarely fill it before downloading, but it's nice to have the roo when you need it

Thats a killer deal, I paid an extra $32 for my 512mb card. The 256 whould work fine for most guys that whould give you about 170 hi res. pic's. How many guys are gonna shoot that many before downloading, just 1 in 100 I bet....

I think I picked up my WPi for $269. Paid $30 for a 1 GB card.

Here's where I got it from:

http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/home.aspx

Just picked up a good carrying case for it for $16 on ebay.

Just bought one on the Amazon link Bob posted above.

Price was $217, can't beat that.

I did a little research, and this camera appears to be perfect for fishing photos. Parker, you posted it took too long between photos. The camera lists a .05 sec delay, is it a lot longer than that ?

How did you get that camera from Amazon for $217 Tyee???? Best I could do by clicking around was $269. What was your secret on such a killer deal?

What I meant Tyee is that you can not go clickey clickey clickey and fire off 3 quick photos like you can on a good SLR digital.

It's more like clickey...wait...wait...wait...focus...wait...clickey...wait...wait...focus...wait...clickey...

As both Bob and I have pointed out, it's a fine outdoors fish camera. But, if you're a serious photographer that is used to good digitals or good SLR digitals, this won't cut it for you.

Amazon sent me to some place called Digital Liquidators. The camera alone was $217. This is my first on line purchase, and hope I don't get screwed. Thanks for the reply on the time lag.

Ah, I see.

Yeah, there is a huge black and gray market for internet cameras.

Cool if it works out for you. At that price, not too sure I'd care where the camera came from, etc.

ok, now your starting to worry me. Hope my first online purchase is not my last. I thought Amazon was a pretty reputable company.

here's an excellent resource for comparing cameras, with reviews, ratings and prices.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sidebyside.asp
a word of caution, tyee. when i bought my nikon last year, the manufacturer was offering a $200 rebate. i compared all of the prices i could find and one really stood out (don't remember the store, but it was in n.y.) anyway, after figuring in the big rebate, the camera would have cost me only $150!! (this is for a coolpix 5400) i ordered on line then i called to check on the order and they told me that they had given me the "already rebated price" and that the nikon offer was not applicable! i cancelled the order . had i gone through with it, it would have cost me about $100 more than what i eventually paid. read the fine print and all that and make sure that you can still use those rebates.


good luck
willy

Newegg.com $269.99
Dell Home & Home Office $286.41
Beach Camera $238.00
RitzCamera.com $349.99
Willoughbys Est.1898 $237.00
Buy.com $289.99
Buydig.com $241.99

just called the company and confirmed my order, and the price listed is good $217. I did buy a 50 picture high speed card for $59 more, for a total of $276.99 At this point the offer appear legit.

just curious, can you still get the $30 rebate?


willy

Uh....

I just bought a 1GB card, capable of holding 350 images for $30.

A 50 image card would be a what......256MB or less card?

You getting hosed on that one. Big time.

They way over-charged you on a dinky 64mb card to make up for under charging you on the camera. BTW parker you got a screaming deal on that 1 gig card, I paid that much for my 512. My Wpi sez..that will hold 338 hi-res. shots in regular "Green mode" with the 512mb installed. I'm assuming that is the highest pixel mode on the camera, might be wrong though, I have not made it all the way thru the manual....C/22

TT ... That's how many of those deals work. Something to watch out fo through Amazon's site is the 3rd party seller ... make sure to check the feedback from that seller just as you would on Ebay. Many people dealing with NY based companies get non-USA models with NO warranty. Most companies will specify if it has a US warranty ... those that don't, you better watch them

Yeah that, and you won't get the $30 rebate if its a gray-market camera...C/22

"green mode" is just a pre-set mode. You'd use green mode for the shots you do all the time. In theory, you get to pre-program in all the functions of the "green mode". Ie, ISO x, shutter speed y, flash on/off, etc, etc. Once programmed in, you don't get to change what Green Mode is.

Probably great if you constantly took one kind of shot all the time. But, seeing how the outdoors changes all the time, green mode probably isn't a good choice.

You want to be in the "P" or program mode. Or, unless you know the shooting situation you are in, you can use one of the other "modes" provided on the camera.

How many images you can store on a card depends on the image quality and compression level you set on the camera. The higher the quality level and the lower the compression level, the bigger the file will be, hence the lower number of images you can store on a card.

My rule of thumb is ALWAYS crank the quality to max, and the compression to zilcho. I want the most information available on an image, and I don't want any compression.

You'll kick yourself when you land that 30 pound steelhead and your camera is set to some wussy low-end resolution setting. So much for that wall hanging BIG print out.

Remember, you can always DOWNSIZE an image later. You can not UPSIZE a small image later. Always, always, always, save big images. Just use a photo program to crop them down later.

As I said, with the resolution cranked and the compression dropped, my camera says it can hold 330(ish) images on the 1GB card.

A 512 card should hold roughly half of that.

I'd crank up the resolution and drop the compression if I were you.....