I appreciate all of the responses. This helps me out a lot. My thanks to all of you. Mike

There are so many good digital cameras on the market today, the brand is a matter of choice. Base your purchase on what feels right in you hand. A waterproof case is a great add on for those underwater portraits of your catch.

I have a small pelican case that holds my Nikon 5000 and an extra battery and a coupe of compact flash cards. It is very handy to have on the seat of an open boat.

A small (#5) clear drybag is a very inexpensive insurance policy for storing camera gear, cell phone, etc..

As a working professional outdoor photographer, using dry bags

There are so many good digital cameras on the market today, the brand is a matter of choice. Base your purchase on what feels right in you hand. A waterproof case is a great add on for those underwater portraits of your catch.

I have a small pelican case that holds my Nikon 5000 and an extra battery and a coupe of compact flash cards. It is very handy to have on the seat of an open boat.

A small (#10) clear drybag is a very inexpensive insurance policy for storing camera gear, cell phone, etc.. Cascade Design makes excellent bags and has a water tight fanny pack that will hold a small digital or 35MM point & shoot camera. They carry a disclaimer on camera gear, but I have waded with it submerged and never had any leaking.

As a working professional outdoor photographer, using dry bags has saved me a lot of bucks over the years while doing river rafting, kayaking, canoing and fishing assignments. Whatever you're not using at the moment, keep it in the drybag.

Wow! How about that. I feel like I just rubbed a bottle and heard "your wish is my command".
Here it is hot off the press, a "Class 8 Waterproof" gem that was just introduced on DP Review. Unfortunately not available quite yet.

Pentax Optio WP

Just wish I would have been more specific and asked that genie to make it under the brand I rep. Oh well, be that as it may, this looks like a fisherman's dream come true, so I'll give credit where credit is due and tip my hat to you on this one Pentax!

Anonymously,
Mooch

Thanks Mooch. That one looks like it has everything recommended and more. I can wait until its availalbe in April.

Mooch

Thanks!

This feature will help out just about ever one one on this Board


"2) The Red-eye compensation function touches up red eyes in recorded images."

That Optio WP (WaterProof) sounds like a winner, Mooch. Amazing how the technology improves in just a year! If that new one performs anything like it's predecessor Optio 43WR, there's gonna be a lot of happy fisher-folks out there.

Make sure to share those memorable moments with the board, Mike... looking forward to seeing some of your underwater shots.

I was reading thru that list of features and looking to see if you can dunk the WP in saltwater. Surfing, ocean/bay salmon fishing, snorkelling... anybody know?

WOW, I've been waiting for a digital camera to come out like the Pentax-OptioWP.

Too bad, we just bought a new camera couple months ago. Oh well, I'll just have to wait for next Christmas and more likely will get the OptioWP and use it primarily for my fishing trips,etc. Can't wait!

Peter <><

I am just looking forward to finally being able to share some shots. I hope I can get it before I go to Hawaii in mid April. Will be visiting my foks and doing some ocean fishing and it would be great to bring back some nice pics.

Only one thing to add that I haven't seen and that's to get the fastest memory that your camera can use. I'm only speaking for CF memory...can't speak for the others.

I have an 8X 16Mb card that came with our Nikon Coolpix 4300, and a 4X 512Mb card (made by Lexar, same as the smaller card), and the 4X card is so slow to record that it makes taking pics of any motion a crap shoot. You have to hit the shutter release then just hope something good happens with it finally shoots.

Some of the new higher end cameras also support write acceleration (WA) but I don't know if you're wanting to go that far. I think the CF cards for those are spendy!