New Camera

As some of you may recall, we lost our digital camera on a rafting trip. We recently purchased a new one. It was a difficult search, but we finally found one that met all our needs:

1. Shock proof, freeze proof, & water proof

2. Takes great pictures in all lighting - especially low lighting

3. Easy to use

4. Can take video

The shock/freeze/water proof feature, certainly narrowed down the field a lot! We had a hard time choosing between 5 cameras: Canon Powershot D10, Olympus Stylus Tough 8000, Pentax Optio W80, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1, and the Sony Cybershot DSC-TX5. The Canon has the best reviews on Amazon.com and Costco.com but the Olympus is the most similar to the one we previously owned. The hardest characteristic to find was a camera that takes good pictures in low lighting. Point and shoot and SLR digitals still take the best pictures. I know in time the shock/water/freeze-proof cameras will develop further. Maybe there will be a shock/water/freeze-proof SLR some day. I'd totally buy that!

After reading through several reviews on each (review 1, review 2, review 3, review 4) we finally chose the Sony Cybershot DSC-TX5 and couldn't be happier! It has all the functions we want! It's so easy to use; it has a touch screen. It takes great photos! The only thing I don't like is in the automatic mode is sometimes uses the flash, when I think it's not necessary.

 

We found a great deal on Central Digital. We were little nervous about using this company because after we made the purchase we read some not so stellar things about the company. But everything turned out well. We got the camera, a spare battery, a free camera case and free table tripod for under $330. Hooray!