Over the years I've always had a camera or two I could take places where it might get beat up. Mountain climbing, whitewater rafting, winter camping and biking aren't exactly camera-friendly. Once I moved to digital, though, that became a tougher spot to fill. After all, digital cameras are anything but inexpensive, and not exactly rugged. Recently, though, I've had my hands on a little digital point-and-shoot that's almost indestructible.
A few weeks ago a box of gear was delivered to the house for a workshop I'm going to teach. Among the stuff was a little point-and-shoot, the Olympus 770 SW. The box made some pretty outrageous claims as to what it could withstand: waterproof to 33 feet, pressure to 220 lbs. and could be dropped from up to five feet (!). Well, since I didn't pay for it, I felt no qualms about testing those claims. And it's been a ton of fun!
Last week I was in Redmond, WA to attend the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit in Redmond, WA. Pulling out a little shiny point-and-shoot, everyone wanted to see what it was. Passing it over to one of them, I let go before they got their hands on it. Bang, to the tile floor it went. They freaked out. Cool. Somebody said, "That's not a real camera." I picked it up, shot a photo and turned it around for all to see. Then I dropped it again. Now they really wanted to see it. Handing it over, I "accidentally" dropped it into a glass of water. Screams followed. Fishing it out, I shot another picture. Then I set the self-timer, dropped it into the glass, and let it shoot a picture of the guy across the table from me. After the dropping and water adventure, people took turns standing on it. This could be the best party camera ever made.
Returning from Redmond, I headed to the Ozarks to join my wife's family celebrating her parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. Saturday afternoon we took a pontoon boat out on Table Rock Lake to do some tubing. Guess what went along? Tying it to a lanyard around my neck, I jumped in and shot video and still shots tubing and swimming. Again, it was a real hit with the family.
It's a fun camera, but does have its drawbacks. Shutter lag is longer than normal for today's point-and-shoots, image quality isn't great and video is only 15 fps, instead of the better 30 fps. Despite that, it's great for certain situations, and hopefully the beginning of much tougher cameras. I can't wait to see what the manufacturers come up with next. In the meantime, my 14-yr-old daughter has made me promise to give her the camera after the workshop. At least I won't have to worry about her breaking it.
