Shooting underwater images with a compact digital camera always seemed self-defeating to me. On the one hand, the beauty of a compact camera is that you can take it anywhere. On the other hand, if you want to take pictures near, in, or under the water and not ruin the advanced circuitry of your little technological marvel, you'd need to purchase a pricey and cumbersome underwater camera housing that you're bound to forget the next time you go to the pool. Digital cameras also seem to have this uncanny ability to get caught in rain when that perfect blue sky you're photographing on vacation suddenly fills up with storm clouds and unleashes a downpour. Instead of having to clutch your camera to your chest underneath your windbreaker when the rain starts falling, wouldn't it be nice to have a waterproof camera that can stand a dousing even better than you?
Waterproof digital cameras have existed for a few years now, but the tradeoff for being waterproof has always been image quality. The recent Olympus Stylus 720 SW is a perfect example -- wonderful, stylish, shockproof/waterproof body; somewhat compromised image quality. That's why I approached the Pentax Optio W10 with some trepidation. Sure this compact, 6-megapixel, 3x optical camera is rated as "JIS Class 8 Waterproof" which means you can take pictures continuously for 30 minutes at up to five feet (1.5m) underwater, but how are the pictures? Furthermore, the camera is rated as "JIS Class 5 dustproof" but what will a little bit of dust protection matter if the images I take at high ISOs are full of noise?... [read more]