Camera updates -

[rpplano]

The wife wanted an underwater camera for her STJ trip in May. She's used to her little 5MP purse Nikon, so I had to find something similar that she could operate. I wasted a lot of hours searching the net and reading reviews until I was sick of the subject. I had settled on the 790SW even knowing about it's mediocre image quality. Then presto, magico along comes the 1030SW to address those quality problems. The dry test shots look pretty clean under various lighting and she's O.K. with the controls and menu, so here we go with the water tests. Pool is only 6ft deep, but I'll have spectacular 10MP shots of my pool drain to use. I wish I could have sold her on a serious underwater housing for a pro camera, but that's not her interest level. This looks like a nice solution for her.

[Steve S]

Cool Captain, look forward to hearing your review...

I am totally being a cheap-skate and am still on the fence myself on the underwater camera purchase. If I bought one today it would be the Vivitar because I already have a land camera that works well...

I just found the Vivitar for $99 + 6 shipping on Amazon. I think I'll grab one for the kids to play around with when we go down in a couple weeks.

If the camera turns out decent, I may use them in 2009 for a scavenger hunt type contest when we visit with three other couples. (Points are awarded for different fish, dip signs, etc.)