Looking for my first tough digital camera

[gindling]

Uggghhh. I used to be able to make a Picassa Web album to view, now all I see is Google+...
Damn you Google!
I just put the photos on the message. Sorry they are so small. Ill work on the Google thing.

[Scott McCrea]

The second and sixth, is the "dramatic" setting? They seem well lit and show the passage much better the other settings. Cool!

[gindling]

True that they are more lit but its some weird control setting and it tends to make all the highlights much too harsh, im not really a fan of it because its not true to the colors. Like I said thats just the on camera flash and its not going to light up a black lava tube too well. Ill get my Vivitars out when i get some slaves. But the main thing is the noise is so much smaller than the old Tough, I wish I had it around still for comparison.

[NZcaver]

Uggghhh. I used to be able to make a Picassa Web album to view, now all I see is Google+...
Damn you Google!
I just put the photos on the message. Sorry they are so small. Ill work on the Google thing.

Some nice shots there. Next trip, you could try adding a person for scale/interest in some of your shots. Looks like your new camera is working fine for you.

With the Google thing, I agree it's annoying. But you should still be able to upload shots directly to Picasa and avoid Google+ entirely, right? I had a similar problem sharing documents and video clips through Google Docs recently. It still works, but because they are transitioning to Google Drive and Google+ some people are unable to access my links (even with privacy set to public). The workaround for that is to tell people to sign out of Google and Gmail before clicking the link, but unfortunately this doesn't work with your link.

[gindling]

Oh, I wasnt trying to take nice photos or anything, thats why I wasnt worried about scale. Im just putting the new Tough model through the paces and seeing how it fares compared to the older models. If I still had an older one I could compare the sensors, which is what Olympus says has changed with the new model. Luckily theres tons of lava tubes around and I can stop in quickly and take some shots on the way back from Costco.

[VACaver]

I bought the Panasonic DMC-TS3 last Christmas and didn't like it at first. Once I started playing with it and learning what each "scene" did, it's turned out to be an excellent camera.

I took the cave photography class offered by Peter Jones at the last convention and it was a HUGE help in learning to use the camera.

[Mark Ostrander]

I have a Pentax Optio WG-1. I was on a trip with someone who had a Lumix and we both had an external flash. We combined for a couple of multi-flash shots in a BIG stream passage. I was in a Fireworks mode. Not sure what she was doing. When we set the flashes off, I had just a little bit of light right in front of the flash, and the rest dark. She had a well-lit shot that stretched out in to the distance. I'm not a real camera buff, but I'd guess that the Lumix had a lower aperture on the lens and let much more light in. In passages that are more modest in size, the Optio does fine.

[gindling]

I would say that also completely depends on what setting. Why did you choose the fireworks setting? On my Olympus Hg-1 there is a specific low light setting but I still find that manually adjusting the exposure compensation setting on manual will allow a better shot and I dont know about your camera but the special scene modes (fireworks, portrait, underwater) all lock most of the settings so you cant change the compensation, WB balance, flash modes, etc. On a trip to a very wet stream cave in Idaho I used my ElSpeleo as the main lighting element with supporting light from a Sten and got some nicely lit shots, and the best thing was when it got muddy I just washed it off in the stream, external lens and all, and continued shooting. I just wish my FireFly unit was waterproof! I'm impressed with the new line of waterproof compact cameras out there, they are allowing people to get some shots in places that would otherwise not be the worth the effort. And if you have lugged a 35mm manual film camera back in the day (or recently!) through a cave you' know what I'm talking about.

[submassabielle]

These are great reviews. However, does anyone have comments on ease of use? I don't plan on studying cave photography (or even photography for that matter). Which cameras are good for point-and-shoot or select a pre-set setting, then point and shoot?