Digital Cameras for Paddlers
Optio33WR, Pentax
For many years the weatherproof Pentax IQ Zoom 90WR film camera was the most commonly chosen point-and-shoot among paddlers. Now that Pentax has introduced the 3.2-MP Optio33WR, its predecessor may be headed for the dustbin. For starters, the Optio33 has better weatherproofing. Though Pentax says it can't be used underwater and warns that it isn't waterproof, the JIS Class 7 camera is submersion-rated. I put it a foot deep in a bucket of water for 30 minutes and experienced no problems. The cat's meow is a 2.8x, 37-104mm lens that zooms internally. There's no worry about water breaching the camera while a wet lens zooms, nor would I hesitate to stow it in my PFD for a rough-water trip where a roll or wet exit might be likely. The camera sinks in water.
This camera is square-shaped (3.2 x 3 x 1.2 inches) and smaller than the IQ, with rubberized corners. I found this unconventional shape easy to grip. The zoom lens is a fast f/2.8-3.9. Shutter speeds are 1/2000 to 4 seconds. Maximum pixel size is 2048x1536 for quality prints to 7.5x10. The lens glass doesn't have any special protection, so I would suggest carrying a few clean cotton swabs, maybe even a small vial of alcohol, or a clean microfiber cloth (good advice for any camera). Check the lens for smudges before using it.
The Optio33 is very easy to use. Buttons can be operated with a thumb. It takes about two seconds to start up, and another two seconds between shots to record at maximum quality (in continuous mode you can record five images at about one per second in second-highest quality). Outdoors, there was hardly any delay between pressing the shutter and taking the picture. The 1.6-inch LCD is a bit hard to see in direct sunlight, but it works fine looking toward the sun. To conserve power outdoors, you can turn off the LCD display and use the optical viewfinder. One push of a handy stand-alone button toggles the LCD for playback, and you can zoom in to review image detail to 8x. For in-camera image management, you can lock the images you want to keep, and I found it took only four button pushes to erase all the rest.
This camera has a host of great features. Press the mode button, choose from a dozen options (landscape, snow scene, movie with sound, etc.), and start shooting. In panorama mode, you get a cool ghost image of the edge of the last frame so you can line up the next shot precisely. The close-up (macro) feature gets you so close (less than half an inch) that you'll see the eyebrows of rug mites. In addition to a self-timer (pretty standard), the Optio33 has an interval timer, a feature not seen on many consumer-level cameras. I used it to get shots of myself with the camera mounted on the bow of my boat. Then there's the ability to manually adjust focus, white balance, metering, and sensitivity (ISO). Even though you can't control aperture and shutter, these are features to keep many a pro happy, without sacrificing ease-of-use for the less technically inclined. I particularly liked the simplicity of the exposure compensation: just press the left or right arrows of the four-way controller. The camera requires two AA batteries. Using average capacity NiMH AAs, I found battery life adequate for a day on the water, but for an extended trip you'll want to pack a few sets of extras.
The camera weighs 7.3 ounces with batteries, and ships with a 16-MB Secure Digital (SD) Memory, A/V and USB port and cable, wrist strap, and ACDSee 5.0 software. Rechargeable NiMH AAs and battery charger are not included. An optional CR-V3 lithium battery can also be used.
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