Ruggedized Underwater Digital Camera

I purchased this to replace my Pentax Optio W10, I love that camera but it's kinda small and apparently a bit delicate because after barely a year that camera has some problems and is back to pentax for repairs. This camera screams heavy duty, the entire body except for the lens area is covered in rubber, the buttons are large so that if you were wearing diving gloves you'd have no issues operating them. The lcd panel on the back is large and covers nearly the entire area of the back. The documentation claims 30' waterproof and I can believe that is so even though some reviews I've seen say 15'; either way the waterproof capabilities are plenty for the beach or snorkeling or tubing which is what I wanted this for. I haven't had a chance to test if this camera floats yet, with all the rubber on it you'd think it would but it's also kinda hefty so maybe not too. Easy solution for that problem you can find a couple of those styrofoam/rubber floats they sell for your car keys and attach it to the strap.

What's in the box:
Camera
strap (nice neck strap with a spring loaded adjuster and a spring hook)
Software/drivers
basic soft case
usb cable
alkaline batteries
Extra user replaceable door o-ring (wow!)

Controls:
Shutter button on the top of the camera, right side.
Left side back, portrait, landscape switch (affects how close the lens will focus)
center back, taken up by lcd screen (quite bright but like all of them you can't see it well in the sunlight)
Top center, group of four buttons controlling menus, self timer, flash mode, picture mode (video, sports, etc.)
Top back, right side, the OK button that confirms in many menus, and the playback button.

Setup:
Not much setup, pop in the batteries go into the menus and set the time/date.
If you want more than onboard memory pop in the sd card

The battery door:
The battery/memory door is well designed, you simply can't open this with one hand which means it would be very difficult to accidentally open it at the wrong time. To open the battery/memory door you must hold down a release and pull up on a lever, then once inside there is another door that covers the battery and the sd card slot.

What else you want to go with this camera:
A better case would be nice, the ebay seller I got mine from included a basic hard sided case and threw in a small sd card and photo album software. These are all nice extra things you'll want.

This camera like every other small digital I've had, is a little bit picky about rechargeable batteries, some of the nimh batteries I have would not read fully charged in this camera (even though they were fresh off the charger). I bought a set of Kodak rechargeables (supposedly specifically for digitals) and those read fully charged so I recommend the white Kodak nimh that advertise they are for digitals and hold their charge 4 times longer, those work perfectly in this camera (walmart sells them).

My only complaint:
Small digitals like this are very high drain devices, my pentax w10 comes with proprietary batteries (like cell phone batteries) that last a decent amount of use, this unit uses two AA batteries. Honestly I don't think they should make these to use less than four batteries, but I suppose it's all space/size considerations. If you use disposable batteries in this guy it's going to cost you a fortune, go get a good set of the Kodak nimh for digitals and save yourself a bundle; get a set of four with the charger so you'll always have a set in the charger and a set charged up and ready to use.

Every day use:
Like any camera of this size, the flash is fine for close up people shots but can't really light a large area. You won't really be happy with flash shots other than those fairly close up. Also like most cameras of this size that use a CCD sensor, flash shots tend to be very noisey(i.e. grainy) and you'll want to use a product such as Noise Ninja to clean up some of the graininess in your indoor images. When I use a camera like this indoors I go into the menus and do two things, set the ISO to no more than 100 and I increase flash exposure to plus EV, usually you get like plus 3 plus 5 etc. as choices, this improves indoor shots a lot.

I have not used the video mode on this camera but it's nice to know it's there. Daylight shots in bright sunlight in Auto mode are not grainy at all because the camera uses ISO 50, as always the more light the better the image.

Just like all low-end digitals (i.e. not a professional slr like the canon 30D) the lag between exposures and shutter lag are fairly annoying, you really can't shoot fast action subjects with this camera, just too much lag but that isn't what this camera is intended for, it's sold as a simple to use digital camera that just happens to be ruggedized and able to go underwater too. It fulfills the promised functions very well and I'm very satisfied with the camera so far.

update: I've had this for a bit, outdoor shots are fine, flash shots, especially at max iso leave a lot to be desired so take it off auto mode for flash shots and increase exposure a little. You can process the flash shots and make them a lot better but I do tend to agree with the opinions I've seen of the camera that they should be better than they are with no effort. This camera is being sold at 120.00 by newegg right now, there are several reviews and one person said theirs leaked pretty quickly. I haven't taken mine in the water yet, guess I need to do that. It's a new product there are going to be some bad ones that's normal.