I want to buy a ruggedized, waterproof digital camera in the vein of the Canon D-10 or the Olympus Stylus Tough series.

Can anyone give some first hand experience and insight into the cameras? I envision primarily backpacking, mountain biking, snorkeling/swimming and maybe eventually some diving. If I ever dive I will get the additional hard case to guarantee WP, but I do expect the camera to stand up to being in the water for hours at a time "as is", no additional cases. I was leaning towards the Stylus but reviews I've read online say it's really slow and unresponsive, and there are conflicting reviews on image quality of the Olympus vs the Canon.

Let's hear the low down.

odd that you ask this question only days after I posted the same thing

subliminal man

Here is a link to my thread and a link to a review site that shows the current offerings:

my thread:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=1087718

Review thread:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189765/six_tough_rugged_cameras.html

Im leaning towards the Panasonic or Sony

Well, never mind then, I'll just read those threads.

My Dad got a Pentax Optio W90 about a month ago and I took a couple pics.   nice LCD and the pics looked sharp.  Didn't notice if it had image stabilization and didn't mess with it's macro ring flash thingy.  Felt solid.  A little thicker than a deck of cards and might be a little too long to fit into a back pocket.



http://www.pentaximaging.com/digital-camera/Optio_W90_Black/

fucker is tough. rode im my mag pouch all the way through infantry school, being jumped on and everything and the only reason it scratched was cuse i accidentally put stripper clips in there with it! i give it a 10 for sure!