Shockproof - Waterproof

Zoe and I spent the weekend laying around, watching DVDs, chillin’, drinking coffee, eating schnitzels and buying a new camera. To date we’ve been using my D50, which is a great piece of ‘kit’, but hopeless for point-and-shoot situations when you don’t want to be carrying 2kg of camera and lenses in a separate bag. It’s also rather scary to use around water, ’cause you don’t want to slip and drown $1500 of digital equipment.

I fell over once, while rock-hopping at The Boulders near Babinda. I was chasing a yellow wagtail downstream, trying to get a decent shot, when I slipped. Binoculars, camera, lenses, tripod etc… all went flying. I managed to keep the gear dry, but had to fall over rather slowly and awkwardly, and take the hit right on my hip. I then laid in the water with my arms extended skyward, poking up above water level, groaning - “meh…. owwww…”.

Now, these issues should be resolved with the Olympus 720SW. It’s shockproof and waterproof (to 3m without a housing) - just like me. Sweet.

10 Responses to “Shockproof - Waterproof”

  1. Dunc says:

    Freshness! I’m quite jealous right now.

    Yet, I fail to see how this is going to solve you birding/water accidents, the Olympus doesn’t quite have the zoom power of the D50. Won’t you still have to take the SLR when you go birding?

  2. tom says:

    yes - the sigmonster is quite heavy *eherm..*

  3. timtim says:

    it doesn’t look very big tom. in fact it looks quite bite sized

  4. Lewis says:

    Thats the camera I decided to get. It has taken some rough treatment so far and keeps comming back for more. It has also taken some awesome shots. the only thing I miss is some more zoom. spose you can’t get everthing, though I cantry.

  5. maria says:

    Poo…. I wanna new camera. your new one sounds great!

  6. Big bad birder says:

    Rockhopping after a Yellow Wag down a boulder strewn steam? Sounds like the perfect habitat for a Grey Wagtail…are you certain of the ID? Any record shots to post?

  7. tom says:

    Right you are, quick check shows the tick next to Grey and not Yellow - my bad. I was wondering about that when I wrote the post above, but couldn’t be bothered checking. Always that way, the one time you don’t check…

    I did get a photo, but it’s on my hard-drive back home. It was a non-breeding male with the two distinctive yellow patches (9/12/05).

  8. Big bad birder says:

    Sweet. That is a cracking record for Aust!!! What year was it?

  9. tom says:

    9 December 2005, I’ll post the photo here in the next couple of days.

  10. tom says:

    I can’t find the photo - I have a feeling I may have deleted it because, although it was diagnostic, it was very blurry. This is surprising as I have gigs of photos that are worse ;)

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