Olympus Stylus tough? Good enough to send with friend being deployed?

[porsche4life]

My room mate is being shipped to Afghanistan with the NG...

I've played with the camera he has and it isn't great. He's got a gerber tool and all of those gadgets... Thinking about getting him a good camera... The Stylus tough 3000 looks like a good contender. Anybody used one? I'm going to find one to play with before I buy...

Keep in mind that he will use it a p/s and not get all fancy like I do with my dSLR...

[RPKESQ]

Try the Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 or 8010. Much better camera. You need to think of the abuse it will get and how much the pictures are worth to him.

[CurtEgerer]

Another good option is the Pentax W60 or W80. I've been using and abusing these for 2 years as my daily business cameras. Used one underwater the other day with excellent results. Great battery life and video quality. Uses SD cards (some of the Olympus use xD cards that can be hard to find locally).

Pentax W80

[Dave L]

I have the Pentax w60 which I use kayaking and snowboarding. I did look at the olympis as well but quickly eliminated them because they dont use SD cards. Over all I am happy with the pentax but find that the pictures are sometimes out of focus around the edges and it is pretty much useless indoors. For me the trade off is an acceptable one because I need the waterproofing and durability BUT I also do still have a Canon point and shoot which I use for the regular stuff.

If your buddy just wants point and shoot to print out some 4x6s its fine, If you want to compare it to your DLSR you will be sorely disappointing.

[osidak]

canon d10 - water proof to 30 feet and supposed to be able to take a 6 foot drop onto concrete - pretty damn good photo quality as well

[porsche4life]

Ya it doesnt need to be dSLR quality... Just looking for a good p/s that he won't have to worry about breaking.