Someone suggest a good P & S for work

[spike98]

I am currently looking to purchase a good point and shoot camera for work. I work at a fertilizer plant so 99.9% of my work will be outdoors. I am constantly crawling into vessels and other nooks and cranny's so something small and rugged would be nice.

A good optical zoom would also be nice as i can be taking shots of towers and piping above ground.

The ability to take AA batteries would also be fantastic. We have an ENDLESS supply of energizer industrials in stores!

My price point would be around the $300 for the camera and a good high speed card.

What does everyone else have?

EDIT: Also the ability to add txt to a photo on the camera would be nice for labling work orders.

[Lagerstatten.ca]

It's not really in your budget but I love the Panasonic LX3. What a great little point and shoot but it's around $500 bucks. However you get all manual functions as well as the usual P&S stuff. Great lens, and great results from it.

My friend tends to just carry that along with her instead of her pro DSLR most of the time.

Just above your range at $360ish...is the Nikon Coolpix P6000, very cool camera, with GPS as well.

http://www.thecamerastore.com/products/catalog/compact-digital-cameras/nikon-coolpix-p6000

Cheers!

-Thinh

[blitz]

For that type of work one of the Pentax or Olympus Waterproof/Dustproof/Shockproof cameras might be the best bet.

[BlackArcher101]

Not sure what the prices are like anymore, but I have upgraded to 3 different Canon Powershots, and my first one from 2003 is still going strong. It's been in rain so bad that it poured out of the inside of the camera, not to mention huge temperature extremes and dusty conditions. Also threw them into a bag of various items without protection. Other than a scratched lcd screen, there's nothing wrong with it and I couldn't have abused it more really.

[Mitsu3000gt]

The problem you will run into with your requirements is that the really rugged cameras are better at being rugged than they are at taking pictures, and the really good point & shoots aren't overly rugged. I would suggest getting a better camera and just trying not to bang it around too much :)

As for cameras that take AA batteries, the Canon S5IS takes them for sure, but I am not sure about their most recent releases. The rechargable lithium batteries most cameras come with last an incredibly long time, so I wouldn't worry about that too much unless you will be out for hours on end doing nothing but taking pictures.

The new Fuji F70 EXR just released should have one of the better sensors available in a P&S, a 10X zoom, excellent flash, and is small. Similar story with the new F200 EXR. Definitely have a look at those.

Also, you don't need a high speed card for a P&S camera - a really cheap one will do just fine. They can't take pictures fast enough for it to matter.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
The problem you will run into with your requirements is that the really rugged cameras are better at being rugged than they are at taking pictures, and the really good point & shoots aren't overly rugged. I would suggest getting a better camera and just trying not to bang it around too much :)


The new Fuji F70 EXR just released should have one of the better sensors available in a P&S, a 10X zoom, excellent flash, and is small. Similar story with the new F200 EXR. Definitely have a look at those.

Also, you don't need a high speed card for a P&S camera - a really cheap one will do just fine. They can't take pictures fast enough for it to matter.

This.

However, since he mostly works on the field a rugged camera would be best for what he wants. I'm pretty sure he'll drop it eventually and only one I can see is this:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10119889&catid=28382

:thumbsup:

[spike98]

Originally posted by flipstah


This.

However, since he mostly works on the field a rugged camera would be best for what he wants. I'm pretty sure he'll drop it eventually and only one I can see is this:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10119889&catid=28382

:thumbsup:

Perfect! I would have liked a better zoom but what does zoom matter after the camera is screwed from being beat around! Thanks!

[ExtraSlow]

How's that olympus in low light situations? I've been thinking that our field guys need some better cameras. Something rugged is good, but it's also got to be easy to use, as some of these guys aren't exactly technology whizzes.

I actually didn't know that anything liek this existed, and I was just thinking that I could buy them a cheaper camera and let them break it every few months. But something that will last a year or more would be great.

[Mitsu3000gt]

^^ All those cameras are pretty bad in low light compared to something like the Fuji F200, Fuji F70, Panasonic Lumix LX3, etc. Again, you're paying mostly for the build, not image quality. Any P&S camera can just be left on "auto" for those less technology advanced people.

Those olympus cameras are pretty average other than ruggedness.

Check out this test: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/q209waterproofgroup/

I know its a waterproof camera test, but most of the shockproof cameras (like that Olympus) also happen to be waterproof to a certain degree.

You are going to get significantly better image quality/zoom performance out of a non-shock/water proof camera because your money is going into the lens/sensor/flash rather than purely construction. Also they have to build those cameras mostly totally enclosed so that they remain shockproof.

If image quality/zoom/flash performance, etc. isn't really one of your top concenrs, buying a shock proof camera would probably be a decent idea if you are going through regular cameras pretty fast due to damages.

[flipstah]

http://www.pentaximaging.com/digital-camera/Optio_W80_-_Cardinal_Red/

12 megapixel, waterproof, coldproof and now shockproof Optio W80.

5x Optical! :eek: