Water, dust and shock resistant digital camera could ease mountain photography winter paranoia...
We know a lot of OM members take their digital cameras out on the
hill then post the results for public consumption, but as the UK
weather degenerates into standard mess and mush, there's a big
question mark over how those delicate electronics will survive close
encounters of the wet and gnarly kind.
Which is why it's nice to see Casio launching the new water and
shock resistant GV-20, 2.0-megapixel camera just in time for the
winter. The new camera is based on the existing GV-10 (1.3 megapixel)
model, but erm, with more pixels.
What makes it different from run of the mill digis' is that it's
shock, dust and water resistant, so you don't need to handle it with
kid gloves. The chassis is metal, the body is made of fibreglass with
elastomer providing shock absorption and the openings are sealed with
rubber gaskets to prevent water ingress.
Immersion in muddy puddles ...
We've seen figures suggesting that it'll survive immersion in a
metre of water for 30 minutes. If you try that, you'll be dead.
The main attraction is outdoor-friendliness, and the actual spec
of the camera is otherwise fairly basic point and shoot' with no
optical zoom - you get two-times digital - from the fixed focus F2.8
lens.
Batteries are 4 x AA, there's an LCD screen and memory comes from
a Compact Flash card of between 8MB and 64MB. You also get some handy
electronic assistance with a built-in 'Best Shot' mode which gives
you a choice of pre-proggrammed settings to suit the environment.
We'll be getting one on test shortly and while we suspect that
you'll be able to get better results from more sophisticated cameras,
you'll be able to use the GV-20 on days when you'd hesitate to get
less robust models out of your pack, let alone drop them into rocky
puddles.
And it costs...
Suggested retail price is £299.99 and it should be available
from Casio towards
the end of November.
• The only similar weather-resistant digital we're aware of
is Kodak's DC5000, which retails for around £300 and has a
two-times optical zoom. but is, we think, larger and heavier.
