Hi all,
Just registered after seeing this digicam thread. Last week I came back from a surf trip on the Shubenacadie River and Eastern shore of Nova Scotia.
I had with me my Canon S1 IS in its housing and my new Oly 770SW. Like others, I ended up using the Olympus more often. In low light, I got a fair bit of noise. But I expected that from reading reviews on steves-digicams.com
After each use on the ocean, I made sure to rinse it. I have to admit, I didn't try taking any pictures in the surf as I didn't want to deal with the suspended sand and silt as the Olympus has a sliding lens cover. There is a bit of clearance, so my initial fears of trapping and subsequently scratching the lens cover were set aside temporarily. The camera only came out when I was on land or in the eddies.
The camera feels solidly constructed. I have not tested the shockproofness nor the 33' depth waterproofness. The only underwater photos are as far as I could reach from my cockpit and under a tap while rinsing the camera.
Another friend bought his before I did and his is under repair. Unlike the Pentax Optio W-series, the Olympus cameras have two doors. One for the battery and XD card. The other for the DC-in, video-out and USB-like cable port. Somehow, he got some water in the data port and hence it's being repaired.
It should be noted that:
a) Only the USB-like data port door is spring loaded to pop open if you pull on the slider.
b) Maybe I didn't rinse thoroughly enough, but the metal plate on which the data port rubber seal is attached is slightly discoloured. It does not seem to affect waterproofness or operation.
c) Olympus only made the rubber seal large enough to cover the USB-like data port. The remaining empty space around it is open and free to hold water. So, it is normal to see some air bubbles coming out from this door if it's submerged. But after rinsing your camera,
wait until it's fully drained and dry before downloading your pics!
My photos from the trip are at the link below. Photos 11-18 and 31-63 were taken with the Canon S1, the rest with the Olympus 770SW. Numbering starts from first row of photos, left to right. (I would've referred to the file names, but it seems that picasaweb anonymizes your photos).
http://picasaweb.google.com/qajaq8/Kayak_Surf_Trip_2007
Overall, I'm very happy with the convenience of having a go-everywhere camera. The LCD is exceptional. Very bright and works well for taking pictures and especially playback.
On a another note, two friends on this trip picked up the 3MP Hero cams. I haven't seen the pictures myself, but one of them viewed his pictures on a TV and most of the pictures were hit and miss as you weren't sure if you captured what you wanted when you were in the boat. For now, I'll chalk it up to user inexperience and wait until I see all the pictures for myself. They were however able to get photos I was too afraid to expose the Olympus to. Maybe if I had the housing ... oh wait, I still have my Canon S1.
One additional thing about the Hero cam, the hinge pin on one of the cameras started to rust. We weren't sure if it was just a matter of forgetting to rinse the camera or not.
Alf.