Snorkel Cameras Review - Film & Digital Cameras with Built-In Housing

Just released is the Pentax W90. This is the 11th generation of their waterproof cameras. It is a 12.1mp camera with that is shockproof, dustproof, coldproof, and waterproof down to 20 feet. It is a unique new set of LED lights that surround it's lens for macro pictures. And it has a 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens) as well as HD movie mode. There are no reviews yet out on this camera.

It is a neat looking camera though, and besides the normal wrist strap it also comes with a neat a neat carabiner strap. I look forward to hearing how it performs.

Best Prices For
Pentax Optio W90 at:

New Pentax Optio WS Line
Pentax has another underwater camera now called the WS line of cameras - currently the Optio WS80. It is not nearly as tough as the W line, nor will it go as deep. The new Optio WS80 is only waterproof to five feet, and is more compact than their other series of cameras, but also costs a bit less. For the minimal price difference I would go with the better Optio W80.

Best Prices For
Pentax Optio WS80 at:

Olympus Waterproof Snorkel Cameras

Olympus has also been at this for many years. They started with their Olympus Stylus SW series, including the Stylus 770 SW, 790 SW, 850 SW, 1030 SW, 1050 SW. Some of these even had a separate underwater housing available to make them able to go deeper.

More currently, Olympus has three different lines of waterproof snorkel cameras.

Stylus Tough Series - both shock and waterproof in three current models:
- Stylus Tough-3000 - waterproof down to 10 feet with HD video.
- Sylus Tough-8010 - waterproof down to 33 feet, with image stabilization, a bright screen, auto lens cover, good menu system, tap control technology, (you just have to tap the top or sides to do things), high definition video, 14mp, wide angle zoom lens, and built in 2mb of memory. Unfortunately it has fairly poor image quality, being very soft in the corners.
- Stylus Tough-6000 - waterproof to 10 feet with tap control technology - but has some decent shutter lag.
- Stylus Tough-6020 - same as 6000 but longer zoom lens, 14mp, waterproof to 16 feet and built in 1mb of memory.
Best Prices For
Stylus Tough 8010 at: Amazon.com B&H Photo Adorama Photo ?
In the standard non-tough Stylus line is the new Stylus-550WP. This is another simple and inexpensive waterproof camera that goes down to ten feet.
And apparently the fact that this camera is waterproof is about all that is good about it. It has horrible shutter lag (like a much older generation camera), has some pretty bad image quality (very soft pictures, particularly in the corners), and low battery life. It's ISO performance is suppose to be OK to about 400.

Best Prices For
Stylus 550WP at: Amazon.com ?
New in the Olympus FE series is the X-560WP waterproof camera that is good to 10 feet underwater. This is a very inexpensive camera that does not have the durability features of the Olympus Tough series. It is not sold at very many stores yet.

Best Prices For
Olympus X-560WP at: Amazon.com ?

Fuji Waterproof Snorkel Cameras

In late 2009 Fuji came out with their first waterproof camera, the Finepix Z33WP. I have handled this camera and it is probably the smallest waterproof camera ever. It is a 10 mp camera and is good down to around 10 feet underwater and offers standard video (no HD).

But the reviews have been pretty bad about this camera (darn, I like Fuji). Besides being a very nice camera to handle, it has no image stabilization, which is handy in low light, and without it the video is very jerky. The LCD screen is very hard to see outdoors. It has some clunky navigation menus. But most important the front window lens fogs up, destroying your pictures, and the picture quality even without this problem is very bad (unsharp).

Best Prices For
Finepix Z33WP at:

New in 2010 Fuji came out with their first waterproof tough camera, the Fujifilm XP10. This is so new that it is only available on pre-order and I don't know a thing about it's performance. It is a 12 mp camera, 5x zoom lens, 2.7" LCD, shock proof, freeze proof, dust proof, water proof to 10 feet, and offers HD video. Very interesting!

Best Prices For
Fujifilm XP10 at:

Canon Waterproof Snorkel Camera
Also in 2009 Canon came out with their Powershot D10. This really looks like a true underwater camera. This is not as small a camera as some of the others on this page. It has a more substantial feel to it. Personally, when in the water I like that. It is a 12.1 mp camera, with optical image stabilization, and is waterproof down to 33 feet. Very notable is it's fast F2.8 lens, which is good for low light underwater photography. It offers standard video.

This camera reportedly has a very bright good screen, super fast startup and focusing and very low shutter lag. It has excellent high ISO performance (good up to 800 ISO) and a good menu system. But most important it offers the best image quality out of all of these cameras (sharpest lens). I have seen many excellent pictures that people have taken underwater with this camera.

I give a more complete review of the Canon D10 for snorkeling here.

Best Prices For
Powershot D10 at:

Panasonic Waterproof Snorkel Camera
2010 again, brought us the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2. This the second generation of this shockproof durable camera that is waterproof down to 33 feet and offers a wide angle zoom lens (28mm at the wide end). It has high definition video, image stabilization, and increases to 14mp over 12mp for the TS1.

This is one of the more expensive of these cameras. I had read that the firt version, the Panasonic DMC-TS1, had battery compartment water seal problems. Hopefully this problem is corrected.

On the other hand this camera has a very handy one push button for starting video, and has very fast shutter and autofocus response. So it is good for action.

The TS1 had poor image quality due to it's small lens, particularly soft in the corners, and it was a pretty noisy camera, becoming very noticable at ISO 200, and I highly doubt that raising the sensor to 14mp has helped this problem. But I have not yet seen any review comparisons.

Best Prices For
Lumix DMC-TS2 at:

Casio Waterproof Snorkel Camera
Very new is the Casio Ex-G1. This smart looking camera is super shock resistant and waterproof to 10 feet, and offers 12.1 mega pixels. It is the slimest of these cameras, and has a host of interesting features. It has a stainless steel body, you can add an external strap clip, and it will shoot 16:9 wide format movies. Casio has been building shock resistant watches and other electronics for a long time, so I bet this is one tough little camera.

So far I have seen good reviews of this camera (see amazon link below), but I did read that it takes a special tool to change the battery, which sounds a little silly.

Best Prices For
Casio EX-G1 at:

Sony Waterproof Camera
Recently released is the Sony DSC-TX5. This is Sony's first "tough" waterproof digital camera and it has some very interesting features that may make it a winner.

First, it has a huge touch screen display that may be great for easier viewing underwater. It also removes a lot of buttons that they don't have to waterproof.

Next it has a 25mm (35mm equivalent) wide angle Carl Zeiss lens. Zeiss lenses are generally very sharp, and the extra wide angle lens could be very nice underwater.

It also has a CMOS sensor with a HD video mode.

It is also the smallest tough waterproof camera. But it is only waterproof down to 10 feet.

It has the unique Sony sweep mode, where you just push a button, sweep your camera across, and it stitches the image into a panoramic picture for you.

I will be very interested to see some reviews on this one.

Best Prices For
Sony DSC-TX5 at:

Samsung AQ100 Waterproof Camera

Samsung's first entry into a waterproof compact camera, the AQ100 is a nice looking little camera that as a 12mp sensor, 5x zoom, optical image stabilization, and a 2.7" LCD screen, with HD movies. I have no idea if it is any good yet.

Best Prices For
Samsung AQ 100 at:

GE Waterproof Snorkel Camera
Also new in 2009 GE released their GE G3WP snorkeling camera. It is a 12 mp camera with a big 2.7 inch display and is waterproof to 10 feet underwater. I did not even know that GE made cameras.

Best Prices For
GE G3WP at:

With the speed of things there are bound to be tons more of these cameras coming available, and I will keep this list updated.

There are also some cameras from the short past that have been popular that you might want to check out.

Sealife was making a very popular camera called the ReefMaster Mini and also marketing it in a lower rated body called the Sealife ECOshot. And Vivitar was marketing a version of the same camera called the Vivcam6200 and then the Vivicam 8400. All of these are recently discontinued, but are still available at places like Amazon. It is probably good they are discontinued. We bought one and did not think much of it, and we have seen lots of reports of them flooding (probably mostly from operator error). Read our review of the Vivitar Vivicam 6200 here.

Best Prices For
Vivitar Vivicam 8400 at: