I needed a new camera to take on vacation to Yellowstone National Park and after losing more than two cameras to water, no comment, I figured I best buy a waterproof camera. I did a lot of homework and research and it was close between Pentax and Olympus. Most everything I read said the Pentax takes better pictures and operates better in low light conditions. 

At the time I was looking the W60 and the olympus tough 6000.  I have previously only destroyed cameras by giving them baths ad uninetnioinaly taking them swimming. I figured the rugged shockproof feature may be a good thing too since I am prone to drop things from time to time. After much debate I decided to go with the better picture quality and HD video that the Pentax W60 offered in lieu of the shockproffness. I was pricing the camera and noticed that the model was listed discontinued one one of the websites I was shopping at. I did some more research and found out that Pentax was releasing the W80 that it is shockproof. I cut it close but I held off until the W80 was available and received it 2 days before we left for vacation.

I have noting but good things to say about this camera so far. While the Auto mode takes really nice pictures it does give you lots of different options and other manual control features some of which the olympus was lacking. The camera is fairly intuitive and the menu is logical. It took me a little while to learn all the features and well I am still learning how to use them to their best ability. Most of the pictures in the Yellowstone Photo Blog, and Slough Creek report, I took using semi manual settings, i.e. changed the lighting to shade and set the light meter to spot. 

The only disappointment is that manually changing the ISO doesn't work quite like you would expect it would. The ISO settings aren't very accurate or simple don't work the way I would expect them to. Though that is typical of waterproof point and shoot cameras from what I understand. One other con is battery life, while it is not bad you will go through the battery pretty quickly with heavy use. Granted I was took more pictures in Yellowstone than I normally would in a year. Luckily I had a power inverter and was able to charge the battery while in the car and at nights. I plan on getting an extra battery for backup. The only other concern is the lack of a lens cover. Apparently they use some space age polymer that doesn't require one. While I have already made a few minor scratches on the LCD viewer, the lens doesn't have a one. I made a lanyard and keep it on my shirt pocket to try to protect it and to keep me from laying it down some where and forgetting it.

All in all I am very pleased with camera. Waterproof, shockproof, takes pretty good pictures(in my opinion), has HD video, which I still have to remember to use, and it takes standard SDHC cards. It is perfect fisherman's point and shoot camera in my opinion.

Follow up:

In regards to the manual ISO settings I should have been more specific. Auto ISO seems to work great. The manual ISO settings just aren't consistent and don't always work the way it would in film photography. Having never used a high end DSLR, maybe it is just a digital camera versus film thing since I have never had much luck with ISO settings. 

I have had more luck with adjusting the AE metering,and white balance settings. One is tricking the camera by letting it obtain either a dark or bright spot in the composition, depending on the result I am trying to achieve, then focusing on the intended subject. For example auto will make the subject to dark. Set the focus on the darkest spot, with spot metering on, then move it to your subject. Same thing works in reverse, if the subject is over exposed then pick the brightest spot like the sky or towards the sun, set the AE, then move back to your subject.

Another trick is to set the White Balance to shade, this will give you more earthy colors and tones. Then in low light, it performs more as expected. 

I have set the green button, which is the trash button to pull up ISO, Focus, Light Balance, and AE metering. That way I can make some manual changes on the fly while taking pictures in Program mode. Also something that took me a while to figure out was going into menu from program mode and check the memory for all of those options or any other option that you set manually that you wish for the camera to retain. Otherwise it goes back to the default setting. I was really bummed about that until I figured out the memory setting.

With all of that said the Auto mode really does an excellent job, and unless you like to over think things like me it is probably the best setting to use for your quick point and shoot pictures. Some of the other settings are pretty good too. Especially the Panoramic.

I got out and fished the Rio Gold line today. It certainly got wet, the first time in a very long time that there was too much water in the stream. Despite the rain and the high water I made the best of it. 

The Rio Gold was a pleasure to cast. Slick is right, I couldn't believe how slick the line is. It shoots very easily and stripping the line is a breeze. Because of the high water I fished nymphs with more weight than normal. More than I planned on for my 6.5' bamboo. Also keep in mind this was only the second time I have gotten to fish my recently acquired Orivs Superfine boo. While it was work, the line turned over the 2 lead BB split shots plus the weighted nymph well. Due to the high water the stream I went to was really wasn't safe to wade, so I fished a few pools. I ended up catching five rainbows between 7" and 10". I then decided try plan B which was a smaller stream. The water wasn't much better there. At that point I choose to leave the park and either head back home or try to find some water that wasn't quite so deep. I mainly just wanted to cast the line and rod more.

I went by the DH section of the Tuck and it was pretty washed out and very high. I saw two people fishing and they were waist deep about 2 feet off the bank. Not really the conditions I wanted to try the new line on so I went on my way. After weighing my options I choose to fore go some of the wild streams that way and ended up heading to the N. Mills. 

I got the the N. Mills around 2:30, and had the stream to myself. I rigged the rod up with a #16 copper john which is more a typical weight for the rigs I use and figured it would be a better litmus test for the new line and rod. With a more appropriate weight both the line and the rod were more pleasure than work. The line really came alive for me. It turned over excellent both in very close quarters and at long distances. The line loaded the rod very nicely and made delicate presentations. Did I mention slick? It has to be one of the slickest lines I have ever had. It floated very well both in the high waters at the first stream and in the tamer waters of the N. Mills. Very easy to pick up to either cast or mend. For giggles I figured I would see how far I could cast the line comfortably. To my surprise I was able to the running part of the line with ease. Also easy to tell because the line turns from "moss" to "gold". According to the specs the head length is 47 feet. After getting into the running part of the line it became a bit more difficult to cast. Admittedly I'm not great at a double haul nor do I have to cast more than 50 feet too often. That and I am more accustom to graphite than bamboo. So I'll attribute the difficulty of casting the line over 50' do to my skill level. I will say casting it around the 40' mark was pretty much effortless. 

So all done and said I give the Rio Gold a big thumbs up. While the taper is a bit different than the Triangle Taper, I really liked it. In some aspects it felt quite different than the TT but performed very similar. At other times it felt very much the same as the TT. I know I said I'd probably get a TT for the second rod but I maybe laing towards the Rio Gold now. I'm sure this line would perform well on a variety of rod actions as well.

It was great to get out on the water today even with the rain. Which also gave me a chance to test my new winter jacket, it passed with flying colors. I also found out my Simms wader have stared to leak, which I'm not too upset about since they have been used and abused for 3+ years. I only took one picture because of the rain, but I'll try to post in a bit.

Oh yeah I also caught 5 bows while testing the new line on the N. Mills