Camera Labs

Hello,

I am looking for some help with buying a digital camera. I am traveling to Australia for the semester and want a camera that is durable for travel and still takes good pictures. I am looking at two cameras: the shock/water/sand/dust proof Olympus Stylus 790 and the Canon PowerShot SD870.

I am a very amateur photographer so I don't need a lot of fancy stuff. I just want a camera that will take good beach and good bar pictures. Obviously, I need a durable camera, so I am leaning to the Olympus, but how much image quality am I sacrificing?

I had a bad experience with a camera I got a couple of years ago for Christmas and would not like a repeat. One thing I hated about the camera was that the coloring was bad. People looked washed out and still pictures didn't have very much ambient liking. The picture was just too harsh. Please let me know if either of these cameras do this.

Thanks for the help! I love the site and have found a ton of really useful information!

Hi snr345,

May I offer a warm welcome to the CameraLabs forums.

I've moved your post to the "Buying a new camera" forum (but left a shadow in the "Travel photography" forum so you can still find it) because, while the new camera is primarily for your Aussie trip, I think you will get the best response to your questions here. Hope you don't mind.

I'm sure you have already read Gordon's reviews of the Stylus 790 and PowerShot SD870 (here and here). It would seem from those reviews that unless you really need the extra environmental sealing of the Olympus you are giving up quite a lot in terms of IQ. If you are only interested in small prints (or viewing from distance on a modestly sized screen) that might not be an issue. If it is then maybe a really good camera case for the Canon might help keep the sand away from the camera when you aren't shooting?

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.