I've been using waterproof disposables for a few years now, and I've
got to agree that they are a good cheap compromise. But for all sorts
of reasons (lens quality, film, lack of zoom), they won't give you
good quality images that you can enlarge or put on the wall, which is
what I'd like to do (some day....).
I went for digital because for the last few years I've spent a lot of
money on buying such disposables (approx £15 a time, including
developing) and also additional film for my compact 35mm, which I take
biking/snowboarding, etc. And increasingly, all I do with the results
is scan them to share them with friends! Plus the beauty of digital
is that you can take loads of photos and then just save the best ones,
and only print out the really outstanding ones - no more wastage.
Finally, I went for the Sony over the Canon & Olympus because of the
extra exposure controls it had. None of these cameras are fully
manual, but few (if any?) cameras of this ultra-compact size are and
you don't need fully manual unless you're being creative or working in
very difficult conditions. The Sony p10 has 7pre-programmed exposure
modes for taking Sports, Twilight, Landscape, etc etc which gives me
enough control and also has an ok video mode for a digital still
camera (which was important to me as I've just sold my Hi8 camcorder
to finance it!!).
The Canon Ixus 400 was a very close second - supposedly very good
image quality and uses the cheapest memory (CF), but it has no
"Sports" mode and the video is not quite as good. The big
disadvantage of the Sony is that uses the most expensive type of
memory
(
A few examples:
waterproof disposable in bright sunlight:
http://nickburton.fotopic.net/photo.php?o=1&id=385122
waterproof disposable in shadow
http://nickburton.fotopic.net/photo.php?o=1&id=385479
Sony digital at dusk:
http://gallery15608.fotopic.net/show...n.php?id=38876
Sony videos
http://www.nickburton.pwp.blueyonder...vie%20page.htm
Sorry I've rambled on, I guess all those weeks of research have stuck
in my brain! ;o)
Nick