I've used mine only about half a dozen times, but I think it is great.
I've been paddling for 15 years and never before had any pictures worth
a damn. Fits right into the mesh pocket on my Stohlquist pfd.

If you wear polarized glasses when you paddle, you may have to take them
off to shoot. I find it impossible to see the screen (there is no
viewfinder) in bright sunlight with them on.

The big deals are balancing and figuring out what to do with your paddle
(and sunglasses) while you play with the camera. Somebody suggested a
paddle leash. I haven't done that, but it sounds like a great idea.
There is a camera strap you can put around your wrist, so I guess if you
could in theory drop the camera, grab the paddle, and not lose the
camera. Haven't tried it. The camera doesn't float, so I have been
thinking about rigging a little float to tie to the strap in rough
conditions so you could retrieve the camera if you have to let it go.

The menus are not so easy to wander through while you're trying to
balance in your boat, so if you are going to do much fiddling, you might
find the "green button" feature useful. It lets you take some functions
and make them pop up immediately when you push the green button on the
back. It has a few program modes that are useful for paddling, like the
"sport" mode, which gives you a faster shutter speed
..

There is often a very large range of light when you paddle, so you may
have to play around with exposure control. Also, the conditions
sometimes make autofocusing hard. What I usually do is leave the focus
area on the smaller setting, more or less like a spot meter, and use
that to lock focus and exposure on an area that has the right amount of
light. both exposure and focus lock when you push the shutter halfway.
There are exposure controls that let you compensate for over and
underexposure, but it is hard to fuss with them when the boat is
bouncing around.



Marek "Wayfarer" wrote the following on 12/12/2005 8:09 AM:
http://users.frii.com/uliasz/weblog/...808/index.html

I am trying to collect a list of tips on paddling and shooting with
Pentax Optio WP. Do you have more suggestions or comments?

Marek