Pentax WG-3 - impressions and a few shots

Hi all,

I recently purchased a WG-3 to take with me on a holiday (along with my K-x). I found there was not much info available online when I was researching, so I thought I would put up some of my thoughts now I am home again, in case anyone else is considering one.

Firstly - I absolutely loved using the camera. It went with me pretty much everywhere and was a pleasure to use.

Secondly - The picture quality was better than I was expecting. There has always been a thing about rugged cameras that the IQ suffers a lot for the ruggedness, but in fact I was pleasantly surprised.

Thirdly - Thing about accessories! The camera comes with a carabiner strap, but no wrist strap. I bought both a wrist strap and a floating wrist strap as well and had all 3 attached together. The wrist straps had quick releases so I could unhook whichever was not needed as required. It worked a charm and holding the camera/ carrying it around was just never an issue for me. Also, extra batteries are a good idea. It is easy to go through a battery in one day, and so switching over while you recharge is very convenient.

Fourthly - I have found since coming home that photoshop (or other photo processing software), can really add a lot to the pictures. Basically, I would not use/show/print any picture before running it through software first. Not a problem for me as I do this anyway, but if you like to print straight from the camera, then you may find you do not get the best possible picture quality.

Lastly - Overall I would recommend this camera highly. I was a little worried over the purchase as it is quite a lot of money, and I wasn't sure how much use it would actually get, but I was very glad I had it the entire time I was away.

And so onto a few shots. These are just a few samples from the first day or so of the trip. It's going to take me a long time to go through all the pictures I took!

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6



#7



#8



This last one is to demo the difference software processing makes. This is #8 again, but this time straight out of the camera. The picture was taken in 'underwater' mode.






Thanks for reading. I hope if anyone out there is considering a WG-3, this post is of some help to you. Also, feel free to post c&c on the pictures themselves

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Narcoleptic with a camera

I really fancy updating my W90 with one of these, so many thanks for the reassuring post and the pictures. Enjoyed them all.

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Best regards, John

Nice shots and especially like the underwater shot. If anyone is interested the current issue of Digital Photographer magazine has a brief review of this and it's competitors, they rated it joint last with the Canon PowerShot D20 and behind the Olympus Stylus TG-2 and the Nikon Coolpix AW 110. Not had a proper read but seems to be because of AF issues.

Jim.

Good work on the underwater shot. The Pentax water resistant range have always been excellent and better than anyone expects.

I presume the output is JPG only - what size files are they?

I fancy getting the GPS version - but guess that really will eat batteries.

My existing waterproof is a W60 and like you I have the flotation strap - SRS charged me about £2 for it!

File output is JPG only sadly, but there are not any rugged cameras that shoot RAW at the moment, so it's a necessary sacrifice for this type of camera. File size seems to be around 4-4.5mb per image.

I got the GPS version, mostly because I think the Qi charging seems like a very good idea for an underwater camera (although as yet I don't have a charger, so it was more of a future thinking decision). I did not actually have the GPS turned on as it's not that important to me, and battery consumption was a concern. Whilst away the battery did not die at any point, but I was charging every night.

Thanks for the comments on the underwater shot. I can't actually claim responsibility for it as I am the one snorkeling, and the picture was taken by a friend.

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Narcoleptic with a camera