Road Cycling - Digicam? What's small and rugged?

I am interested in snapping some digital pics during some rides w/ my buddies. I hate the big and heavy Sony digicam that I have and I want to find something extreme portable and won't protrude out of my jersery pocket. Any suggestions on something that is light, rugged and under a couple hundred bucks?

Canon SD110 is small and portable...check it out at dpreview.com!

Minolta Xg.
It's small (3.37 x 2.64 x 0.79 in.), light (120gr), starts up and is ready to shoot in .8 seconds, and has no external Zoom mechanism to break while on outings. The zoom mechanism is entirely enclosed in the camera body.

Best of all, it can be had for about $200 on ebay.

the three megapixel canon Elph cams are very popular and set the standard for smallness a while back. kyocera makes a similarly shaped cam that gets good reviews.

here's the best website for way too much specific info on digicams:
http://imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM

(three megapixel cams are still the sweet spot for value and performance)

Check out the Nikon Coolpix 3100. Just a tad bigger than the Canon Elph and more ergonomically designed for when you pull it out of your jersey pocket.

sony DSC-T1

this is what i use when i go on a ride. it's not the best quality digicam, but it's pretty handy. http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/brando-mcatch-review.html

I have the original Minolta DiMage X. It's small and compact enough that I can shoot pictures with it one-handed on the move and has the same protected lens design that BlastRadius mentioned. The suggestion for the Xg is good as is the Sony DSC-T1. BTW, Minolta has released a new DiMage X-family camera... the X50 which is a 5MP camera like the DSC-T1. I was quite impressed with the DSC-T1 when I played with it. My wife has a DSC-P9. However, given the good experience I've had with my Minolta, I would probably upgrade to the X50. The X50 has a very fast startup time which makes quick-draw shooting on the move easy.

I noticed the X50s too. Very nice. I suggested the Xg because it can be had for "under a couple hundred bucks". The other cameras mentioned are nice too but probably out of the desired budget.

I noticed the X50s too. Very nice. I suggested the Xg because it can be had for "under a couple hundred bucks". The other cameras mentioned are nice too but probably out of the desired budget.

Yes. Good point. I stand guilty for not adhering fully to the original criteria.

I've got a pocket sized Olympus that's much lighter than the Canon Digi Elph cameras I've seen. It's 4MP, decent optical zoom, weather resistant. It's been on one three day backpacking trip, one 18 hour hike into and out of the Grand Canyon on the South Rim in June (140F during the afternoon) and my near complete ascent of Haleakala on Maui a few weeks ago. No problems. I believe it's a Digital Stylus 400.

Edit: THe 400 would probably be out of your budget range, but it's one of a family of DIgital Stylus cameras that might be worth looking into.

I've got a pocket sized Olympus that's much lighter than the Canon Digi Elph cameras I've seen. It's 4MP, decent optical zoom, weather resistant. It's been on one three day backpacking trip, one 18 hour hike into and out of the Grand Canyon on the South Rim in June (140F during the afternoon) and my near complete ascent of Haleakala on Maui a few weeks ago. No problems. I believe it's a Digital Stylus 400.

Edit: THe 400 would probably be out of your budget range, but it's one of a family of DIgital Stylus cameras that might be worth looking into.


The 300 - 3.2 MegaPixels (model I have) comes with a remote, is weather resistant, and has a metal casing (real Important to me) and also the lense is retractable into the camera so that you have to keep up with a lense cover. Nice camera and battery life is awesome to say the least. I have done a 5 day hike and taken 150 pictures on one battery. Must upgrade with a Olympus media card to take panoramic pictures thought and I had already bought a Lexar.


http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/stylus300.html

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_digital_stylus.asp

BizRate compares pricing for online.

Minolta Dimage G500. Pocket-size, 5 megapixels, $300. I have one, fantastic. It's worth it to get a 4 or 5 megapixel camera so you can print high-res 5" x 8" photos.

Minolta Dimage G500. Pocket-size, 5 megapixels, $300. I have one, fantastic. It's worth it to get a 4 or 5 megapixel camera so you can print high-res 5" x 8" photos.

You can print High Res with a 3.2 megapixel camera. Don't get caught up in the megapixel size battle, because each camera's ability to handle the megapixels is different. I have printed 8x10 from my 3.2 with no pixelation or distortion on the edges. It is more important what program you are using to retreive the images and size them with.

But I use Photoshop CS whereas others may be using something else.

You may want to take a look at the Nikon CoolPix 3700 - already had a 5mp Nikon, but this one's 3.2 and is very compact and is lightweight even though it has a pretty rugged aluminum body. Look for a good sale and this can be found for $160-180. Aside from some slight fisheye bend at edges in panorama mode, takes great pics and is very easy to use, all features pretty intuitive and accessible.

Another thing to think about is if you have other devices that use same type of memory, which economizes and adds flexibility. I bought this one simply because I needed something to take high quality snapshots, which is what it sounds like you want to do. Also takes movies with sound (check this, because some at the low end don't) and allows audio commentary tags on photos. At highest res, pic at 3x5 and 5x7 come out nice and 256mb card will take over 130 pics. Uses SD cards, which my Palm Tungsten also uses, so memory is interchangeable. Yes, the card does need to be formatted for the device, but the Palm is backed up and docs/music are restoreable to the blank card. Now have 256 card for both, but nice to have the additional capacity option, especially if taking alot of movies.

Just an option to think about...look forward to hearing what you end up gettin'

Check out the Canon G5 and new G6.

great reviews- www.dpreview.com
great images- www.chromasia.com/iblog/archive.php (Canon G5)

Related to my work, I have access to a large number of digital cameras that range from low end consumer to professional and my personal favorite for taking on rides is the Casio Exilim. It's compact, light, and is easy to pocket. Pentax also has an Optio line which is slightly smaller than the Casio but the color is not as good.

Check out http://www.steves-digicams.com/ for in-depth reviews.