Nice camping point & shoot: Panasonic TS5
I just got me a Panasonic Lumix TS5 point and shoot camera. There are lotsa reviews online, but for our purposes let me say that it some cool features for outdoor rec use.
First, it's in the ruggedized/waterproof category; you can take it diving to 13 meters. It does GPS and even stores tracks (some similar cameras have basic mapping as well). It records altitude, and shows barometric trends and compass direction, which it can also store in exif in photo files. 60fps video and a very good display that actually works in very bright light.
Not much of a telephoto in any of these, which is good actually, since the extending lenses would get trashed in the wet.
It also has wifi, which most importantly allows control of the camera from a phone, as well as using the phone as a viewfinder. Handy for use as a wildlife trail cam to remotely trigger when it's set up near critters, or even if using it in macro mode or on a tripod. It works as a peer to peer network, so you can use it this way out in the boonies (or maybe as a dash cam or back up cam or nanny cam). Range isn't tremendous, however.
Not my only camera, but it's becoming a fav for use for stuff I used to use an iPhone for. Until I started almost destroying the iPhone in rain and such, and deciding a new camera was in order.
I've also used some older Canons, like the Powershot A540, which I love because they do decent photos, and with hacked firmware via CHDK I can do raw, time lapse, motion detector, etc. Very fun. But I wrecked one of those in the wet when I left it out to do a time lapse, hence the new one.
There are a bunch in this range, and sites like dpreview compare them all. Very similar features. Check 'em out if you're looking for a bombproof little camera.
Rob
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