Thanks Ohiotuber-new Pentax WP 6.0 megapixel camera in hand!

Showed my wife the info on the Pentax WP and photos generated by your posts and others and she went online and ordered me one. What a surprise that was; think I'll keep her. Have to after 47 years. Camera came just two days before we left for the Outer Banks of NC. Now if I can just learn to set and operate all the functions in the @135 page manual - sheesh! Gonna join Photobucket or the like in the future and post some as soon as I can figure out all the how too's. Just got the basic camera. Do you recommend the "skin" accessory and any others. Believe I will get a spare battery. Did buy a 1GB memory card. On the highest 6.0 megapixel setting and three star quality setting it'll still take way more photos then I'll ever need. Believe it started counting down at 332 or thereabouts. After reading the manual believe this camera will do everything but make the morning coffee and not sure yet if that's excluded. By the way, is there a way to turn off the sound or change it when you first turn on the camera? Mine meows like a kitten when it comes on. Would rather have the sound of trout smacking an Elk Hair Caddis if possible or the like! Thanks again for all the info in your original post.

GrnMtMan,
Glad I could help. That IS one heck of a nice camera. Did you get the "quick guide" with yours? If so, that will get you up & running quickly, and what's really nice is that it refers you to specific pages in the full manual for further instructions. Excellent for a "non-techie" like me!
Enjoy your trip to the OBX...we missed the last 2 years. Hope to go back soon, although a trip to Ireland may be in the books for next year. If you want a dandy "inshore charter" contact Rick or Patrick Caton at [url=http://www.customsoundcharters.com:e3e00]www.customsoundcharters.com[/url:e3e00] & tell 'em both Mikey "Crispy" Flanagan said hi!
Have a great & safe trip.
Mike

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You can call me Mike & you can call me Mikey..Just remember that this site's about sharing!

Mike,

Thanks for the reply and more info. Am starting to get the hang of it; but, still have a lot of work to do. Think the quick guide will help. Can't wait to try it on a stream or two in my neck of the woods. Won't be any big'uns swimming around like your photos and the others posted; but, hope to get some nice shots anyway. One stream I fish has a huge poplar or scyamore growing right in the middle of the stream and I got a nice shot of it one February with a skirt of ice around it. Thanks again and keep those beautiful photos coming. Bet some of those underwater rainbows will end up on a few FAOL computers as screen savers. As for fishing a charter at the OBX. First trip years ago was wonderful. Last one the captain said was a 9 1/2 on a ten scale and even the mate got sick. Never should have gone out that day. promised if I ever got back to solid land again that was it; and, so be it! If I hadn't been holding my sick sea-green at the gills son he would have gone overboard in one wave for sure.

GMM,
Glad you're progressing with the camera, but I have to tell you that I haven't yet posted a picture here. I do plan to learn how, though. I have to say that those underwater shots are what convinced me to buy the camera. It WILL be at the Michigan Fish-In.
Mike

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You can call me Mike & you can call me Mikey..Just remember that this site's about sharing!

Grn Mt Man.........
The spare battery is an excellent idea. I would advise against the huge memory cards. Your putting all of your eggs in one basket. Memory cards seldom fail but if one did get damaged you could loose all the images of a trip of a lifetime in one fell swoop. Better to invest in several smaller cards. My favorite is the 128MB card which will hold 41 best quality images from your camera. That?s about the size of a roll of film. They are also quite cheap now.
The best case for the camera is not the skin. It provides only minimal protection. The case that I bought was made especially for the camera and can be purchased at B&H Photo. See: [url=http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=376200&is=REG& addedTroughType=search:17d6c]http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=376200&is=REG& addedTroughType=search[/url:17d6c]
The case is quite small. The camera just fits in with maybe a spare memory card. It provides excellent protection for the camera.
Enjoy your new toy.

DickM,

Thanks for the advice on using smaller memory cards. I may just invest in a couple. Did get to a store and purchased a small padded case that just fits the camera with another compartment for memory card storage. Could fit in shirt pocket or has nice loop for belt; but, not a velcro one that I almost lost another camera on while using it.

[This message has been edited by Grn Mt Man (edited 19 July 2006).]

Make sure you try the green button. I have found it works pretty good. Less confusing than trying to pick one of the pre-programmed settings. With it in "green", I don't have to worry about camera setting if I take an underwater photo of the fish, or one of it out of it.

I am a fan of big cards, as I travel alot and I find management of a whole bunch of cards much more of a liability that risking failure. If you by a SanDisk card rather than some off brand, the MTBF (mean time between failure) is down to 1 in several million. SanDisk actually post-production tests their cards, and will not sell a card that does not pass a rigorous test. Also, they have a very "clean" (sterile) and controlled production facility, and have been in the business for a long time. Lot of the off brands are really "dirty" operations and have no track records. We strictly use SanDisk cards in high epoch recording devices where we are writing to the card hundreds of time a second. SanDisk is the only cards that hold up, and we have never had a failure with them. I bought a SanDisk 2gb card for my Pentax W10.

[This message has been edited by Flyboy@ak (edited 21 July 2006).]

Green Mountain Man,
Unless you plan to actually print photos taken with this camera, there is NO need to set it to the highest resolution. If you plan to only store them on your hard drive, all you need to do is match your screen resolution . Increasing camera resolution for this simply wastes card space and is pointless. Your computer can only read to IT'S maximum resolution and that's it.
My favorite feature of the Pentax WP series is the MACRO . You can focus down to about 1/2 inch and fill a frame with a #28 midge ( well, almost).
I did not buy the optional "skin" but I recommend it if only for it's scratch protection.
Enjoy your camera and I (we) expect to see some photo posts here from you soon.

Mark

I'm gonna have to disagree a little on the multiple memory cards statement.

The more you have to more likely you are to lose one of them. There's always room for one in the camera, but I have several memory cards and I lose track of them all the time, I'm sure with all the travelling I do I will eventually I'll lose one or more of them for good. A memory card that stays in the camera most of the time is less likely to get forgotten somewhere and it is less likely to get damaged (particularly in a waterproof camera).

Now as far as Marcos advice is concerned. I don't considering taking full resolution images a waste of space at all. It's only a waste of space if you never plan to print anything, never plan to crop or edit a photo, and never expect to upgrade the display on your PC to one with a higher resolution, ever. I know the highest resolution on Computer displays has stayed more or less constant for a number of years, but eventually a better technology will come along and change everything and you'll want your memories to stored in the highest quality format possible. What might fill your screen today, may only fill a quarter of the screen or less some day. My advice to save storage space is to have all of your photos put onto CDs or DVDs and only keep the ones you plan on looking at frequently on your hard drive. If you take care of them they will last for many years beyond the life of your hard drive, and they won't take up space that you can use on your PC today. You can also make as many backup copies as you like when 'burning' them onto a CD or DVD.

Marco,
The problem with the skin for the camera is that it protects everything that is unimportant on the camera. It doesn?t protect the lens of the LCD screen at all.