As the underwater age approaches, a waterproof digicam is a must

WITH ALL the recent data about global warming and climate change, some electronic kit manufacturers are thinking about about water and increasing sea levels.

While computers are sadly still not water proof - otherwise I'd be typing this from a swimming pool in the middle of the Southern hemisphere summer - an increasing number of small devices has started coming out in waterproof flavour, even mobile phones. So whether you have a tendency to drop your gadgets into water, or if you like taking pictures at the pool, or if you are, ultimately, a sailor, fear no more. I found a gorgeous digicam, sunk deep inside a fish tank - and working - at a local digicam exhibition.

I want a waterproof notebook to type while swimming

The eye-grabbing fish tank display from Olympus showcased its Stylus 720SW, an attractive and slim 7.1-megapixel waterproof camera, able to survive up to 10 feet below water without any bulky enclosure, and even while powered on. The good news for The Cheap Basket is that this camera, announced by the firm a year ago, went from its original list price of £300 in March 2006 down to a more attractive £215 price tag nowadays - at time of this writing on Amazon UK - or £152 - or $300 - if you purchase it from American shores. Sporting a seven-megapixel CCD, it's still well within 2007's resolution sweet spot for home use, and features 3x optical and 5x digital zoom.

Jacques Cousteau would have loved this one

But since this column is "The Cheap Basket" after all, and it caters to the Cheap B*stards among you, chances are that even the £152 price tag is still is not low enough for you, in that case, you can get inexpensive waterproof hard cases for your existing digicam for around $15 greenbacks plus shipping over here, and flexible, vinyl cases starting at $29.95, over there. Scuba diving kit not included.µ

"There was this boring movie where this sonorous blowhard said the ice caps were melting, but it was called Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, so no one paid any attention" -- Chris Kelly

See also:
Flat screen tellies add to climate woe
Bush spinner calls for NASA site censorship

L'INQs
London and New York could be submerged if carbon dioxide levels continue to rise
LG dives into waterproof mobile phones
Melting Ice, the threat to London's future
Resistance to Global Warming now melting quickly
U.S.: Oil, Pollution and the Kyoto Protocol
Jan-31-07: Authoritative report to confirm global warming
Ten Years to reverse global meltdown
Davos puts climate change at the fore
Washington wakes up to Global Warming
Livingstone: London Will Be 'World Leader' in Climate Change Battle
London Suburb Drivers To Be Charged Based On Carbon Emissions
Climate change message in Jim Morrison song
Rising sea levels doom beaches, geologist warns
South Pacific island-nations endangered by rising sea levels
Climate change may crush California wine industry
Climate change means hunger and thirst for billions: report
Groups allege pressure to edit reports on global warming
London 'under water by 2100'
Eco exhibition opens in London

"Global Warming is a myth" -claim
To stop people from buying SUVs to ward off the myth of global warming (...) is absurd" -claim (2003)
If it is true that North Polar ice is melting, this cannot raise the sea level one iota" - claim (y2k)
Global Warming is a media-fueled myth (oh really?)