Today I went on the famous “Commando Hike” here on Maui, Ill be posting some images very soon. The Commando hike is known for being a bit rugged, wet and requires climbing, swimming through dark caves and cliff diving. Its also a little dangerous and people have been killed on it before. Definitely not for children, frail or weak in courage. While I brought my Go Pro Hero 2, Im starting to feel that there are a few things I really dont like about them:

1. Lack of controls. There are 2 buttons. 2. Its maddening to go through the Menus to get it to work.
2. Battery life is awful with the LCD, lasts about a half hour.
3. You have to press and hold to turn off, eats up too much time.
4. Bulky. I cant really throw it in my board shots.

I think the Go Pro Heros are awesome and here to stay, just wasnt very impressed with it today shooting above water. You will see what I am talking about when I post the images.

Enter the Olympus Stylus TG-2:I’ve used many, many point and shoots over the years, but now that the Mega Pixel war has essentially ended (do you really need more than 10?) we are seeing many other bells and whistles added. The main thing I love about this camera is that it is water proof down to 50 feet! Thats very usable for many scuba diving expeditions, and it isnt bulky, could easily throw it into a BC pocket. Some other impressive features:

– f2.0 lens
– Drop (6.9 Feet) and Crush Proof
– 25-100mm Equivalent Focal Length
– Macro focus distance of 1 cm
– Shoots Video @ 120(!) FPS at 720p
– 5FPS still burst @ 12 MP, 60 FPS @ 3MP
– HDMI out
– GPS, HDR Mode

The TG-2 should be released on Feb 20th and I hope to have one of the very first! I will definitely be letting you guys know what I think about it. Looks like a winner, if it could only go down to 100′ (without a housing), wow, that would be amazing. I think such a point and shoot camera is coming.