It’s designed to withstand multiple drops from 2m, work underwater at depths of 3m for 60 continuous minutes and has a number of action-shooting modes. It records wide-format movies at 848 x 480 resolution (30 frames per second).

The EX-G1 will be $US300 in December, and available in either black or red. Just in time for the summer holidays.

Unfortunately, the maximum range on the G-Bound is only about 10m, so I wouldn’t take it out to the lake unless you don’t mind swimming after it. Not that it matters — it appears to be a Japan-only release for the moment. [G-Bound via Hobby Media via Coolest Gadgets]

The Form 2 has been designed by Fuseproject’s Yves Behar in collaboration with sex toy firm JimmyJane’s Ethan Imboden. According to JimmyJane, however, it is a rabbit. Their waterproof toy — made with phthalate-free platinum silicone and stainless steel — has dual motors powering its “powerful vibrating ears”. It has five power levels and four digital vibration modes, and it’s charged using a base with no cables whatsoever.

I like their suggested list of uses. It made me hungry and gave me a tingling sensation at the same time. [JimmyJane via fuseproject via Dezeen]

The Price

$US400

The Toughness

It’s rated to about three metres and for drops of 1.5 metres, which places it at the lower end of the spectrum of waterproofing. Well, it’s not the lower end, but given the shock and dust proofing and the lens reinforcement system, I’d expect the makers of the Toughbook to best cameras like the fluffy Fuji z33 and the slimmer Pentax w80 waterproofs for depth. Again, I wouldn’t call this a weakness, but if the DMC-TS1 had one, this would be it.

The Visuals

The photos were among the best in low light, high ISO and daylight. There was a simple beach/surf macro mode which worked well enough. Colours were accurate, and I only noticed a slight distortion around the edges while zoomed out. (Many periscoping internal zoom cameras have this issue.) The lens went pretty wide at a 28mm equivalent and the zoom was almost top of the class at 128mm (only the Pentax did better). Images, overall, were second best to the Canon with its traditional lens system, but this camera doesn’t have that problem of a protruding snout which makes it a lot more pocketable. The camera has optical stabilisation, which is pretty kick arse. The uncovered lens caused some photos to look smudged, which is perhaps the rule, not the exception in these cameras. Shots are at 12.1MP, but you can get variations of that in 16:9 mode. (My favourite!) As usual, water photos are generally limited in quality by water clarity and colour, so, well, above the sea shots work fine.

The TS1’s video recording happens at a high res of 720p, stabilised and recordable in motion jpg or AVCHD lite, giving you more recording time and quality. It looks better than good.

The Design

I’m into the spartan, square design. And the camera’s responsive shooting, burst modes and menus made it the easiest to use without being overly simple like the Canon D10.

Yeah, I don’t know yet

The Lumix is a fantastic all-around camera that is somewhat tough and waterproof. I’d originally gone into this review thinking it would be king, but given the shallow depth rating, I may have to wait ’til I see the new Olympus in action before I give a stronger rating. Especially at $US400. At that price, the smaller Pentax w80 rated to 4.8 metres with decent shots and shitty video looks like a lot better of a deal. And the super cheap and small Fuji z33 does, too. I don’t know. I’m not giving up on this camera yet. Strong video playback is an important thing these days. I guess it’s my camera of choice and should be yours too (for now) if you don’t go beyond three metres down and image quality and relative pocketability is a priority. Until I check out that Olympus Stylus tough 8000 which has some really solid stats all around and cost a bit less.

Great images

Great case design and menus

Great video at 720p

Despite the all-around toughness of the device, only waterproof to a middling (not poor) 10 feet

[DP Review, Panasonic, Giz]

Price
$US150

Waterproofness
Because it lives in its own magic bubble housing, its good for 4.5 metres. That’s good, but not great. The Canon D10 is good for 9 metres, and most other waterproof cameras are good for this depth without a housing.

The Photos
I won’t go too in depth here as the photos speak for themselves:

Barfy colour, contrast and grain. It’s really a video camera that can record at 1280×720 (or, 720p) at 30 frames per second in h.264. There’s 4X zoom, and it starts fairly zoomed in, making me wish it had image stabilisation. It has an LED for lighting videos, though. The stills were 5MP, for whatever that’s worth.

The Designs
Inside of its case, you can’t do much. You can’t power it down and up, either, so I ended up getting a bit of moisture in the case. No biggie, since its no loss if this thing drowns. Oh, you know what else is terrible? The thing is, like many camcorder housings, permanently stuck in a flipped out screen position, so packing this thing is a chore.

720p video

Cheap, but only a few bucks less than the much nicer Fuji Waterproof. So…

External housing

Worst images of any underwater camera

Not very waterproof considering the bulky housing

[DXG]

Summermodo is a chance for Giz to get outside and test our gear where it belongs.

The Price

The Sonim XP3 is by no means a new phone, either as a product or a piece of technology. For the US, though, it’s still semi-fresh: It’s just been announced on regional carriers around the country, and as of last week you can pick one up unlocked for about $US400 at Best Buy.

AU: The Sonim XP3 is available here in Australia for $599 outright from Crazy John’s. _-EH

The Verdict

As you can see, this thing is a brick. It’s a heavy, Tonka-yellow slab of plastic and rubber that sometimes makes calls, sends texts and visits a website or two. In a way it’s the ultimate dumbphone: It’s not annoyingly dumb—it’s actually got a decently attractive UI, and it’s worlds easier to use that the not-as-tough Casio G’zOne—and the battery life is conversely related to the phone’s feature set, just like it should be. (I’ve been playing with this thing on and off for more than a week, and I still don’t need to charge it.) Also, of course, it’s tough, like all my favourite dumb people. It’s the anti-iPhone, and not necessarily in a bad way.

When I say tough, I don’t mean to say this is a phone for people who go through a lot of handsets, or hate that their Pre’s backplate keeps getting scratched—this is in a different league, for a different type of human: Do you work on an oil rig? As a stuntman? Underwater, sometimes? Did you sign a 100-page insurance waiver before starting your current job? Have you ever watched a coworker get crushed to death, along with his phone? No?

Ok, but would you like the option to occasionally cook your phone?

Spaghetti con Tele

Sonim never claimed this wouldn’t kill the phone, and the battery clearly states that it shouldn’t be heated past 130 degrees. After a brief speaker fritz that solved itself, though, the XP3 works perfectly.

You can boil it, like pasta, for at least three minutes

It’s surprisingly pleasant to use, for what it is

The Price: $US329

The Waterproof-ness: Good down to 10 metere, making it suitable for light diving and heavy snorkel duty, as well as making it impervious to higher pressure of waves that may slap you and the camera around at lesser depths. The most waterproof camera without a housing, by far. And although they don’t do a great job of advertising it, the camera is actually good to -10C and is shockproof to 1.22 metres, so its at least as rugged as the Pentax W80 I looked at last week.

The Images: DPreview unequivocally gives this camera their top ranks on image quality, without acknowledging the issues of bulge (later on that). We looked at it in a battle with the TS1 Lumix and John found the casing (or something) to affect colour in low light shots, and the camera had problems autofocusing underwater comparatively. I only noticed that the Canon’s shots were some of the best of the bunch, reaching for a touch more exposure than the others at appropriate times in its 12MP shots. The lens is a 35mm to 105mm equivalent, which is a solid range, but not the longest in the group by any means. Unlike periscoping lenses in cameras like the waterproof Lumix, Fuji and others, there’s no lens distortion on the outside of the focal range. It has face detection and a mode that allows you to set the camera on a tripod and it will wait for you (an additional face) to enter the frame before shooting. There is also optical shake reduction.

The Chassis: The case design here is bulbous and crazy and yet so appropriate under the sea (even if obscene outside of the water). That is what affords it a sort of no nonsense dive reach of 10 metres without the use of an external housing, as well as these four cornered locking joints that are mounting points for the accessory kit: essentially a bunch of tentacles and loops so you don’t lose it. It’s crazy, and yet, totally appropriate for mounting the camera to dive belts or around your wetsuit when in a kayak. Check it out. As you can see, those straps make it much more accessible than a camera stowed inside a jacket on a ski trip or in a bag on a canoe. But note that there’s no accessory for flotation in this expensive $US130 kit, as Olympus and Pentax offer as $US10 accessories. No matter, you can easily fit those, or a keyring floatie from West Marine to make the most ocean-friendly point-and-shoot even more appropriate for life at sea.

The Interface: It’s neat that the buttons are all so well laid out and you can easily hit all the major controls while wearing dive gloves. Confession: The automatic scene detection knows when you’re shooting people or underwater, but I never discovered how to switch it to manual.

The Video: At best, it shoots 640 by 480. And everything I shot had a nasty blue tint to it.

Verdict: Good if you’re an inshore merman or mermaid, or other creature that spends the majority of its life out at shallow sea, but totally inappropriate for anything not considered an extreme or quasi extreme sport where bulge is an excusable thing when you’re trying to take the sharpest shots possible of your wet exploits.

Big, simple buttons and LCD icons. Goes to 10 metres deep. Cool accessory straps available for extra cost.

Only shoots video at 640×480. Expensive. Bulges so much it won’t fit into pockets. Awkward looking out of the water.

The Price: $US300

The Photos and Video: In sample shots on our kiteboarding trip and at the local beach, the W80 was not the best but sill surprisingly good. Compared to periscoped lens setups, the traditional internal 5x zoom lens made the 12-megapixel shots look sharper than most other waterproof cameras. The 28mm equivalent lens was sharp edge to edge. Colour was good, too.

But I noticed the lens was a little too slow to capture sharp motion underwater where light is rarer than on the surface. (The first sample shot I took in dim light triggered the flash where other models didn’t need one.) Colours and exposure was fine, but the grunge resisting lens and LCD were only marginally helpful in combating substances like suntan lotion, grime and surfboard wax. Video is captured at up to 720p, but it didn’t look so great. Face detection locked on pretty quickly, and there are several shake reduction capabilities, including digital and movie modes.

The Design: The casing is still one of the smallest and is by far the most pocketable ruggedised model around, but it’s only good for drops up to one metre. Models by Lumix and Olympus are far more rugged, although more Hummer-esque, too. Pentax’s various scene modes are amongst the most useful around, and there’s an simple button to switch between them, but that button and menu is also the only way to easily switch between video and still mode. Quite a chore.

The camera could use a design refresh, in all honesty, and more metal. But it’s also good for winter sports, rated to function down to -10 degrees Celcius. I liked Pentax’s optional floating wrist strap, too.

The Waterproofness: Good down to 4.8 metres, up from 3.9 metres in the last generation. Good enough for light to medium beach duty.

The Recommendation: My favourite rugged-ish waterproof camera when size is a consideration.

Compact considering its quasi-rugged chassis.

Decent shot quality.

There are tougher cams out there that take better photos, but only slightly so in all regards.

Could use a redesign, since the W60, W40 and W20 had similar cases.

[Giz, Pentax]

Bring your music on the water this coming summer by building your own floating speaker. All you need is a plastic container with a wide mouth (in this case a ketchup or coffee container), and MP3 player and some compact speakers.

Granted, you will have to be willing to take those speakers apart—so I wouldn’t use anything expensive here. Still, it seems to be a pretty simple project that results in a usable waterproof speaker. Check out the instructable for the full DIY directions. [Instructables via Lifehacker]

The thing about the water is that a lot of times you have other people out so having music to listen to is a way to block out people’s questions. Kidding aside, it’s one way to be in your own little world.

I use music in my regimen when it involves anything with long distances—if I’m doing a really long crossing, or something that’s going to take me a while, music is a good distraction. It’s a way to kinda let time go by.

Then I found that surfing with the right song creates a whole other situation that you don’t have when you’re not listening to the music. It’s almost like you use a different part of your brain than you normally would without music. Sometimes I feel like things slow down, and I have more time to do manoeuvres and to observe what’s happening. (I’m not sure if there’s any scientific research on that.)

Obviously, when waves are at 25 metres and our lives are on the line, we’re not listening to music. We need to hear what’s going on and, being put in a demanding situation, we need to be able to communicate. But we do it a lot on our foil boards—those hydrofoil boards that we ride—and again, with the right song, it’s a little bit like a movie with a soundtrack. Music just really turns it into a whole different experience.

Before H2O Audio and the iPod, we had music. We were hungry in the early days, so we had the Walkman. They made a little case for a Walkman, with some earphones. We’ve been using music in surfing and paddling since it first became available in any form.

Laird Hamilton has been a surfing hero since the 1980s, solidifying his reputation as the king of big wave surfing when he conquered Tahiti’s Teahupo’o Reef at its most perilous in August 2000. As an innovator, he pioneered many new activities including kitesurfing, tow-in surfing and hydrofoil boarding. He’s on the board of directors at H2O Audio, makers of pro-level waterproof iPhone and iPod cases, and has his own signature line of Surge waterproof earphones, proceeds of which are donated to the Beautiful Son foundation for autism education.