I needed a knock around little camera...

[rpcrowe]

I was bound for Rancho Leonero on Baja California Mexico's East Cape for three days of fishing, two in an open panga and one from a cruiser...

My son-in-law returned the 350D and 28-135mm IS lens that he had borrowed but, unfortunately did not return the battery charger. I had planned to take the 350D and 40mm pancake. Since the 350D batteries are different from those of my other Canon DSLR cameras, that prevented me from using the 350D. I did not want to take my 40D or either of my 7D cameras because they were a bit too large (and I did not want to lose one of those cameras due to salt spray).

I decided to take my Panasonic video camera on the trip but never brought it on a boat. The chance of rough conditions were just too much for me to take the camera. I am glad that I did not. We hit some pretty rough seas on the way back from our second day fishing. It was so rough that green water came splashing into the boat, drenching us, and it was only the skill of the captain that brought us back safely.

I really wish that I had a camera to basically document the fish that I had caught! However, a shot of that ten foot high wave chasing our boat would have been neat also. I landed several beautiful bull dorado (A.K.A.: mahi-mahi), lots of 20-25 pound class yellowfin tuna and a great 40+ pound rooster fish which was 46 inches from tip of nose to fork of tail. This is the only image that I have from that trip. It was shot by a member of the fishing lodge beach crew and is not very good but will be a nice memory...



I decided that I wanted a knock around camera which would be very inexpensive and which I would not need to worry about water or dust and sand or loss by theft. I did not need the greatest quality imagery but, wanted a bit better than the guy on the beach was using.

On an impulse, I picked up a used Fujifilm FinePix XP Series XP60 16.4 MP underwater camera. It only cost $80 U.S. Dollars used on eBay. I plan to have this camera live in my tackle bag and to use it primarily for fishing photos.

BTW: I mentioned how indestructible were CF cards in a previous post when one of my puppies tried to use one as a chew toy. Well, for some absolutely strange reason, I had an old CF card in the pocket of my fishing shirt when I got drenched to the skin on that fishing trip. I dried it and brought it home. It still works in my cameras...

[Cantab]

Richard, congratulations on the various fish! I'd never heard of a rooster fish so now I know what they look like.

[rpcrowe]

This old battler had a comb that was pretty ragged. I caught a smaller 4-5 pound version that was pristine. Many fish, like the roosterfish, wahoo, dorado and so on lose their beautiful colors after they have been dead for a while.



I needed a camera to use when I took the fish and before I returned many of them to the sea.

[rpcrowe]

While the XP60 will not produce the image quality of a more expensive and more sophisticated camera, it has some attributes that most DSLR cameras do not - it is impervious to water, dropping and dust and sand.







Actually, for the uses I plan for it (fishing pictures and limited underwater use), the image quality of the XP60 is all I really need. It will live in my tackle box and I will have documentation of my fishing successes!