Cameras for Dark and Wet Locations?

Lorenzo de Medici asks: "In August I have the great pleasure of being able to hike all sixteen miles of the Zion Narrows. I'd like to take along a camera, but the problem is that the water level in the Narrows can be unpredictable, with flash floods arriving with little warning. Light levels tend to be low as well. Does anyone have any advice on what kind of camera I could bring that would survive yet still bring in decent photo quality?"

Waterproof

[AtariAmarok]

Was there recently.... would recommend an actual waterproof camera, for the chance of dropping it, and the danger of flash foods in the canyon. Pack a couple of those cheapy Kodak disposable water cameras for extras. However, I don't know what to recommend for a high-quality camera that is waterproof.

Digital or Film?

[linuxwrangler]

You neglected to specify digital or film. In general, many cameras of both types have optional waterproof housings. For both light-gathering ablilty and waterproofness weight will be an issue.

For landscape type photos you may be better off concentrating on camera shake instead of lens/film speed. Take a pocket tripod or clamp. I've shot quite reasonable night photos with an old digital camera just by using the tripod hand-held against a wall or tree.

For film, choose your camera based on how much weight you are willing to carry vs. the f-stop of your lens (the larger your light gathering opening the lower light you can shoot in for a given ISO but of course that is also going to make for a heavier camera). Once you have settled on that, take film of a high enough speed to get the shots you want.

For digital, I've always liked the Olympus cameras. IIRC, the Olympus C-series support ISO equivalents up to 400 and have optional waterproof housings. Also check out the Olympus "Stylus Digital" series of "ultra-compact, metal, all-weather digital" cameras that according to Olympus "can be used in rain, snow and any other situation Mother Nature throws at it"

Waterproof security cams

[linzeal]

We use two of these 50 dollar deals [amazon.com] in the front of our house with a motion detection software package called Tincam that emails all of us photos so we can see what is going on with the pad while we are away at school and work. We have all of our computers running this software as well with a cheap webcam. Currently we have had only one suspicious person come up to our window and look in but I was there in 10 minutes after the email came to check it out. I could not imagine having children alone without something like this, and I'm just a bachelor.

It was a deal considering we would of instead had bought one of these 250 bad boys [amazon.com].