Over the last couple of years, we have accidentally destroyed two compact cameras. The first one didn’t survive the combination of cold and wet action in the snow and the second camera didn’t survive a fall into wet and smelly swampland. Oh well. Someone with brains would have used a rugged camera or water resistant camera in such outdoors conditions. Manufacturers, like Fuji, Olympus, and Pentax have models that are either waterproof or rugged or both, after all. But in these days of YouTube video and HDTV, can any of the outdoors cameras capture high-definition (HD) video? Yes, a new camera from Pentax can record HD video.

The Pentax Optio WS80 is a waterproof compact camera with 10 megapixel image sensor and 5 …