Anybody recommend a good digital, waterproof camera? I would like to spend less than $300 - if at all possible. Suggestions?
Tmornstar

The only waterproof recommended and used by paddlers is the Pentax Optio.

The Olympus sucks- I bought one by mistake. Lasted less than a year. Image quality was noisy, very low quality.

I've switched to a Nikon non-water proof that I keep in a baggie and a Pelican box. I take it out when I want to use it. As it's not waterproof I'm limited to smooth seas.

Good luck.

I have the Pentex Optio W60 and love it. http://www.pentaximaging.com/digital-camera/Optio_W60_-_Ocean_Blue/ I am not nice to it but it forgives me and keeps on working.The video quality is not the best but I didn't buy it just for video. You can see soom video I took with it on Youtube.com. Just put "paddlingfan1" in the search bar. The photos are great!I have taken thousands of photos with mine out paddling my Clipper Sea 1. In fact we now use it for all our photos. My wife like it because it fits anywhere. I use the Joby Gorillapod to attach it to the end of a canoe paddle to shoot paddling video. http://www.rei.com/product/749128 I bought it because the zoom is 5x and I'm glad I did. I like to shoot photos of wildlife and it works great for that most times.

I reccommend the Pentax Optio too - had one for a few years now I own a water proof digital video/photo camera. A Sanyo Xacti - The camera can be set for 10 MGP shots and the video is good quality too - not HD though. BOught for under $400 CDN. GREAT size to be tucked in my PFD.

If you want to do Video's, Still Pics, sequence pics etc....here is the one. It's a GoPro HD Camera. Here's a pic of mine on my ATV Helmut, but it can be just as easily mounted on your kayak hull, paddle, wrist, headband etc. Options for mounting are endless and very secure. It would take a baseball bat to knock it off mt ATV helmut. Last time out I snagged a branch and it almost ripped my head off. The camera didn't budge a mm. This thing is amazing. Tough as nails in it's case and waterproof to 160 ft. An elephant could walk over it and not hurt it. A full battery charge will record approx. 2.5 hours of video. There are four resolution settings...3 are HD, and one id WVGA. I stick with WVGA to keep the file sizes smaller. A five minute video recorded in WVGA format will be approx. 450 MB, and they are sharp as a bell. I load all my ATV trips to YouTube to show the world, and will be doing the same for Kayak trips this summer. With a 16 GB SD card, you can record several hours at the WVGA setting. Less if you go HD. Many different options and packages available. Just Google "GoPro" for lots more info.

GoPro HD Camera

I bought a fujifilm xp 10 at Factory Direct for $70. I have had it for 2 years. It works great and takes great pics. It is good up to 10 feet underwater and even has an underwater mode setting. It is a small camera that I usually keep in my PFD.

I use the Panasonic Lumix. It's a tough little camera and takes great pictures, very easy to use with lots of settings.