Five Ways to Safeguard Your Digital Camera

More Tips for Protecting Your Camera

Keep the water away: Digital cameras and water don't get along. If you're trekking outdoors and want to shoot in any weather, consider dressing your camera in a rain cape. Ewa-marine offers various capes for large and small cameras that protect the body but leave the lens exposed ($20 to $200).

A rain cape will deflect drizzle away, but it won't help you if your camera takes a plunge while you're kayaking or snorkeling. If you want your camera to survive short- or long-term submersion, get a watertight enclosure. Traditional watertight camera housings cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, but Aquapac sells an inexpensive, flexible, plastic bag case ($30 to $120) that keeps your camera safe to a depth of about 10 feet.

Safeguard your photos: No matter how careful you are, accidents can happen. Though you might lose your camera at the end of a long trip, you can make sure that your photos aren't a casualty as well. For extended journeys where lots of photos are at risk, consider using a pocket-size external hard drive to back up your shots. One of my favorites is Digital Foci's Photo Safe ($149 with 40GB; also in 80GB and 120GB capacities). The device's multiformat USB 2.0 memory-card reader supports all common formats. And you can carry fewer memory cards, because you can transfer each day's images from a single card.