I'm inclined to treat my digital cameras like babies, but some shutterbugs can't avoid taking risks with their byteboxes. For those adverturers, there are cameras like the Olympus Stylus 790SW ($272-$309). When the company showcased the camera in a block of ice in March, it dramatically claimed that the unit is not only shockproof and waterproof but freezeproof, too. Ruggedness aside, however, Mathew Ruiz, who reviewed the camera at the InfoSync Web site, found the picshooter's performance middle-of-the-pack at best.

"The Stylus 790SW is an average digital camera wrapped in one of the most outstanding packages we've tested," he writes. "The combination of style and durability in the casing is phenomenal, and we loved that no matter how much we beat it up, it took shots just as well as it did right out of the box."

"Unfortunately," he continued, "right out of the box, it took pretty mediocre photographs. We were also extremely disappointed by the built-in limitations in the video mode."

"Ultimately," he concludes, "olympus delivered on their promise of a tough-as-nails, yet pretty-as-flowers camera, but was off the mark delivering what we want a camera to do: take great pictures."