tough aa battery-run digital for extended periods in the field?

[schatzi]

Hi - My sweetie's headed back for a lovely 3rd tour in Iraq early January, and I'd like to get him a digital camera for Christmas. He's infantry, and they're basically in tents in the desert; no readily available electricity for recharging, no computers for downloading images from the camera. It'll have to deal with close proximity to lots of sand & being thrown around in an overstuffed backpack and rattled around in the backs of tanks. Fun, eh? What'd be your advice for a camera that:

-runs on aa batteries
-can handle being knocked around a bit
-costs (preferably, with flexibility if it's very worth it) between $200 and $400
-is probably not a Sony (want to send him over with a 1gig card or thereabouts, since downloading images won't be an option; don't think that memory sticks go that high)

Advice very much appreciated!

Adrienne

[leadeater]

A water-resistant camera would probably keep the sand out as well. I would recommend that you consider the Pentax WR models, which are water-resistant enough that they can actually be submerged in water for a short time. There is a 3 mp and 4mp version I think, otherwise they are essentially the same.

PhilR.