Hi Shel, I don't know if it would qualify as the toughest but I had a PZ-1 that really took a lot of abuse and never let me down. I believe it was in October 1998 that I dropped this particular camera into Price Lake on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. I was a workshop team member and dived for a participant's camera which the wind had blown over (tripod and all) while he wasn't looking. I thought I might be able to stop it before it hit the lakes edge. It was rolling down the bank and as I dived to save it I lost my balance and me and the camera hit the shallow water. I then realized that I had my own camera in my hand. Both cameras hit the shallow water and completely submerged. I grabbed them as fast as I could and they were in the water for a very short period. The PZ-1 shutter wouldn't fire and there was moisture inside the LCD panel on top. A Nikon Rep happened to be there and advised that I should dry the outside as best I could and then dry the interior with a hair dryer (low setting of course). I placed the camera in front of the automobile heater and drove home (about an hour). Once home I dried the interior as best I could with the hair dryer. I then set the camera (open back) in front of an oscillating fan overnight.
Early the next morning I was back on the Blue Ridge Parkway with the same camera in hand and it was working flawlessly. As a matter of fact it worked flawlessly until this summer when I traded it and it was still working fine (Amazing). I used this camera many times shooting all day long in the rain (and it got really wet) but it never failed. The way it was holding up perhaps I should have kept it. :) PS: By the way the workshop participant's Nikon camera didn't fair as well. Charles
