Underwater Digital Camera

Voodoo2

Hi

Im thinking of Purchasing a Digital camera for Diving but i want to also use it as a normal day to day family pics etc, has anyone got models or camera whats out there, how much & where do i look?

bigfeller

I have this http://tinyurl.com/3wctn with the underwater housing. All in all came to about €550 with a bigger memory card. Takes some pretty nice photos but underwater photography is tricky to say the least. What's your budget?

annR

I think you'll be looking at either a Canon or an Olympus. I have a Canon s30 but bought that a couple of years ago; couldn't tell you what the current prices are like.

However if you are planning on going u/w with it you should take things into account like the flash. Get one with a decent inbuilt flash because a weak flash will be useless underwater. However this will still only take close ups so you might need to add strobes if you are really going to get into it - try to find out which housings will support adding bits and bobs if you see yourself going that way.

I also like the fact that my Canon will fit into my BCD pocket if necessary. Not something I would recommend to everyone as there are risks with that - but I do like to stow it away sometimes during dives, or God forbid, emergencies.

Voodoo2

Nice "bigfeller" 7.1mega Pixels wow you must post up a nice shot you took with it! My Budget is prob around the 500 yo yo mark so any advice on pro's and cons are good, AnnR thanks for the info, is the quality good from yours?

annR

Mines only a 4 megapixel but quality is perfect even for photos printed on A4 paper. The megapixel thing isn't really that important unless you are planning to take large dimension photos IMO.

CJhaughey

I second that, I have the Canon S50 now obsolete 5Mpix and the waterproof housing.
I have used mine a good bit for UW photography and a lot more normal stuff and I have to say that Canon are really really good for Colour rendition, I have also used a Nikon Coolpix 5000 and the colour is not a patch on the Canon.
The new model is the S70 7.1 Mpix which is unneeded in my view.
Forget Strobes unless you want to do a lot of UW work.
Most of my best pics are from 10m or less and didn't need a flash.

Voodoo2

What sort of price range we talking about and where can i see these cameras before i buy

smcmullan

Check out Divernet Diver Gear Top 25

Voted in 7th place overall was : Olympus mju 600 Digital Camera and PT029 Housing.

I dived with a couple of Danes in Cyprus this year, one of whom has this. Very snazzy results. The owner mentioned that it would cost in the region of €800 in Denmark.

Voodoo2

Got this link http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_stills/olympus/pt029.html

Costs 329.99 GBP United Kingdom Pounds = 482.716 EUR not bad I say!

scuby

i have an olympus mju400, have taken a few photos this summer in castlegregory around the maherees, will post it when i get home, at work at the moment.. bought it in cork about 2 years ago. i also wanted to get a camera that i could use every day and take some diving photos. people were always asking what did we see under water, as they thought that diving here in ireland was not that good, or that we could not see a thing !
By the way did anyone see the edition of National Geographic a few months ago where they did a editorial on "underwater Ireland", some great photos from around the skelligs, gave a great review of diving in ireland

Voodoo2

Please do post 1 or 2 just to see the quality & dept of field!

scuby

sorry for not posting the photos, having some tech difficulty with them at them moment, trying to compress them so that i can send them on. they are still a little too big

Voodoo2

Just Reduce size by 50% in some image editing program, dont worry about having them at full res or anything! thanks

Benny-c

I bought a Olympus mju600 for €299 in Dixons in Limerick & got the PT029 from www.leisurepro.com , they being in the USA, this cost me incl P&P €200(approx). I havent used it on a dive yet (i was supposed to go on one off Valentia today but had to work:( ). I hope to use it within the next few weeks and will post the photos if you want.

Voodoo2

If you could that would be great if you could post them up, heard the viz near valentia was supposed to be great, before this messy rain we got.

Im in a bit of a pickle as it comes to cameras, I want a dual purpose one for Normal use and diving, For normal use i want at least 10x optical zoom with decent mega pixal and a water proof case, this one http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/s1is.html has 10x but its 3.2MP and i has a waterproof case, but the updated version of this is the http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/s2is.html it has 12 optical zoom and its 5mpixal but no waterproof case.

I appeal to everyone in the know, if you see a camera with these features let me know

• Greater or equal to 10X zoom
• greater or equal to 4 Mega Pixal
• Would be nice to fit an external Top Flash
• And a waterproof housing

Benny-c

The Olympus mju 600 has only a 3 x optical zoom (whatever that means!)
but has 6 mpixels.

I was buddied with a german diver in lanzarote in sep who had the camera & housing and the photos seemed ok to me, he had no strobe and used he existing camera's flash. Mind you the vis there was 20m & we were regularly 35-40m (the casing is rated to 40m).

Voodoo2

Well 3x optical means the zoom is done with the lens of the camera, digital is like you use the magnifine glass on your favourite photos editing software, just wann a know i guess is 3.2 megapix good enough?

Benny-c

The Olympus mju600 has 6mega pixels

Voodoo2

Does anyone know if 3.2 is good enough to print A4 ive googled it yes but i just wanna know from experience?

annR

Go along to a shop like PC world which sells both printers and camera and ask them for a demonstration of the quality of A4 prints from a 3.2 camera.

Voodoo2

True, There are loads on 3X optical Cameras on the market but a decent zoom ones dont have the potential for Underwater cases, or im doing too much reading and flooding myself with too many cameras :-)

Miss Polaris

Just tried out this camera http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/dc500_elite.html from SeaLife - I liked the housing as it was rated to 60m rather than 40m as the majority of others are. Its nice to use, digital really lends itself to underwater photos :-)

Its 5mp - but you should be aware that it is not the number of Megapixels these days thats important - it is a factor but Lens quality, CCD/Sensor size are far more important - there is no use capturing 5mp of data if your sensor cannot process it!

The Nikon Coolpix in housing was a close second to this - the 40m rating let it down.

HTH