Not sure if this helps out any, but I thought I'd tell you about my (as yet untested) solution. My girlfriend and I are novice divers (20 dives each), and she's been dying for an UW camera to try out. I'm convinced that for us, photography won't be worth the extra difficulty. Especially since both of us know our way around SLRs (no, we're not experts, but SLRs have definitely affected our opinions on what a good picture looks like). Anyway, with a lot of patience, I found a cheap trial camera. For $100 on CL, I found an old Canon S70 with the waterproof case. I remember when this camera came out in 2004, it was a very well-respected P&S, with some manual settings. It's not super-high resolution (7MP), but shoots in RAW. And I won't get heartbroken if we flood it. So, anyway, you might keep that idea in mind. Premium P&S cameras will take great pics topside no matter how old they are. We have yet to dive with this (10 days out from a trip), so I don't know how terrible it will be at depth. Yes, I know that going cheap, strobe-free, and minimalist isn't a great way to get gorgeous pics. But it's a great way to try the experience out without taking out a second mortgage. If we can get REASONABLE pics with this setup, it might be worth trying out something fancier.
Good luck!
