I'm looking at two cameras. I won't say which ones as a lot of people have strong brand biases. I will just give some key specs and findings that I've discovered testing both cameras topside.
This camera will be used for underwater only about 1/3 of the time. I'm tired of having two cameras.
Camera A:
Size: Compact. Bigger/heavier than Canon Elph and Panasonic Lumix but still pocketble although maybe a tad uncomfortable from weight standpoint in a pair of beach shorts.
Lens: Leica F3.3-F4.9 / 28mm-228mm zoom lens, yes in a near ultra compact! - Don't give it away!) No barrel distortion, purple fringing, or corner softness - awesome lens although a little slow at 28mm.
CCD - 7 megapixel. It's actually an 8 megapixel CCD that shoots 7MP at 4:3 and 8 MP at 16:9 aspect ratio so it isn't just cropping the CCD in wide mode! (crops on the sides in standard 4:3 mode)
Video: Wide screen capable (848x640 30fps) and looks really good but poor audio quality (not big deal for underwater but sucks top side)
Picture Quality: Superb - A bit aggressive on noise reduction on ISO 400 but I think up to ISO 800 is usable on up to 8x10 prints with a little post processing. Colors are near spot on.
Indoor Flash Picture Quality - Not good. Gives flesh tones a blue/gray tune. Need to set Color mode to 'Warm' which makes a tad to warm but decent. Flush is fairly week, photos seem underexposed a tad without changing exposure.
Camera B:
Size: Smaller than A, ultra compact. Easily pocketable.
Lens: F4.6-5.9 / 28mm-105mm zoom (less zoom than A but faster at wide end, slower at tele end.) Optics good but has slight barrel distortion (only 1.1%) and a very small amount of smearing in the very ends of the corners. Not noticeable unless you really look for it - very minor.
CCD - 8 megapixel
Picture Quality - Amazing. Colors, exposure, focus, are all spot on in most all scenarious with only rare need to adjust camera settings. It has better in-camera processing than (A) which provides a better balance of noise reduction without losing detail up to 400 ISO. Beyond 400 it has much more noise where camera A just smears everything. I would prefer to do my own noise reduction at that point anyway.
Indoor Flash Photos - Spot on. Great color and exposure. Slightly stronger flash than (A).
Cost on these is roughly the same adding camera plus underwater housing.
I'm basically wondering which one will be the better underwater camera, and given it is used as one only 1/3 of the time, is it better enough to go for or is the other camera probably going to do better as an all around camera and do fine under water.
I've previously shot with a Canon S50. It's done well underwater but I've found I've had to use ISO 400 a lot which has a lot of noise otherwise fish are usually too far away to use zoom and not get motion blur. I'm just a casual underwater photographer so I'm not considering external flash and that sort of thing.
It seems I have a choice between larger zoom in a larger camera with slightly better lens, versus a smaller camera with only 3.8x zoom and a tad slower at the tele end , but seems to take better all around pictures in various scenarious out of the water.
Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
This camera will be used for underwater only about 1/3 of the time. I'm tired of having two cameras.
Camera A:
Size: Compact. Bigger/heavier than Canon Elph and Panasonic Lumix but still pocketble although maybe a tad uncomfortable from weight standpoint in a pair of beach shorts.
Lens: Leica F3.3-F4.9 / 28mm-228mm zoom lens, yes in a near ultra compact! - Don't give it away!) No barrel distortion, purple fringing, or corner softness - awesome lens although a little slow at 28mm.
CCD - 7 megapixel. It's actually an 8 megapixel CCD that shoots 7MP at 4:3 and 8 MP at 16:9 aspect ratio so it isn't just cropping the CCD in wide mode! (crops on the sides in standard 4:3 mode)
Video: Wide screen capable (848x640 30fps) and looks really good but poor audio quality (not big deal for underwater but sucks top side)
Picture Quality: Superb - A bit aggressive on noise reduction on ISO 400 but I think up to ISO 800 is usable on up to 8x10 prints with a little post processing. Colors are near spot on.
Indoor Flash Picture Quality - Not good. Gives flesh tones a blue/gray tune. Need to set Color mode to 'Warm' which makes a tad to warm but decent. Flush is fairly week, photos seem underexposed a tad without changing exposure.
Camera B:
Size: Smaller than A, ultra compact. Easily pocketable.
Lens: F4.6-5.9 / 28mm-105mm zoom (less zoom than A but faster at wide end, slower at tele end.) Optics good but has slight barrel distortion (only 1.1%) and a very small amount of smearing in the very ends of the corners. Not noticeable unless you really look for it - very minor.
CCD - 8 megapixel
Picture Quality - Amazing. Colors, exposure, focus, are all spot on in most all scenarious with only rare need to adjust camera settings. It has better in-camera processing than (A) which provides a better balance of noise reduction without losing detail up to 400 ISO. Beyond 400 it has much more noise where camera A just smears everything. I would prefer to do my own noise reduction at that point anyway.
Indoor Flash Photos - Spot on. Great color and exposure. Slightly stronger flash than (A).
Cost on these is roughly the same adding camera plus underwater housing.
I'm basically wondering which one will be the better underwater camera, and given it is used as one only 1/3 of the time, is it better enough to go for or is the other camera probably going to do better as an all around camera and do fine under water.
I've previously shot with a Canon S50. It's done well underwater but I've found I've had to use ISO 400 a lot which has a lot of noise otherwise fish are usually too far away to use zoom and not get motion blur. I'm just a casual underwater photographer so I'm not considering external flash and that sort of thing.
It seems I have a choice between larger zoom in a larger camera with slightly better lens, versus a smaller camera with only 3.8x zoom and a tad slower at the tele end , but seems to take better all around pictures in various scenarious out of the water.
Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.