Help with starter camera selection...PLEASE!?!?

[rjsimp]

The answer is basically what Mike said. The Sealife is not a good camera even for the "cheap" price. I know the PT-030 housing for the SP-350 will allow you to use external lenses (similar to Ikelite with Inon adapter) and will work with most strobes optically if the strobe supports it and many strobes via TTL hard wire (except the Inon Z240 as I'm finding out).

It really comes down to do you want to spend $800 for a poor quality camera with minimal features, or do you want to spend $400 for a camera and housing that allows you to build up your setup the way you want with quality accessories that will take very good pictures while diving and when on land.

 

[alcina]

I agree with the comments on the SeaLife.

Some Canon models DO allow you to add external macro AND Wide Angle lenses, some do not. The Ikelite housings for the Canon models all allow external lenses.

 

[Dragracer]

Here is a link for a Nikon housing for the coolpix 2200, 3200, and 4100 series camera, with a $78.80 buy it now. The 3200 (3.2 mp) camera goes for $50.00 to $75.00 on ebay. For under $150.00 you should be able to buy both. The housing is well made, and the camera takes great photos. It's an excellent starter setup.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-WP-CP1-f-...2QQihZ002QQcategoryZ50506QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Gilligan]

Here is a link for a Nikon housing for the coolpix 2200, 3200, and 4100 series camera, with a $78.80 buy it now. The 3200 (3.2 mp) camera goes for $50.00 to $75.00 on ebay. For under $150.00 you should be able to buy both. The housing is well made, and the camera takes great photos. It's an excellent starter setup.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-WP-CP1-f-...2QQihZ002QQcategoryZ50506QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

IMHO I say no to buying a 3.2 mp camera. At this point in time it is too far behind the curve both in mp and technology.

 

[ianw2]

Thanks for all the outstanding advice, suggestions and (better yet) examples of your photos! Woof! The collective knowledge pool available here is incredible.
:wave-smil

So…I’ve made my decision: the Oly SP-350 with the Oly PT-030 housing. I even got to handle and shoot with the camera and housing at my local Sports Chalet this evening during the break in our PADI Wreck Diving Class. Oh man! It feels so good in my hands!

One last question: The TTL port on the Oly housing appears to be a 7 pin round Lemo-style connection. What strobes will plug into this for TTL strobe firing?

Oh…will someone STOP outbidding me on eBay, please?!?!?:nonono:

 

[jafoca]

from what i (and a friend who I advised to get the Oly) can tell you need to get some sort of ttl converter to make the Oly use an external ttl strobe. The standard port on the housing is intended to use with an oly dry strobe in a matching oly housing, and is thus proprietary or something strange like that. Take a search around to find more info.

 

[sunkarm]

ianw2, this is y i bought my sp350 with ike's housing because i don't need any converter as the housing comes with the cord to plug into the hotshoe all i need is the strobe and the ttl cord.

 

[rjsimp]

Ianw2,

Yes, that is a proprietary olympus TTL port, there was a link going around on here to a converter that would actually plug into that and then you could get a TTL cable that would go from that port to the Sea & Sea strobes or Inon Strobes.

We chose to replace that bulkhead with a new heinrichs bulkhead and converter. It gives you what you need to connect the hot shoe and use standard Nikonos compatable strobes. Recent testing that I have done though shows the Sea & Sea TTL strobes appear to be the ones that work the best with this in TTL mode anyhow.

If you did get the Ikelite housing as sunkarm stated, then you have to use Ikelite strobes also to make it work in TTL as sunkarm is finding out.

You could of course always just use the optical method for now which uses an optical sync cord to trigger the strobe. The Inon Z240 strobe works quite well as does the Sea & Sea and other strobes with optical sync. The Inon Z240 has what they call S-TTL for optical sync TTL and the YS-110 has DS-TTL for optical sync TTL. So, that may be the way to go also.

You could also just shoot with the internal flash and natural light at first also depending on your budget at this point. You have the camera and the housing, so you are good to go if you want to use this option initially. You might want to get the Inon adapter for mounting AD style lenses onto the camera for about $70. Besides the mount it gives you a nice flash difuser which also has holes in it for putting your optical sync cables once you go with strobes.

So, you really have lots of options depending on how much you want to spend.

 

[camerasunderwater]

Inon do adaptors for a range of canon housings, as they use the tripod mount you would need a longer screw to put a tray on aswell, but it does go together ok.

 

[sunkarm]

Please no more divers buying sp35) cause i need to buy one or two for spare...( even in Indonesia down here where the price is higher is running out.