Inexpensive underwater camera?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

If you only want to spend $60, I suggest you wait for a number of reasons. Wait until you get more dives under your belt so your situational awareness doesn't go to pot focusing on the camera. Secondly, you can't buy a decent light and camera for that price. I don't know how much ambient light you have in the quarry dive sites, but if it is dark, it isn't worth shooting. Having said that, a buddy has the intova and it is a good camera for the price. I think Leisurepro was selling it for 150. I also have a spare housing for a canon sd960s that is rated to 200 ft. if that is of interest to you.
 
Oly and Canon have made their own cases for their point and shoot lines for years, as have some of the other brands on occasion, and once they're more than a couple years old, you can get them for very little. Tons of these have been sold. Set up a watched search on eBay for the broad category. That way you can shop to a price point on at least the case, which will be the harder part of the setup to find. Buy the name brand, no soft bags. Do check that the camera it fits isn't too old, it shouldn't be necessary to go back more than a few model years. RAW capability is a big plus, but harder to find. A case port that can take an add-on color-correcting filter is also a plus, IMO. Take the case diving with no camera in it to test it first, and learn how to prep the door seal.

Wait for one with little use, and even better if it comes with a tray, for ease of use. If the housing comes with a camera, fine, but the cameras are way easier to find.

You may be able to hit $60, $100 is probably easier to do.

As an example, I still on occasion use a Canon S70 in their housing. It's 7MP, does RAW, and the control layout and handiness is among the better I've tried. Those came to market 10 years ago, but take decent pics. I'll bet it would sell for under $100 if I put it up.

Craigslist would be a good place to look too, less buying competition.
 
I can sell you my old Canon SD550 for $50+shipmet fees, bundled with Canon housing, charger and couple of spare batteries. It is a decent 7 mpx camera and, remarkably, I've seen one guy using it in Curacao last December. Last time I've used it myself 28478042664_7a4f9140ea_o.jpg 25948108723_08ab359ab0_o.jpg was in 2016.
 

Back
Top Bottom