Trying to decide on my first UW camera

[alcina]

Glad you love your new system!

Looks like Thailand gave you plenty of opportunities to take photos Love the funky pattern in #2!!

 

[jkling17]

Excellent! Glad we could help. That Canon is a very good entry compact system. Consider for your next trip adding an Inon wide angle lens and AD mount to it - this will run you $300. Not only will it allow you amazing open wide angle shots but your macro focal point will become 1 cm or so.

 

[brandnew]

I thinking about getting a camera for the same uses. I would like to thank everyone, looking through this forum has proved to be extremely usefull in my search, I had a couple of other questions though.

1) A lot of dives are going to be in depths up to about 70 feet, will a strobe be necassary?

2) How hard would it be to attach a strobe to one of the Canon A's (drifting toward the 570 also)

3) What are the advantages/ disadvantages of the canon housing compared to the iklite housings

4) One of the LDS's here has a couple of sealife d600's still in stock and said they would be willing to cut a deal on kit, is this worth looking into and what would be a good deal on for this kit.

Thank you in advance for any additional advice

Ernest

 

[jkling17]

1) A lot of dives are going to be in depths up to about 70 feet, will a strobe be necassary?

Usually a strobe is not necessary for a compact digicam setup, so long as you use manual white balance and good technique (exception - night photography).

2) How hard would it be to attach a strobe to one of the Canon A's (drifting toward the 570 also)

I know that you can get an Inon strobe for the Canon housing. That would be a good low-cost option - and you can always add it on down the road if you even feel that it would be worth your money. I think that the 570 might be discontinued at this point - so make sure that you can get the housing etc at the same time if you go that route so that you don't get stuck w/ the camera and no housing option.

3) What are the advantages/ disadvantages of the canon housing compared to the iklite housings

The Ikelite housing is a lot more money and totally unnecessary for a compact digi setup. You can't beat the Canon housing for their own camera. And you can definitely get all sorts of lenses and strobes from Inon for it.

4) One of the LDS's here has a couple of sealife d600's still in stock and said they would be willing to cut a deal on kit, is this worth looking into and what would be a good deal on for this kit.

I'd recommend that you stick w/ a nice inexpensive Canon or similar for your first uw photo endeavors. It will be great on land, underwater, is priced very well and is totally tried and true. Canon lenses (even those on a inexpensive digicam) are very very good.

My setup's a Fuji F30 but they haven't made the F30/F31fd for quite some time. For a first setup, you will be very pleased with a Canon system - and it should cost around $300 for the camera and housing together.

 

[scubadive425]

I can only answer question 1, but my dives with my Canon A570 were up to 100 feet and I did not have a strobe. I thought the pictures came out wonderfully, even the night dive pictures. So for my purposes, a strobe was definitely not necessary and I preferred not having one because it was one less thing to carry around and set up.