which camera and case to get

gajeep94yj · Aug 17, 2005

I know I am probably going to get thousands of different opinions and that's fine. what I am looking for is a small digital camera that I can also get an underwater housing for. It need to be digitial and atleast 4MP. I have a full D-SLR, but I don't want to take that underwater. I just want a nice little digital camera, one that I can put in my pocket on the and take descent surface pics.

I am not a professional photograph and don't plan on being, I just want to document my trips. a point and shoot setup is all I need, but I want that ability above and below water.

this is what I am looking at so far:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-8210903-2924705?v=glance&s=photo&n=507846
it's a case for a olympus stylus type camera. a dive friend has one of these and it's perfect as far as the size.

I can get that camera and case for around $250. I would like to stay in that price range.

thanks in advance for you opinions!

RonFrank · Aug 17, 2005

gajeep94yj:
I know I am probably going to get thousands of different opinions and that's fine. what I am looking for is a small digital camera that I can also get an underwater housing for. It need to be digitial and atleast 4MP. I have a full D-SLR, but I don't want to take that underwater. I just want a nice little digital camera, one that I can put in my pocket on the and take descent surface pics.

I am not a professional photograph and don't plan on being, I just want to document my trips. a point and shoot setup is all I need, but I want that ability above and below water.

this is what I am looking at so far:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-8210903-2924705?v=glance&s=photo&n=507846
it's a case for a olympus stylus type camera. a dive friend has one of these and it's perfect as far as the size.

I can get that camera and case for around $250. I would like to stay in that price range.

thanks in advance for you opinions!

There is really nothing that I have used and can recommend in your price range. The case you show is for an Olympus Stylus 300/400/410. The 400, and 410 camera bodies sell for well over $200, in fact closer to $300, so I'm not sure where you are seeing a body and case for $250. The 300 does sell for much less, however it's a 3mpix camera, and you say you want at least a 4mpix model.

My Cuz used a Canon A seriers camera while we were diving in FL, and her results were very nice. I think hers was the A95, and that camera runs around $280 WITHOUT a case.

You should do a search on the photography fourms as this topic has been covered very recently in many different threads.

Peter Guy · Aug 17, 2005

Although not 4 MPix -- the Minolta DiMage Xg IS a great pocket camera, very handy, pretty good optics, is 3.2MPix. Sea & Sea makes a housing for it. (It also has a decent, 30 fps, movie mode using Quicktime -- about 20 minutes on a 1 gig chip.)

Walmart online has the camera for $195 and Adorama the housing for $199 (more or less).

I got it this spring for rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and have used in in Puget Sound (in an UW Specialty class --( www.tsandm.com/uwclass2 ) and Maui ( www.tsandm.com/maui05 ).

I really like it as a land camera, it is OK as an UW one (I'm having some issues with using the LCD -- perhaps I need a shade? because sometimes it is hard to get a good image of what I'm shooting). Also the shutter lag is noticeable -- but then that is compared to my Dig Rebel that I hope to get underwater once some $'s free up.

BIGSAGE136 · Aug 17, 2005

http://www.wetpixel.com/

Dive in! My advice....Bite the bullet. Ikelite your current camera.

outback · Aug 17, 2005

I'm using a Pentax S4i (4 Mega) with the OWP-2 Housing for it. Good little travel camera - the camera itself fits in an Altoids can, and even with the housing is still nice and compact. It can take an adapter that fits Sea&Sea add on lenses. Turns out some nice shots in ambient light and with a little level adjustment in a photo editor, can work out well. Housing around $200, camera around the same.

Some shots from Roatan taken using the camera without wideangle attachment at http://www.chumclub.org/gallery/browseimages.php?c=15&userid=

alcina · Aug 17, 2005

The Olympus Stylus and the Canon Axx series are great systems.

Have a look at www.dpreview.com to compare camera models side by side.

I'd look for a close focus distance as if you are not going to add a strobe you will be lighting with the internal flash and you'll need to be quite close for those POW colours.

Check out PhotoTJ. legopacific and other users' galleries for some idea of what the Canons can do. Can't remember off the top of my head who is using Stylus.

I think you'll have to spend more than $250 for a camera and case - the Canon cases are around $170ish. Have fun shopping!

cannon fodder · Aug 17, 2005

alcina:
The Olympus Stylus and the Canon Axx series are great systems.
!

I looked at these before getting the stylus. The canon has more manual overide settings, the olympus has a bigger screen. The olympus costs more, but the housing is cheaper. You will probably be happy either way, I wanted to be sure that I could see the screen, and olympus's 2.5 incher guarantees that.

Derek

gajeep94yj · Aug 17, 2005

I guess I should have specified, the stylus 400 I was looking at was a refurbished one.
http://www.fotoconnection.com/viewitem.php?IndexID=3853&RefTag=froogle
$139, found it off amazon

case was $119 from leisure pro:
http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/Item...U/DescSort_0/Filter_2=864&1=877/OLMPT016.html

which camera and case to get

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