need advice for my first underwater digital

DiverKKC · Oct 28, 2006

Thanks in advance for any help, I appreciate it.

I'm looking to buy my first underwater digital. I would like to purchase a quality "first" camera, but can't afford the thousands needed for a high-end digital and housing. Can any experienced photographers please recommend a digital/housing/strobe setup on a budget of around $1,000?

I have a good deal of on-land 35 mm experience...shoot a lot of nature/wildlife while hiking. I normally shoot manual b/c I like to set the aperture & shutter speed to get the desired effect. I would rather not have a point-and-shoot if I could affort not to.

So, basically, I'm looking for a digital, housing, strobe set up with manual exposure option, price range, and anyone's experiences with the cameras recommended.

Eventually, I want a nice 35 mm digital setup where I could change lenses underwater...and help there is also much appreciated.

Thanks so much.

sunkarm · Oct 28, 2006

I have now oly sp350 . which is just discontinued but still avauilable in stock. It's great cause it has:
-TTL lighting function,
-Raw format(this is great so u can adjust the photos on the computer not while u r diving cause u have limited time u/w),
-8mg pixels,small and travelable.
-It can use either Ikelite housing or oly housing.
-manual mode
-custom mode
-great movie mode
-many fixed scenes choices (used for land or u/w)
-big lcd screen 2.5 inch
-slave strobe settings
-manual control of white balances (if u don't wanna save in Raw format)

HowardE · Oct 28, 2006

DiverKKC:
Can any experienced photographers please recommend a digital/housing/strobe setup on a budget of around $1,000?

I have a good deal of on-land 35 mm experience...shoot a lot of nature/wildlife while hiking. I normally shoot manual b/c I like to set the aperture & shutter speed to get the desired effect. I would rather not have a point-and-shoot if I could affort not to.

So, basically, I'm looking for a digital, housing, strobe set up with manual exposure option, price range, and anyone's experiences with the cameras recommended.

Eventually, I want a nice 35 mm digital setup where I could change lenses underwater...and help there is also much appreciated.

Thanks so much.

There isn't a Digital SLR (I assume that's what you mean by 35mm digital - 35mm refers to the film in a film camera, and there isn't any film in a digital, so it's just called a DSLR) that would allow you to change lenses underwater.

There are however lenses available from INON that can be put onto a Point and Shoot camera, like the OLY SP350 or even a Canon S70 (also discontinued but still available, with all of the features that sunkarm recommended...

Either one of these cameras + an external strobe would come in under $1000. Which strobe is a whole other story though... you need to consider what and how you want to shoot.

Of course, there is http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=156914 thread for help too...

Good luck... ask as many questions as you want...

rjsimp · Oct 28, 2006

I would also reccommend the SP-350. At costco it is $199, the housing from B&H is $189. The only thing left is to decide on the strobe/arms/tray you want to use. There are a lot of options here and you can get something for the remaining $600 quite easily. You won't be getting the biggest baddest strobe for that $600, but you will definitely be able to get something that will produce very good results. You might also want to make sure the strobe will do TTL for the future if you decide you want to use that feature of the SP-350.

Gilligan · Oct 28, 2006

Take a look at the Canon A640 and the Ikelite housing for it. The camera is 10 megapixel which will come in very handy if you crop a photo. The Ikelite housing comes with a 67mm lens port so you can add on wet mount lenses. It is also a more "beefy" housing than the Canon one.

The Canon does not have RAW or a hot shoe.

If I was to upgrade my point-and-shoot today the A640 would be my first choice.

DSLR is a whole other ball park in both quality and $$$$. There is no comparison to a point-and-shoot camera.

DiverKKC · Oct 29, 2006

Thanks, folks. Yes, I meant digital instead of 35mm. I've shot a Canon Rebel 35 mm for years on land and am a bit brainwashed...that was a typo.

I appreciate the info. I'll research the oly sp350, sounds like it might be what I would want.

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions. There are so many options it's a little overwhelming for the newbie.

Thanks again,

-KKC

alcina · Oct 29, 2006

Yup, the Oly 350 or the Canon A series 620, 640, 710 to name a few recent ones) will likely be good candidates for you. In the pink link in my signature there are links to images and discussions on some of those models as well as some others.

Have fun shopping and let us know how we can help!

sunkarm · Oct 29, 2006

After u buy the digital camera , the 2nd thing u might wanna consider is which housing u wanna use. both canon 640 and sp350 have ikelite's housing. There r many divers ( even though it may not represent majority of the divers) had bad expereince with olympus housing. but all my diving buddies down here in indonesia , never had problems with its olympus case. i use the ikelite's housing because the difference of the price down here was only less than US$150. plus ikelite's give international warranty and nearly lifetime spareparts availability. only the probelm is the strobe too expensive..

DiverKKC · Oct 30, 2006

Thanks, Alcina. Those links have a ton of great information...I'm still reading.

need advice for my first underwater digital

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