Is there a point and shoot digital

I am looking to just something simple. 5+mp that will be a point and shoot type like my current Kodak Digital. Is this even possible?? I do not want to be an underwater photog but want to get decent photos w/o going 35mm. Where do I need to start??

Thanks for the help, Fred

Try the Sealife line. Buy as little or as much technology as you're comfortable with...

There are heaps of choices for you! Even so called "advanced" digital cameras all have auto and program modes so you can do as little or as much as you like.

In the Sticky - follow the Pink Link in my sig - there are a whole heap of choices to get you started with your shopping.

I'd say hit the Fuji 30/31, the Canon A series (lots of choices for different budgets) or maybe the Oly 350. If you are SURE you don't want manual controls ever, check out the Canon SD range - tiny for carry around on land and manual white balance for if you want to get a little bit better results underwater.

There's loads......from every manufacturer! So many cameras these days have underwater housings, the choice is huge.

Have you got any manufacturer preferences? (Like Canon...Olympus...whatever) If you see a camera you like it's easy to check if there is an available housing.

Also - 5mp isn't so much these days. You could probably get a good second hand deal on that type of camera these days.

Fred,

Your camera spec was the same as mine when I started looking. I decided on a SeaLife Reefmaster Mini because it's compact and simple. Since my original purchase 3 months ago, I have added a wide angle lens and I just purchased a used strobe from another SB member. I've taken over 500 pictures and about 20 minutes of video with it. You can see examples of the photos on my flicker site Flickr: Photos from Joel Geldin (including good, bad, and too many ugly shots ).

I take it on almost every dive, even if I don't intend to take pictures (and many dives I don't). I clip it to a retractor off one of my BCD D-rings at my right shoulder. I just pull it out to shoot. I've learned to be careful of sand buildup as I do lot of beach dives.

I've learned to shoot with the built-in flash turned off to eliminate back scatter. I find the camera starts to lose image detail in deeper water (below 40') without a flash. It wasn't an issue for me, but when I saw a strobe being sold here I decided to try it. I'm looking forward to seeing if it adds or detracts from my picture taking pleasure.

I just got an underwater housing for my Sony DSC-N1 (8MP I think? The N2 is out now which is 10MP). Here are some pictures from my dive in Cancun, color corrected using photoshop (I left the wreck pics uncorrected, at 80' there is not much color to obtain, and color correction can result in mostly black-and-white photos):

Photos | greghavener.tv

You can't really add lenses or strobes to it though.

I have a Sea&Sea DX-8000G and am very happy with it. I have a strobe and a wide angle lens and it works great for me. You can see some of my pics by viewing my gallery.

Regards,

Bill

Now that you're flooded with tips on what camera you should get make sure it has manual white balancing. Manually balancing your cameras color range while diving brings up all the colors that turn to blue when you go deeper. For that you need manual w/b camera and a whitish reference point (a slate will do). It works only for depths 20m and shallower since after that you run out of red color. It just won't penetrate all the water above you.

Another tip is to get one with as little shooting delay as possible. Nothing is more frustrating than missing the perfect moment waiting your camera to shoot and or focus.

These few points are easy to test in a camera shop. Some cameras have dedicated underwater shooting modes. There's some color correction done but they are pretty much useless. You need to be able to tell your camera at any depth/time what does white look like

Kapula is correct about the shooting lag time. One of the nice things about the 8000G is that there is very little lag time. Once you depress the shutter the pic is taken. With some cameras you need to lead the fish in order to take the pic. As you can see with my shark pic, once the shark was visible on my LCD screen I snapped the pic and the result was what you see. The other nice thing about the 8000G that addresses what Kapula mentioned is the ADJ button on the back of the housing. When you push the ADJ button it takes you to a manual white balance screen that you can immediately adjust so you don't have to go through several menus to get to. Its a nice feature.

Bill

If you have a camera that can shoot in RAW you don't have to worry about the white balance - you can adjust it afterwards.