Help! I'm buying a new underwater camera outfit.

I am an amateur amateur. I have been using a SeaLife 200 or 210 (I forget), and am planning to upgrade to digital with external flash for the spring. My pictures have been mediocre at best, with the occasional good shot among the many bad ones. I like the compatibility of SeaLife equipment. I am looking at the DC500MAXX or DC600MAXX. Is either of these a good choice? I am looking for ease of use, primarily. I like that with the SeaLife, I can use the external flash for my old film camera. My husband and grandson occasionally like to take pictures, as well. Having compatible equipment would help us out a lot.

nanadiver:

I am an amateur amateur. I have been using a SeaLife 200 or 210 (I forget), and am planning to upgrade to digital with external flash for the spring. My pictures have been mediocre at best, with the occasional good shot among the many bad ones. I like the compatibility of SeaLife equipment. I am looking at the DC500MAXX or DC600MAXX. Is either of these a good choice? I am looking for ease of use, primarily. I like that with the SeaLife, I can use the external flash for my old film camera. My husband and grandson occasionally like to take pictures, as well. Having compatible equipment would help us out a lot.

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a few questions first - where do you dive? What water conditions? depth? clear ocean water or murky lake? How many dives per year do you do?
Most important - what is your price range?

here are my feelings on underwater photos - those inexpensive "camera packages" give okay results for those just looking for snapshots from once a year vacations. Don't expect great magazine quality photos from a $500-800 camera setup.
If you are really looking for better than okay, I would opt for a better camera and then check out a specialized housing for it - like Ikelite, and get a strobe to match. More $$$ but much better photos possible. I wouldn't get a camera until you make sure there is a housing available though. This is not recommending high-end DSLR which can run into the thousands of dollars, I am just saying there are mid-ranged camera rigs you can put together which will give you great photos.

There are other factors too - Namely your skills as a photographer.... like how close you are to the subject, is you have the strobe pointed correctly, if you are shooting down rather than up at your subject, etc. Those are all things that determine how good the photo really is, regardless of the camera.


robint

I dive lakes and quarries with limited, sometimes 3 feet, visibility, clear lakes with visibility up to 30 feet, Florida springs, and the ocean from West Palm beach to the keys to the Gulf. The water can be murky or very clear. Depths also vary from 15 feet in a local quarry to 100 feet in the keys. I probably dive 20-40 dives a year. As far as price, I have to stay below $1500. Under $1000 would be better.

My photography has gotten better over the years. I still have a problem with catching my subject in the view finder properly. I have that view finder that is on top of the waterproof case. I do not have the same problem with my land (digital) camera with the view screen on the back. I have the back scatter that comes with no external lighting, just the flash built into the camera. I have never used a strobe. That is one thing I am looking for in the new camera. I understand that a strobe will help a lot with the back scatter that I am getting with my current camera.

Thanks for your help and all of your questions that make me think more about this purchase.

Photography is capturing light reflected of an image and the composition there of. Underwater photography requires a disproportionate amount of light in order to capture the image without backscatter. The deeper you go and/or the poorer the visibility is, the more light you will need.

In my view, if you have adequate lighting, your can capture most any image. On the plus side, most flash systems will work with most camera systems. Underwater photography takes practice, excellent buoyancy control, patients and money.

Spend your money on diving first, then lights and finally the camera.

That type of photography sounds very similar to the type of photography that I do primarily where I live - mostly cold water, limited visibility, wide angle type photography.

Given your budget, I would rule out dSLRs. You're not going to get outfitted for that price. Look for a decent p&s system that will allow you to do three key things (find Alcina's links for some tips and recommendations on the manufacturers and models). I think for the most part, Canon and Olympus have decent offerings from which to choose, however, I'm sure there are a number of other manufacturers that can offer decent systems as well.

Three things you would want would be

- The ability to add or use a wide angle lens. Whether the lens built into the camera is wide enough, or use an add-on wet mate lens, this is important in giving you the ability to get close and maintaining the quality of light your camera or strobe(s) are throwing off. I find that most built in lenses are generally not as wide as I would prefer. Remember that water filters light and if you're more than 6 or 7 feet from your subject, you will really start to notice it in the quality of your shots. Being close gives you a huge advantage.

- The ability to set controls manually. This is important as automatic settings underwater can often be unpredicatable and more often than not, less than optimal for getting decent underwater shots. Shutter too slow is often a problem with automatic settings. Having full manual controls allows for fine adjustments of your settings. It's not that you can't get good shots under some sort of automatic control, but consistency I find is the problem.

- The ability to add on a decent strobe system. This means a housing that can support a tray with handles to mount strobe(s) and arms for external lighting. While the onboard flash can work well for things like macro, if you do a lot of wide angle photography, this means moving further from your subject than with macro, which makes your strobe and arm system more critical in terms of flexibility of setting up your lighting and minimizing things like backscatter.

Keep in mind that you don't need to do all this at once, as it can really add up. But I think it important that you start with a camera and housing that has the capability - then you can build on that as you go.

I'm by no means even close to a professional photographer but was facing a similar issue earlier this year before going to dive the Red Sea. I got in touch with Sue Drafahl (Jack and Sue Drafahl, Underwater Photography and Photoshop Instructors) and asked what I should buy since I wanted to upgarde from the Sea and Sea 750G I had. She recommended the Olympus SP550UZ for ease of use, price and quality. The price recently came down and with housing I got both for under $800. I bought mine through J&R Elec and have been extremely happy.

Here are links to J&R as well as a link to a few shots I took in the Red Sea:

JR.com: Olympus SP-550UZ 7 Megapixel Digital Camera in Digital Cameras:
JR.com: Olympus PT-037 Underwater Housing for SP-550UZ Camera in Underwater Housings:

TexasDiver53 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

robint:

Don't expect great magazine quality photos from a $500-800 camera setup.

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nanadiver:

As far as price, I have to stay below $1500. Under $1000 would be better.

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IMHO, at that price range, u/w photography has not really made much advancement in the last 5 years. I have been waiting/hoping for a new hot s**t p&s for u/w and I don't see any indication the manufacturers care to fill that void. If you want the good stuff they want you to pay more!

My favorite two p&s's for u/w are both discontinued; Oly 5050 and Canon S-70. They both have raw capabilities, work well in full auto and can be used with manual settings. The manufacturer housings (PT-015 & WP-DC40) do the job and work with many strobe systems (although no ttl). Wet mount wide and close-up lenses are available.

The 5050 is the cult camera of this catagory, with arguably the best p&s lens ever for u/w. Since the release of the 5060, no p&s lens has been as bright as the 5050 (& 4040). Both 5050 and 4040 are still used by photographers who take magazine quality photos. We are now seeing p&s cameras with twice the pixel resolution, but the relatively cheap lenses restrict the incoming data (light) resulting in pictures that are only occasionally better.

The S-70/WP-DC40 is smaller, which is nice (fits in BC pocket) and has a nice custom setting for ambient u/w that works really well in shallow clear water. This is more of a true p&s, with manual functions not so easy to use as on the Oly, but it is a very easy to take nice pictures, and has a slightly wider stock lense.

Ebay is where these cameras, housings and more are still to be found; 5050's, 5060's, 7070's, 8080's, S-70's and S-80's, although the last one does not do raw. Yesterday this 5050/PT-015 sold for $362.77 + shipping (my max bid was $361.77). Last week I won this Inon wide angle lense and dome for $476.01 + shipping (max $476.77). In the past couple months there was a 5050/PT-015 bought for less than $350 and a seller sold both Inon pieces seperately for less than $450.

I also recently won an auction for a Fuji e-900/Ike housing/Inon WAL, although my bid was under the sellers reserve price. We communicated post auction and he would have sold it for less than $700, but I was not impressed with the low light focus reviews of that camera.

There are also strobe systems and individual pieces on ebay. I do not have any recent medium price set ups suitable for this discussion to show, but I did score this over-the-top dual Ikelite DS 200/Ultralite tray & arms rig for $776.77 + shipping.


Finally, last year I got this full set-up off ebay (shown above w/o WAL and camera); 5050 (512 card), PT-015, Sea&Sea tray (Jeton arms?), Epoque WAL and dual ES-150 DS strobes, for only $800 shipped! These are not deals that are found every day on ebay, but they do happen; luck and patience are required at the very least. This was way more than I intended to say but said it I have, YMMV.

edit: not sure the ebay links will work for everyone, oh well.

If your interested I'm thinking of selling my 9.0MP Fuji e900 setup because I just got a full pro video setup. I was blown away by this camera U/W and topside. I've also got 2 different external strobes, one is a YS-90 and is a higher end model the other is a cheap compact fantasea strobe that does the job pretty well. The camera shoots in RAW and has full manual controls. I've also got a wide angle adapter for topside and a hard case for everything. PM me if you're interested and want to see some pics. Plus it's only got about 15 dives on it and is in pretty much mint conditions.

Good luck!

Billy

Well, I just went through the same thing. Had a Sealife DC100, fixed focus camera. All right, but fixed focus is no fun. Read lots of posts here, plus did other digging. I wanted inexpensive and not too many problems.

One big factor was low light focus capability, plus good ease of use. I also decided on Canon for many other reasons.

Looked at many options but finally decided on the Canon A570IS with an Ikelite housing. No strobes to start (I want something that can hang off a D-ring for now). The Canon turns out to be one of the best cameras I've ever owned, both in terms of overall quality AND ease of use. The full manual settings are a breeze to use, and on full auto it's equally excellent.

I'm waiting for the Ikelite housing right now, but all I've read indicates a good purchase. I can also add strobes in the future with ease, plus add other lenses at any time.

I'm certainly looking forward to retiring the DC100.

-S

nanadiver:

I am an amateur amateur. I have been using a SeaLife 200 or 210 (I forget), and am planning to upgrade to digital with external flash for the spring. My pictures have been mediocre at best, with the occasional good shot among the many bad ones. I like the compatibility of SeaLife equipment. I am looking at the DC500MAXX or DC600MAXX. Is either of these a good choice? I am looking for ease of use, primarily. I like that with the SeaLife, I can use the external flash for my old film camera. My husband and grandson occasionally like to take pictures, as well. Having compatible equipment would help us out a lot.

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I have to agree with sunnyboy......I recently went from 35 mm(for 12 years) to digital about 5 months ago...Pulled the trigger on the Canon A570Is(no external strobe purchased)...look @ my pictures in my sig & for all of my digital UW pics click this link..these were shot in 2 trips, Little Cayman & the Flower Gardens this past July...cost is about $400 US for camera & Canon UW housing..........

GEAUXtiger - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

btw, the Little Cayman pics have LC in their album titles & the Flower Gardens have the name Flower Gardens & The Fling in their album titles.......You'll also enjoy the video part of it by the push of a button on the UW case(all features of the camera are available UW).....