Upgrade from Canon Ixy 8

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Geoff_H

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Location
Tokyo
# of dives
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Hello

I have a Canon Ixy 8, which is a compact, 6 megapixel 4x optical zoom camera....

I have used it for a fair while done, clocked up over a 100 dives on it and been pretty impressed with the versatility of a camera with such a small lens.

While I have got some great shots (for me) I have also started to find some of the limitations pretty annoying:

* no manual focus (and the automatic one often struggles on close up subjects)
* no ability to adjust aperture/shutter sheed priority
* no RAW mode
* fairly small maximum aperature

What I love is the small form factor, battery life, quick time to turn on and quick response after taking a shot.

I would like to upgrade to something slightly bigger, not a full featured DSLR with a big casing but something a little bigger and better than what I have.... I don't want to attach a strobe as that will make the package too big for my tastes.

Any recommedations on a camera/housing that will address some/all of the issues I have without introducing any new ones?
 
G9 is screaming your name for Christmas amigo. I recently upgraded from an older Powershot to the G9. She passed seatrials down in Osezaki over the weekend with flying colors and I can find no faults with the unit whatsoever. The manual modes are intuitive and the features impressive. I got mine here at Bic Camera instead of online because if it busts here, they will fix it locally. If you order online from New York or London for example, the warranty will not be valid in Japan and you must send to the point of origin for repair. I went with the Canon housing instead of Iky because I like to travel as small and light as possible.
Cheers.
 
Is that the one that has the flash lighting in the bottom left of the photo obscured by the cashing port covering the lens? If so, an instructor friend of mine has one and he says it drives him nuts?

If it is this model, do you find it as big as issue as he does? It seems not, unless you use a strobe and then I guess the impact would be minimal?

How much for the camera and case by the way, at BIC Camera?
 
Is that the one that has the flash lighting in the bottom left of the photo obscured by the cashing port covering the lens? If so, an instructor friend of mine has one and he says it drives him nuts?

If it is this model, do you find it as big as issue as he does? It seems not, unless you use a strobe and then I guess the impact would be minimal?

How much for the camera and case by the way, at BIC Camera?


The internal flash fires through the housing and the diffuser snaps on the front of the housing lens bezel. I notice no flash funkiness going on in my photos so might be a different cam you are refering to. I think I paid around 5.2 man for the cam and 1.6 for the Cannon housing. The thing is built like a brick and will make your Ixy feel like a plastic toy. Go to Bic and play with one.
 
OK - thanks for the testimonial! I will do some research, and maybe offer to buy it from an instructor I dive with!

Any other competitors in this "space" - Olympus, Sony etc?
 
Look at the A650IS and the G9.

Both are 12 megapixels
Both have 6 X zoom
Both have image stabilization
Both appear to have the same CCD
G9 has a 3" monitor and the A650IS a 2.5" one
G9 has a hot shoe for true TTL flash but only with the Ikelite housing
G9 use a proprietary battery and the A650IS uses AA bats.
Both have the same lens sizes

Canon housing for G9 and A650IS is under $200. Yuzo in Japan sells a 67mm adapter for the Canon oval shaped housing ports

Ikelite housing for the G9 is $600 and $450 for the A650IS. Both have 67mm threaded lens ports for add-on lenses.

G9 has RAW and the A650IS does not. Just a matter of time before someone post a firmware hack at FAQ - CHDK Wiki to get RAW out of the A650IS.

IMHO if you are going to be satisfied with a slave strobe that operates off the cameras flash and a JPEG format (for now) the A650IS will do the job in the Canon housing, both for $505.86 at Amazon.Com. You may find them for less elsewhere.

NOTE: As far as I know the Canon housing for the G9 does not have a control on the back of the housing to work the dial control on the camera. The features accessed by this dial can be accessed with other push button controls but with more inconvenience. The A650IS does not have this dial feature so all the controls are accessible on the Canon housing.

NOTE: Someone correct me if I am wrong on this but the G9 does not have zoom capability in the macro mode. The lens is fixed at wide angle and you have to move the camera too and from the subject. I believe the A650IS does have zoom capability in the macro mode. I know the A640 does.
 
Cheers Gilligan... I had not heard of the A650IS.

Do you know if it suffers this same issue with the viewport blocking the internal flash? The case looks pretty similar to the G9 one to me, and the flash placement on the camera is similar too.

I don't know how big an issue this is - my instructor friend hated it and I note its mentioned on the "G9 first impressions" thread... my guess is most of the G9 users here have a strobe?
 
OK - thanks for the testimonial! I will do some research, and maybe offer to buy it from an instructor I dive with!

Any other competitors in this "space" - Olympus, Sony etc?

The G 9's little cousin(since it came out a couple months ago) is a Canon A570IS--came out in Feb '07.....can get both camera & housing for $303, no taxes & free shipping......see my sig for pics I have taken in the last 5 months with it.........good little camera for the money.....good luck.............GEAUX TIGERS............
 
Cheers Gilligan... I had not heard of the A650IS.

Do you know if it suffers this same issue with the viewport blocking the internal flash? The case looks pretty similar to the G9 one to me, and the flash placement on the camera is similar too.

I don't know how big an issue this is - my instructor friend hated it and I note its mentioned on the "G9 first impressions" thread... my guess is most of the G9 users here have a strobe?

Are you referring to the Canon or Ikelite housing ?

My understanding is Canon went to oval lens ports in order to help the lens not to block the flash. They also went to double lens ports with a gap between them to minimize fogging. My friend said his A640 housing has never fogged up.

A friend of mine has the A640 in a Canon housing and has not complained about any blocking of the on-board flash. I know if you get too close to a subject with the macro feature the lens will block part of the strobe and you will have a dark area. This is why I consider the zoom feature to be important in the macro mode. You can back away from the subject so that the on-board flash covers the entire frame then zoom in. Another option is to back away from the subject then crop the photo to fill the fame. With 12 megapixels you have plenty of leeway for cropping.

If RAW and a hotshoe is not important to you I think the A650IS in the Canon housing is the more practical and cost effective way to go. I like the G9 but if I had to upgrade at this point I likely would go for the A650IS because I don't want to spend the $600. on an Ikelite housing for the G9 and as I previously mentioned the Canon housing for the G9 does not have that dial control on the back.
 
I was talking about the Canon housing... you can see an example of the problem here (on the G9):

anemoneclose.jpg


Notice how the bottom right of the picture is dark as the viewport for the lens has obstructed the path of the flash from the camera?

My friend who has one has complained bitterly about it.

I agree with you on the solutions, I guess what I am really looking for is how much of a problem it is in real life and how much it affects the utility of the camera...
 

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