Worth it to use an older camera?

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Clammy

Contributor
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Location
San Diego, CA USA
# of dives
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Hello everyone!

I have the original Digital Rebel (EOS-300) which I wanted to use as my underwater camera since it's older and I wouldn't mind as much if it flooded and I lost it.

However, the housing for that camera (specifically the ikelite) costs roughly the same as housing for newer cameras which, incidentally, cost more than my camera was new when it first came out!

I was wondering, is it worth it to buy a housing for my older camera, which cant' be used for the newer rebels (or can they?), at such a high price, or should I just purchase a newer camera, such as the Canon 40D with a live lcd view, and get the housing for that, which will cost roughly the same amount as an older housing? :confused:
 
Yup, housings rarely drop in price too much :) Most housings are good for only one model and newer models will not fit.

The 40D is such a gem of a camera you won't regret spending the cash. Forget about live view - it's the new buzz word. I've used mine, but only for an aerial shoot. Have seen no reason to use it underwater or otherwise on land.

It's really a matter of what you are happy to spend...not worried? Buy the new camera and housing to go with it. Want to just spend on the housing? Buy a housing for your 300D.

Both are perfectly capable units and will bring you lots of joy (and learning experiences!)
 
I also noticed, it's really hard to find used housings!
 
I also noticed, it's really hard to find used housings!

For a good, no longer being sold model - yep. I stalked e-bay and Amazon for close to a year before finding a housing for my Olympus Camedia 7070. Lost a few auctions, and finally found one - close to the original price.

If you like your camera, it is almost certainly worth it to buy the housing.
 
Yeah, you can post 'WTB' (wanted to buy) on both the Photography Marketplace thread here, as well as on Wetpixel's "Gear Lust - Classified" subforums. That or stalk ebay. If you're patient, a used housing may turn up for reasonable change. Once a housing gets to be a certain age people stop assuming they can even ebay them, so they might be collecting dust in garages and whatnot, so the proactive 'WTB' approach might smoke one out. If you do stalk ebay, don't forget you can also search auctions that have already ended to get an idea of what price they're going for. Assume even if you can get one used that you will need to spend some money on new o-rings at the least, and possibly a trip back to Ikelite for reconditioning. (Be a shame to flood even a voluntarily sacrificial 'old' camera on the very first trip down! :) ) So if the price isn't low enough to accomodate at least a $200 delta or so for service and whatnot, you may as well go with a new one after all.

As to whether it's worth it - if you've never shot underwater before with a DSLR (and I'm in that category myself - just assembled my rig and will take it underwater the first time this April) then I'd be of the opinion it is worth it, assuming you can find the housing inexpensively. Gives you practice with a more sacrificial asset, e.g. the old camera. Other factors to consider are what you would LIKE to upgrade to, and how much of what you have to buy (e.g. lens ports, strobes, sync cables) would be transferrable to the new system. If you eventually plan on going to a SeaTool housing then buying all Ike gear to accomodate an older camera for example would be counterproductive.

As for live view, it seems to be a pretty widely used term these days. Oly had a liveview in the E330 (which is what I've got) that truly does work like a Point-n-shoot but with a DSLR's near-zero shutter delay. They implemented this with a 2nd sensor that splits light off the viewfinder optical path, to show the viewfinder image on the screen. You can still focus, and refocus, while viewing, although the screen does not 'preview' the effects of exposure compensation, WB adjustment, etc on the image (again, all very much like a Point-n-shoot). They went away from this in the later 410, 510, and E-3 to a mode that only has the main sensor and still needs to drop the mirror to focus, so it adds a bit of shutter lag to use it underwater, and thus is probably of minimal use. (The e410 is still reportedly a very nice camera to shoot underwater with, just using the optical viewfinder.) Ditto with everyone else's live-view implementation, as far as I know. It's really for fixed-position work e.g. on a tripod. The new Oly420 upgrades this mode of live-view by doing focusing directly off the primary sensor image, without the mirror at all, so it can give you a live-view with focus capability much more like the E330, in terms of less added delay. It will still do the final fine-tune focusing using the standard technique, but should be much quicker than the e410 and 510 in this mode. Bottom line is I actually agree with alcina - although I did make liveview one of my primary drivers in camera selection for my diving and shooting style, I wouldn't recommend making that a primary discriminator in your camera selection (especially along the Canon line).
 
You might also try fantasea housings. With port for most Canon entry level DSLR's is around $1000. However with the price of the rebel xti and lens around $600 new I'm not sure what the advantage of going with the older camera would be.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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