Entry-Level Underwater Camera???

Can anyone give me some feedback on a decent underwater (digital) camera that will take good photos in the Massachusetts (New England) waters?

What cameras have you folks had good luck with? Any special recommendations when considering purchasing a digital camera? Are large flashes necessary for the sometimes merky NE waters?

I have had some horrible results with the "cheap" cameras. But still feel compelled to
share the underwater experience with my non-scubadiving friends.

I was looking at the SeaLife DC 300 3.3MP Digital camera, but was curious what others are using. Keep in mind I'm a total novice with a camera..

thanks all
~stu

What are you looking to spend, and what are you looking to achieve?

In photography light is everything, so UW an external flash may be the difference between a good image, and a better one vs. the camera...

Of course no camera regardless of what one spends is going to take good photo's if the user screws up the settings or focus.

Some popular choice for UW photography range from the Pentex Optio line, to the Canon A/S seriers to the Every popular Oly 5050/5060/8080 and soon to be 7070 line. Nikon also has some PnS camera's that have inexpensive housings I believe their 5200 type camera.

I guess I'd like to keep it around $300. I'm not a pro and not expecting to be. Any recommendations/feedback between digital and 35mm? What about auto focus versions?

I guess I'd prefer digital so that I can delete the bad ones (I expect to be taking a lot of bad ones, lol)

I got a Canon A40 when those were still available in stores (3 years ago) and got a housing for it online. Overall I'm very happy with it, but the internal flash is next to useless in anything but the clearest water and closest range. In good ambient light, it kicks tookus.

I got it for about $500 altogether, but since it's obsolete, you should be able to pick one up for much cheaper. A quick look on Ebay shows the camera for as low as $40, and the housing for $135.

The biggest problem with it IMHO is that there doesn't seem to be a good way to attach an external strobe flash. It's not so much the power of the internal that's a problem, but the angle. If the flash is aimed at the subject from the same angle as the lens, any particles suspended in the water between you and the subject will light up and fill your image with bright speckles called backscatter. If you can, for example, aim an external flash at a 30 degree angle to the lens/subject line, the flash will illuminate the subject but the light reflected off the particles won't be reflected toward the lens, giving you MUCH clearer results.

I wish it was an option I had, and I occasionally daydream about solutions to the problem.

Take a look at a Sealife Reefmaster DC 300 or 310. You can just get the camera but the external flash, at around $170, will get you better pics. Great place to start and you can add on to that camera as you get better.

I'd head in two directions:

1) to the UW Photo section of this board and wander through the various brand areas - when people get a new camera they usually post and it's pretty easy to see a lot of options and comments there.

2) to the Canon A series cameras. Had them for years, love them to bits. They are outstanding for simple auto functions, allow complete manual control in the housing (essential), allow add-on lenses and strobes if you want to later on and are tough.

You can see some results in my gallery (A75) and in LukeRob's gallery. PhotoTJ uses the A series, too. I am sure there are lots of others, but I can't recall off the top of my head.

When you do find a post in the UW Photo area on a camera that interests you, click on that user's gallery to see if they have any examples you can have a peek at.

All in all, I would stay away from the Sea Life stuff and get a standard consumer digital and manufacturer's housing. Canon then Olympus then Sony is my preference of the big three. For more money the Fuji 810 should go in there, but it is more expensive. Feel free to PM if you have more questions.

You can get the DC310, which is slightly nicer than the DC300, for about $350. The DC310 has more buttons on the back to view pics or setting through the LCD viewer.


I've got the 35mm version of this camera and will most likely soon upgrade to digital version of it.

plan on taking lots of close shots i.e. 4' or less. No matter what kind of flash you have, the particulate matter will make most longer shots into "blizzard" shots in my experience. I use a Canon A20 and like it.

MSilvia:

The biggest problem with it IMHO is that there doesn't seem to be a good way to attach an external strobe flash. It's not so much the power of the internal that's a problem, but the angle. If the flash is aimed at the subject from the same angle as the lens, any particles suspended in the water between you and the subject will light up and fill your image with bright speckles called backscatter. If you can, for example, aim an external flash at a 30 degree angle to the lens/subject line, the flash will illuminate the subject but the light reflected off the particles won't be reflected toward the lens, giving you MUCH clearer results.

I wish it was an option I had, and I occasionally daydream about solutions to the problem.

Click to expand...

There are several flashes that can be triggered by the internal flash. This is at least true for most newer digitals, but I believe for any period.

The idea then is that the external flash is used to illuminate the subject, and the internal flash is used to ONLY trigger the external flash. So the key then is to power the external flash at a lower setting vs. the External flash. This can be done in a few ways. The easiest is to use flash exposure compensation, and reduce the interflash power by several stops vs. the camera aperture and external flash setting. Another way would be to set the camera and external flash so that the internal flash at full power never really records during the exposure. Another method would be to block most of the external flash.

Yes well since I am still in the equipment buying stage of scuba diving; I'm buying my second wet suit. The reason why is that during the off season, (the winter) I do alot of weight lifting, and no matter how slow I go at it my shoulders and chest still increase in size. My present wet suit is pretty good except it has the zipper in the back.

I decided to get a wet suit with the zipper in the front. I've had people try to help zipper me up and they all have a hard time. So I decided to get one with the zipper in the front. That way if I break the zipper it will be my fault,not the fault of soemone who's just trying to help me. Eventually I will do a couple of dives this year solo, I know, I know; so there is the ease of being able to get dressed without having to have some one around to zip me up, when there may not be someone around to zip me up.

Since I'm still buying equiment , I've been going with these little throw aways that you can get in Walmart. They're made by Kodak and come in a blue casing, hence underwater. These cameras go for about 8-10 bucks depending on where you live, and are good to at least 50 feet.

They may not have the technology to be able to delete photos and other fun features as a digital, but they are cheap and do do a fairly good job, while your looking around for a digital camera that you can afford.

Just my 2 cents.