S110?

[Skittl1321]

Our Pentax WG-3 was found yesterday to no longer be working... (a motor is stuck or something...) We have 8 days until our vacation and need to replace it quickly.

I had wanted to stay under $350, and get the Canon D30 with it's 80 ft range, or the D20 and only have it for snorkeling, but my husband is really unhappy those won't work in RAW.

Is it worth the extra money ($157 over the D30) on the camera+housing combo to get the S110 and a housing? The D30 is so new, that it doesn't look like anyone here is using it, and the D20 isn't practical for diving, so it doesn't get mentioned much, but it looks like people are diving with the S110.

Is having RAW going to significantly effect the photo quality, or should I just save the money and go with one of the original two choices? Husband is a bit worried that he's going to be unhappy no matter what because a point and shoot isn't going to match up to what he is used to with his DSLR (which we cannot afford to get a housing for, so that is out.)

We also like to kayak with the waterproof camera- is the housing too bulky to make that feasible?

I'm really bad at decisions, so I'd appreciate any advice. I just wish I had more time!

 

[DelrayDM]

I will not call the S110 a 'point & shoot' because you do have full control over aperture, shutter, iso, manual focus and more.

Yes, recording in raw is a huge advantage to most underwater photographers. If you do not record in raw, you can not do very much in post processing.



The S110 will take nice pictures. I did this one with no wet-mate lens, a single Inon S2000 strobe.



Is it small enough for a kayak? I think so. Here is a photo of a S100 in an aluminum housing. (S90, 95, 100, 110, 120 are all about the same size). The Ikelite housing and the Canon housing are bigger, but not a lot.



To me, the biggest difference between compact cameras and SLRs & mirrorless is the time it takes compact cameras to acquire focus. I often put the S110 camera in manual focus when using a wet-mate wide angle lens because the depth of field is so huge. When in manual focus, the delay between pressing the shutter and when the picture is taken is very small.

 

[Ran Mozaik]

The S110 is a fantastic compact camera!
I shoot with it when i'm not it the mood to carry my dSLR and I love it.

The Nauticam housing is better, but I use the Ikelite and i'm quite happy with it.
It's not at all bulky, and can handle many types of accessories in the future.
RAW is life-changing! Do not compromise on that. Trust me on this one. Once you go RAW, you can't go back.
Here's a post I wrote explaining RAW format: How to fix underwater photos - understanding Camera RAW

 

[Skittl1321]

Thanks for the replies- it does sound like going with a camera + housing is going to be better than getting a waterproof. We'll just be getting Canon's housing though, as a better one isn't quite in the budget right now, so no ability to use wet lenses right now.

---------- Post added July 10th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ----------

We ended up ordering the S110 and the Polaroid housing for it.

 

[PeterVV]

I just got the S110 but have not been able to test it yet. I chose the Meikon housing over the Cannon since it has 67mm threads for wetlenses, has a port for fiber optic cables for my flash and it was cheaper. Besides that i lookes a lot like the Canon.

You can find a short decription here: Meikon Housing for Canon S110 - COMPACT HOUSINGS - FOTOGRAFIT

 

[Skittl1321]

I just got the S110 but have not been able to test it yet. I chose the Meikon housing over the Cannon since it has 67mm threads for wetlenses, has a port for fiber optic cables for my flash and it was cheaper. Besides that i lookes a lot like the Canon.

You can find a short decription here: Meikon Housing for Canon S110 - COMPACT HOUSINGS - FOTOGRAFIT

We ended up with the Polaroid housing, which appears to be a branded Meikon. We couldn't find anyone who sold the Meikon and could guarantee (without paying a fortune in expedited shipping) it could get here before next Thursday.