While not the sd870IS, I think that most if not of all this will apply.
I bought my wife the SD850is last year along with the Canon housing.
I don't like and would not recommend the Ikelite housing because it doesn't support
the "print" button which can be assigned to other functions like manual white balance.
Below is a link to some photos. Most but not all of these were taken with the
SD850is with the canon housing and no external flash.
A few were taken with a DC500. (The DC500 ones are the few with bluer/greyer tones)
One thing to note is that this is her first camera and prior to this trip she didn't
take many photos. So these were taken by a beginner.
The SD850is blows away the DC500. The focus clarity, color balancing, and exposure
control are much better.
SD850is sample photos
Take a look at the macro of the Peterson Shrimp or the mooring line with the purple
hydroids.
The Arrow crab she took at night in the dark using the built in flash.
The DC500 would not be able to take those pictures.
The key to good exposure it to assign the "print" button to be a manual white balance.
Then just before you shoot just point it at some white sand or a white slate and
then take your photos. This gives you perfect white balance for beautiful colors every time.
The built in "underwater" mode isn't very good and I wouldn't recommend using it.
My wife said she would never use the manual white balance but after 1 dive
of using the "underwater" mode and then seeing how much better the manual
balance shots looked, she became a believer, especially when I showed her
how easy it was to do - just a single button to set it.
The flash diffuser on the canon housing works really well. As long as you aren't
too far from your subject or are shooting macro, you will not need an external flash.
Close range photos make the best shots underwater anyway.
The camera can control the flash intensity and duration. This is really nice because
it ensure you don't overexpose macro shots. Some cameras can't do this and
simply blast out the full strength flash. By not doing this not only do you get
better exposures, but you can save on battery life because you only use the
energy necessary rather a full flash all the time.
Contrary to what some folks will say the IS does help. You have to remember
it won't help deblur moving objects, thats not what IS is for, but it will help if you
are slightly unsteady from something like minor surge.
Battery life is 2 dives if you take a bunch of photos. You can stretch it to 3 but
thats about it. (Our dives tend to be about 60 minutes each)
For my wife, she wanted a point and shoot with an optical view finder
(870 doesn't have this) and a small form factor that could work on land and underwater.
She loves it. For us we decided it was better to have the optical view finder on
the 850is and the slightly closer macro than to have the larger LCD and slightly wider
field of view of the 870is.
She considered an optical view finder mandatory, and having owned a camera without
an optical view finder, I have to agree. We do alot of outdoor stuff and when
outdoors, you really need an optical view finder.
I must say that after playing with it and using it, especially the macro. I'm tempted
to get one for myself.
--- bill
