Advice sought about point and shoot

[bombadil1977]

I have a Canon PowerShot SD750 Elph from, oh...I think early 2007, and own a Canon housing for it. Works fine and the housing is great, both giving me the pictures I like. It's done fine for me, and I've been a couple times to 65 meters or so.

This PowerShot though is wearing out, though it still works fine. I want to get a new camera and housing for when this PowerShot dies.

Have been in 'looking around' mode for several months. The newish Canons have a different configuration so the housing I have won't work with the new ones (I think). I want a pocketsized camera, and to get a matched housing this year.

I am posting here to see if anyone has any suggestions for what I want. Any thoughts around? :banana:
bombadil1977

 

[DennisS]

I have an ikelite housing for an old Nikon point and shoot. The camera was originally around $200 and the housing was about $250. The camera is obsolete and the case doesn't fit anything else. My solution was to buy 4 cameras off of ebay for around $25-$35 each. Floods or breakage, I have spares.

 

[Gilligan]

In order to keep things "pocket sized" as you stated you will likely have to buy a camera with it's like brand housing. I assume you will not use an external strobe or add-on wet mount lenses.

I'm sure there are other brands out there but the one I am familiar with is the Canon S95 in the Canon housing. The camera is pocket size and the housing is very compact. The S95 is loaded with features whether you will use them or not. It has M, Tv and Av shooting modes as well as RAW capability which IMO is a must for non-strobe shots.

Don't short change yourself by comparing configurations with your current camera. A short learning curve with the S95 will yield great underwater photos as well as topside ones.

 

[spoolin01]

I have an ikelite housing for an old Nikon point and shoot. The camera was originally around $200 and the housing was about $250. The camera is obsolete and the case doesn't fit anything else. My solution was to buy 4 cameras off of ebay for around $25-$35 each. Floods or breakage, I have spares.

+1 for this approach. Buy the cams and housings cheap, take two of each on the trip. No anxiety, no downtime.

If you're looking to upgrade, there are lots of options, probably few not good, depending on your needs. You'll probably only get advice to buy the top two or three here, also to get one with RAW capability, which I'm sold on too - but that's a can of worms on its own. One contrarian thought about buying top quality 'to grow into' - if that process takes you two years, then you've bought yourself TWO of the best and most expensive cameras available, one now that you won't use nearly well enough to justify, and the new and even better one in two years when you're finally ready.

 

[Jak Crow]

I just picked up a new SX230HS and the Canon case for it. I previously had the SX210 and was disappointed Canon never put out a case, and Ikelite's is almost $400, which is absurd. I went with the 230 because of the 14x zoom. If you don't care about such a zoom range, you could get the PowerShot ELPH 300HS and WP-DC27 case together and have yourself an underwater 5x 12MP camera with 1080P video. Seems like a deal to me.

 

[farsidefan1]

I have decided to upgrade from my minireefmaster to a better point and shoot underwater camera (The fact that I turned it into a paperweight on my last trip has something to do with it, sigh, oh well, got 5 yrs out of it). I spoke to the photo guy at cocoview and he suggested a canon g12. how would you compare the S9 to the G12? I want a point and shoot with some extra manual control at times. He suggested the canon underwater case. Thanks

 

[bombadil1977]

Hey everybody, great and thanks for the input!! Love the ebay/spare idea, and I like the profile and features of the S95 and the Elph 300HS. I sure do appreciate the time and thoughts of all you who responded.

Great advice for me to have narrowing my choices....again, thank you! :banana: