Canon A620 or Sony DSC W7? HELP!!!

[Tiefseetaucher]

I just bought the Sealife DC500 and I think the picture quality of the camera is aweful. It is cheap and the pics look cheap too. My friend just bought the DC500 too and I drowned on his first dive. I want to give the DC500 back.
I plan to buy the Canon A620 or Sony DSC W7. Both cams are pretty much the same price.
Has anybody any experiences or recommendations with these two cams?

Thanks

 

[Jetwrench]

Looks like the Canon has manual white balance and a stronger optical zoom. The Sony may not have manual white balance(not listed in the specs) and a lesser optical zoom lense. No experience with either, but I have both an A95 and a DSC P10 and if I had to give one up, the Sony would have to go. The Canon wins by virtue of it's expanded options(especially W/B). If you just want a P&S camera, either one can take good pics. IMHO

Jet

 

[RonFrank]

I just bought the Sealife DC500 and I think the picture quality of the camera is aweful. It is cheap and the pics look cheap too. My friend just bought the DC500 too and I drowned on his first dive. I want to give the DC500 back.
I plan to buy the Canon A620 or Sony DSC W7. Both cams are pretty much the same price.
Has anybody any experiences or recommendations with these two cams?

Thanks

The Sony W7 was one of six Sony models that failed the quality control test in China. I'm not sure what this means from a global standpoint, however in China Sony is providing refunds to all that purchase the W7, and five other models.

The A620 seems to be a good camera, however I don't believe it has RAW support, so I'd not choose it for that reason alone. However RAW is not on everyone's list of must have features, even if IMO it should be.

 

[DesertEagle]

Adjusting WB on the A620 is very easy. I have my doubts to how many digicam users actually use RAW underwater. I would recommend that you house it in an Ikelite. If you check on this board and others, you'll soon find that the Canon housing has a strange port. There is no current way to get accessory lenses onto the Canon-brand housing.

As far as the Sealife, it really is like comparing a 3rd party no-name camera to a Canon. Optics, build, image processing make a huge difference. I think people buy the Sealife because the housing looks good.

 

[jeraldjcook]

I bought the Canon A620 about a month ago and I am extremely happy with it. I haven't had the opportunity to get it wet yet (that will happen in two weeks, going to Maui). The picture quality is awesome and the movie setting is decent too. Also, it has an underwater mode but you still might want to set the white balance manually.

 

[jeraldjcook]

Since DesertEagle pointed it out, he is right in that there is no way to attach an accessory lens to the Canon housing. But since Ikelite currently doesn't make a housing for the A620, right now it is your only option. Since I don't ever plan on using an accessory lens, I prefer the Canon housing since it's smaller (easier to travel with and manage uw) and cheaper (had money to buy a 2GB SD card).

 

[Tiefseetaucher]

Thanks for the tip! I bought the Canon A620 yesterday and it seems like a really good camera. It is really fast.
My problem right now is which housing should I buy! Canon or Ikelite?
I saw there are no extra items like lenses for the canon housing. And I read somewhere you can't mount a strobe to the canon housing?
What strobe would be good with the A620? Thanks so far!

 

[Sjokkel]

Nice purchase! I've taken mine on about 5 dives since i bought it and i love it.

I have the WP-DC90 housing and i like the results i get with it using the builtin strobe. The big diffuser plate seems to help alot.

I have some resized sample shots (mostly to 1280*1024, my desktop size) of the previous dives that you might like to see. I need to resize some to put here in the gallery

This is my first underwater camera so i'm still learning

Seahorse-strobe
Seahorse-no strobe
Macro 1
Macro 2
Emmenemmenemmeny

 

[Jamdiver]

Thank you for posting these Sjokkel .
Gives me an idea of what to expect when I take my A610 underwater .
I'm curious though what settings do you use when you're shooting underwater?

This is my favorite of the bunch.

 

[Sjokkel]

Thank you for posting these Sjokkel .
Gives me an idea of what to expect when I take my A610 underwater .
I'm curious though what settings do you use when you're shooting underwater?

I'm glad you liked that shot!
I mostly put it in Aperture mode using centerweighted or spot metering. Depending on the shot i change the Aperture setting. The strobe or Macro mode is very easy on the A610/A620 with one press on the button.
I also put the white balance on the underwater setting and colors on vivid.