I'm a fairly proficient photographer (on land) and a decent scuba diver and looking at a few options for getting a better underwater setup. I currently use an older pentax s5i with the pentax uw housing and no separate strobes or anything. I have a Nikon D50 and D90 for normal use with the following lenses, tokina 11-16, nikon 50mm 1.8 and a sigma 17-70 with macro (so they say but technically it's not full macro.)
I'm seeing 4 options for trying to get a better kit:
1) Keep my current kit, get an external strobe.
-Nice that it'd be inexpensive
-Not sure how easy or how possible it is to add strobes to this setup
-Would remain compact
-Still a 5 year old camera with many shortcomings
2) Get a housing for my D50
-Picture quality is still better than any P&S (on land at least)
-My backup SLR so I don't have to worry so much about it getting flooded or anything (not sure how big of a worry that is)
-I feel comfortable with an SLR and I like the functionality they give
-Housings can be found somewhat cheaply. A quick glance at BH shows a couple for less than $800 brand new (from Fantasea, looks to be less well made from the photos though)
-Not sure whether I'd be more comfortable diving with the large SLR housing and all that comes with it versus a P&S
3) Get a housing for my D90
-My main camera, it's great and I'm super comfortable with it.
-Would be scared it'd get flooded or otherwise ruined
-Housings are more expensive, $1300 and up, way up.
-It's a great camera and has video if I ever wanted to use it.
4) Get a new P&S and the housing and strobes to go with it
-Probably still end up around the same price or cheaper than even the D50 option.
-Compact
-Newer P&S cameras are great
-I'd have a newer P&S for land use when I didn't want to bring my SLR
-I'd miss the features of an SLR I think
-Cheaper than my D90 so if it were to get ruined I wouldn't cry on the boat, always embarrassing.
Any thoughts or advice? I think #1 is pretty much out. It really sounds like it may be tough to get strobes working well with that kit. I'm completely undecided between the other 3 at this point.
I'm seeing 4 options for trying to get a better kit:
1) Keep my current kit, get an external strobe.
-Nice that it'd be inexpensive
-Not sure how easy or how possible it is to add strobes to this setup
-Would remain compact
-Still a 5 year old camera with many shortcomings
2) Get a housing for my D50
-Picture quality is still better than any P&S (on land at least)
-My backup SLR so I don't have to worry so much about it getting flooded or anything (not sure how big of a worry that is)
-I feel comfortable with an SLR and I like the functionality they give
-Housings can be found somewhat cheaply. A quick glance at BH shows a couple for less than $800 brand new (from Fantasea, looks to be less well made from the photos though)
-Not sure whether I'd be more comfortable diving with the large SLR housing and all that comes with it versus a P&S
3) Get a housing for my D90
-My main camera, it's great and I'm super comfortable with it.
-Would be scared it'd get flooded or otherwise ruined
-Housings are more expensive, $1300 and up, way up.
-It's a great camera and has video if I ever wanted to use it.
4) Get a new P&S and the housing and strobes to go with it
-Probably still end up around the same price or cheaper than even the D50 option.
-Compact
-Newer P&S cameras are great
-I'd have a newer P&S for land use when I didn't want to bring my SLR
-I'd miss the features of an SLR I think
-Cheaper than my D90 so if it were to get ruined I wouldn't cry on the boat, always embarrassing.
Any thoughts or advice? I think #1 is pretty much out. It really sounds like it may be tough to get strobes working well with that kit. I'm completely undecided between the other 3 at this point.