Inexpensive underwater camera?

[CheddarDavis]

I'm looking for an inexpensive underwater digital camera. I don't need anything fancy, just a basic point and shoot. I'm a college student and don't have a ton of money to spend on one so I just want something cheap. I will be doing mostly cold water lake/quarry diving with it in depths anywhere from 30 ft to 70 ft. Any recommendations?

 

[Ryan Nelson]

DO NOT BUY THE SEALIFE REEFMASTER MINI. It's not worth anyones time.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[packrat12]

I use a point-and-shoot camera in a housing. Mine is an older camera, Canon SD-960IS. I use the Canon housing. It takes good enough photos underwater that they are a nice reminder of our dives. The case is water resistant to 130' or so. Best of all, you can also use it on land as a regular camera, although I have dedicated mine to UW use only because I do not want to damage the camera and have to buy a new setup. The point-and-shoots can do both video and photo. The quality of the photos is lacking when compared to the more expensive setups.

Another option I use is the GoPro series. A GoPro Silver would be sufficient for most needs. It is best used as a video camera but can produce acceptable photos. The videos are fantastic on them and you can purchase filters to make them even better at that depth range. I take the photos, my wife does the videos on our dives.

 

[Tigerman]

Define inexpensive?
There's anything from really, really cheap (and crap) to pretty expensive p&s systems. If you can afford it, you're better off putting SOME money into it..

 

[CheddarDavis]

By "inexpensive" I mean like $60 or less. I'll get a nicer one once I'm out of school and have a real job. But for now, I just want something cheap. And to packRat, I'd love a GoPro but I can't afford to drop like $300 on one. I found an action cam called the "emerson go action cam 720p HD", for only about $50. Anyone know about this one?

 

[Tigerman]

My personal opinion is that if you you want to drop less than $100 you should just forget about it in the first place unless you can find something used..
A $50 point and shoot camera is not worth the effort, much less so if you want it housed for that money..

---------- Post added January 6th, 2014 at 12:48 AM ----------

A VERY quick summary of what you really NEED although you might not think you want it from a low budget UW camera is;

Manual or at minimum semi-auto modes, not only fully automatic.
RAW format capability - Yes, it does make a huge difference on the image quality.
Internal flash (as you wont be spending the money for strobes, much less hotshoed strobes and housing electronics for it).
Unless you have these three things you are likely to be disappointed and soon to replace the system or just give up on uw photography.
Then of course theres the optics and electronics with resulting image quality of the cheapest p&s systems...

 

[flareside]

On that budget about the best you can hope for would be a used Canon S410 and WP-DC800 housing from ebay. That's what I started with about 8 years ago and they do take reasonably good pictures for only a 4mp camera as they have a 1/1.7" ccd. That being said, I only used it in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. The dark green waters of lakes and quarries will be a whole different story. Any photos you come away with will be little more than evidence you were there.

 

[GLOCKSCUBAG!RL]

A smartphone housing just recently came out called 'Watershot'. It's $100 and I used it for a couple dives and got some great shots of lionfish, coral and a moray eel. Plus, later on when you get more money you can but a lens attachment for it if you want more high tech pics. It's like having a $1000 camera for cheaper.

[/IMG]

Of coarse I could use more photography practice, but the photos turned out nicely


*~ Adventurer for life ~*

 

[kwinter]

The latest Intova cameras are about $150 or so and come complete with housing good to 180 feet. If you check for used older models on eBay where people sell them as they trade up, you might get something reasonable in your price range.

 

[CheddarDavis]

Glockscubagirl: I've been searching everywhere for a hard, smartphone housing like this, but couldn't find anything. Unfortunately, it looks like they only have them for iPhone and Galaxy S3/4. I have a droid so that won't work unfortunately . I'll definitely check out the Intova camera, though, kwinter