sea life micro hd or olympus tg-3 or canon g16

[jddgfd]

I recently took a trip to Cozumel with a group of friends and one person had a sealife micro hd that they let me use for a while during the dives. Seemed to be very easy to use, good quality stills for the most part, and currently is on sale with a setup including 2 of the attached lights. A couple other people on the boat with us had the olympus tg-3 and looking at the pictures it took it seemd to also take very high quality pictures and better macro pictures than the sealife micro hd even with it having the magnifying lens on. Doing research it seems a canon g-16 and housing would be about the same cost as the previous two cameras and again would have better macro pictures than the sealife. However the canon and olympus video quality seems to fall behind the sealife due to the lack of lights.

I am new to photography and am wondering if there is a big difference in picture quality of the olymps or canon over the without having additional strobes while the sealife would have the two attached lights?
Any other recommendations regarding these three cameras or anything other cameras that may be a better option near this same price point?

Thanks!

 

[Ran Mozaik]

All 3 cameras you are considering are great at their class. Each has pros and cons.
The Micro HD is the easiest to use, and best value with the lights included. Lights underwater are perhaps the most significant improvement you can get.
However, it is also quite limited since there are not a lot of manual options and there is no zoom. The POV is similar to a GoPro.

The TG-3 is awesome and a great all-around camera, very rugged and can be used without a housing up to 50ft, which is great! The macro capabilities on it are by far the best seen on any compact. There has been availability problems with it but now there are some more units running in the market again.

The Canon G16 is the best overall camera out of the 3, and the Fantasea housing is the best value housing you can find. It's a more serious camera, with many manual options and a lot of potential for the enthusiast photographer who wants to make the best out of it. It does cost more but the bundle is excellent value and you can get very nice results with the on camera flash for stills and a red filter for video.
It is also capable of RAW shooting which is priceless for underwater. The biggest advantage in my opinion. And it has excellent off-the-camera macro capabilities.

The right choice for you is up to your abilities, requirements and intended use of the camera.
Getting the G16 bundle and adding some lights in the future would be the best overall choice in my opinion.

 

[Scubatude]

I have customers who LOVE their Sealfe Micro HD....and I love mine!

 

[ozziworld]

If Macro is your thing. the TG3 seems to be the one to get. Friend of mine has been playing with this little camera and it's macro capabilities are beyong that of any camera in its class. No need for diopters or other add-on macro lenses.

You can check out seom shots and narrative on his testing here :
https://www.facebook.com/timscuba/m...40845.1073741870.747595844&type=1&pnref=story

Cartainly worth a closer look!

 

[ScubaTub]

I have been a long time fan of the Olympus Tough series and have owned several, but I recently dropped (lost !) my TG-810 camera and enclosure on Tormentos Reef in Cozumel :depressed:

Soooo, now that I have to replace it, I want to get a center-lens camera so that the edges of the photos aren't stretched by the mirror-lens refraction. That moves me to the TG-1 + series (my wife and daughter have them) but I want to know how the TG-3 does for underwater VIDEOS ?? With the older TG-810 camera, I was very happy with the color enhancement for photos, but disappointed in the quality of the video, if the subject was not close, then the video was washed-out green, much like the older cameras. Any experience out there ??