After doing lots of research online, I'm leaning pretty hard towards replacing my ancient Pentax S5i (and factory O-WP2 dive housing) with an Olympus TG-4.
I'm just an amateur and have no plans to be more than that, but I do love shooting away when I'm on the reef and sharing with friends & family. I'm also a "one-camera guy" - that is, I use the same camera for everything, topside as well as diving. That way my poor brain doesn't have to remember how to use different cameras; I would rather get to know one camera inside & out, all its quirks & foibles, and carry it everywhere with me. It also means I don't have to buy a bunch of different lenses and accessories for different cameras.
I've been looking at some of the underwater photos posted here from TG-3/TG-4 users and they look pretty good to my rather uncritical eye. And while I don't primarily shoot video, I did like the fact that my old Pentax could always switch over to video with one button, a feature the Olympus seems to have as well.
I also appreciate that the Olympus itself is waterproof to 50 feet out of the box, but of course I'll need a housing for serious diving. I've seen some posts here about some of these housings but not all of them; I figured since I was collecting information on them anyway it might be handy for other ScubaBoarders to put a list of them in one post.
List of Dive Housings for Olympus TG-3/TG-4
Any others I didn't list? Mention in comments and I'll add it here.
As of June 2016, street prices seem to range from about $300 for the factory housing up to about $800 for the Nauticam.
I'm just an amateur and have no plans to be more than that, but I do love shooting away when I'm on the reef and sharing with friends & family. I'm also a "one-camera guy" - that is, I use the same camera for everything, topside as well as diving. That way my poor brain doesn't have to remember how to use different cameras; I would rather get to know one camera inside & out, all its quirks & foibles, and carry it everywhere with me. It also means I don't have to buy a bunch of different lenses and accessories for different cameras.
I've been looking at some of the underwater photos posted here from TG-3/TG-4 users and they look pretty good to my rather uncritical eye. And while I don't primarily shoot video, I did like the fact that my old Pentax could always switch over to video with one button, a feature the Olympus seems to have as well.
I also appreciate that the Olympus itself is waterproof to 50 feet out of the box, but of course I'll need a housing for serious diving. I've seen some posts here about some of these housings but not all of them; I figured since I was collecting information on them anyway it might be handy for other ScubaBoarders to put a list of them in one post.
List of Dive Housings for Olympus TG-3/TG-4
- Olympus PT-056 - depth: 45m/150'
- Ikelite Model 6233.03 - depth: 60m/200'
- Recsea CWOM-TG3/4 - depth: 60m/200'
- Nauticam NA-TG3 - depth: 100m/330'
Any others I didn't list? Mention in comments and I'll add it here.
As of June 2016, street prices seem to range from about $300 for the factory housing up to about $800 for the Nauticam.