a710is vs. a540 (Housing Question)

[GlasserinD]

Hi Everyone. I am looking into buying a Canon a710is with the WP-DC6 housing. HOWEVER, I've heard that the housing for the a710is may not support lens add-ons because it has an oval-shaped lens area, while the housing for the a540 has a round, and therefore epandable mount (ie: if I want to add a fish-eye).
Is this true? And if so, do you think it's worth stepping down in camera features and zoom-ability to get the expand-ability?
I am curious to hear your opinions, and please keep in mind, I am not interested in the $400 ikelite housing. Too big, clinky and expensive for me. Thank you all.

 

[alcina]

Yes, I believe you are correct. The Canon housing will not support the add on wet mate lenses due to its shape.

I think you will be happy with the A5xx range. I just picked up an A520 and have taken in on only one dive, so I don't have a lot of helpful advice so far. But I liked it for what I used it for and it's easy to add things on to it.

I've been using a variety of A series cameras for quite a while and love them.

Everything is always a trade off with photography, so determine if the ability to add lenses is the more important to YOU than the other features you say aren't features on the 540 but are on the 710.

 

[Gilligan]

You don't have to step down. Get an Ikelite housing instead of the Canon housing. The Ikelite A710IS housing comes with a 67mm lens port. Even though the cost is double that of the Canon housing I think it is worth it for the sake of adding wet mount lenses.

 

[randini]

Correct, the canon WP-DC6 housing for the A710is has an oval shaped port and at the moment there is no lens adapter for it. I won't mention the Ike since you don't want one.

The WP-DC2 for the A540 has a round port and there is a lens adapter available for it from Inon. (LINKY)

I'm still in the searching and saving up mode myself, so I don't have any experience in actually taking pictures underwater yet, but from what I've been reading, the first rule is to get close. Zoom's are generally frowned upon since you don't end up getting as close and that puts more water between you and your subject causing more loss of detials in the resulting photogrpah. Point is I would not worry about the the loss of zoom. Matter of fact, the cameras I see get recommended & used UW most frequently only have 3 or 4x zooms (the Oly SD350, The Fuji F30, and the Canon a6x0's).