Afforable quality underwater cameras?

[FebS]

Where are they? I've always used a borrowed G11 in an underwater casing, and I was never really interested in photography until I took a cam underwater. My brother refuses to let me buy anything but the high-quality *coughcanoncough* but I dont really mind a cam as long as its got a reasonable megapixel count, an underwater mode and i can take it diving without a paralyzing fear of breaking it. It must also be noted that I am under a strict budget, college fees dont pay themselves!

So far the G11 is lovely to work with when taking photos of normal fish, only problems with focusing on tiny things like tiny crabs or itty bitty transparent shrimp. It was such a wasted opportunity! There was a colony of 20 on some anemone and I took bunches of pictures, none of them coming out even remotely good. I wonder if I'm missing out on something dreadfully important about taking pictures with the G11.

This thread is posted here because I am very obviously a noob to this underwater photography thing.

I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions!


Shots with the G11:

Moalboal Marine Sanctuary | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Moalboal Marine Sanctuary 2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[dfx]

It may help to know what exactly "affordable" and "strict budget" means to you.

 

[Dsix36]

You can not use the terms affordable, quality, and underwater in the same sentence and expect anything good to come from it.

 

[tflaris]

You can not use the terms affordable, quality, and underwater in the same sentence and expect anything good to come from it.

Don this is twice I'm going to agree with you.

 

[dfx]

You can not use the terms affordable, quality, and underwater in the same sentence and expect anything good to come from it.

I would have to argue that this not only depends on your definition of "affordable", but also on your definition of "quality" :tongue:

I use an S100 together with a non-brand housing. Very affordable going by my standards (esp. since I got the camera in an awesome Black Friday deal) and it's got all the quality I could ever wish for.

 

[jcm]

Bang for your buck I don't think you can beat a gopro.

 

[FebS]

Thanks for all the replies! Haha maybe I should have given a price.... I think I can afford about 350 US for the camera, give or take. Is it really impossible to find a good one below that?

I'm reading good things about both the s100 and the hero3. Though they both might be a bit of a stretch because of thier price and battery life, at least the gopro includes a casing.

Is Sealife mini II worth a mention?

 

[dmoore19]

This might work for you. I haven't used one but this seems to make it look like a reasonable approach to what you are looking for.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/intova/458801-intova-sport-hd-one-heck-bang-buck-product.html

[url]http://www.leisurepro.com/1/2/20894-intova-sport-pro-hd-waterproof-video-digital-camera.html


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[dfx]

Are you more interested in video or in stills?

 

[krawlings]

This might work for you. I haven't used one but this seems to make it look like a reasonable approach to what you are looking for.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/intova/458801-intova-sport-hd-one-heck-bang-buck-product.html

Buy Intova Sport Pro HD Waterproof Video Digital Camera from Leisure Pro

++++++1 INTOVA SP1 GREAT FOR THE PRICE And the video it puts out is as good if not better than GOPRO3 IMHOP