I've just been through the agonising process of buying a new Camera for use above and below water.
I've had an Olympus C740 for a while now, but wanted (a) a wider angle for land, and (b) a much wider angle for Underwater - I'm going to see Whale Sharks in May (I hope!).
My criteria were:
1) Built-in wide angle (well, wider than 35mm equivalent, anyway)
2) Underwater housing available that won't break the bank
3) Ability to add other underwater lenses to the housing, ideally the Inon UWL-100.
I decided on Olympus rather than other makes because of the easy availability and relatively low price of their underwater housings. I was also happy with my experience of the C740, so thought I'd try another in the same range.
I eventually decided on the C7070, rather than the C8080, because of point (3) above. Although you can add a Wide angle adapter lens to the C8080, it goes
inside the case, which then needs a different port. As far as I know, there's no underwater lenses you can add to the front of the c8080 housing.
With the C7070, you get the best of both worlds - if you want to put a lens inside the case, and put a different port on the front, you can. Equally, if you want to be able to change from Macro to Wide Angle within the same dive, you can use Inon underwater lenses with it.
I now have more or less the setup shown at the bottom of
this page. Can't wait to try it underwater!
The only problem is likely to be finding a C7070 for sale - they're as rare as rocking horse ***** - at least in the UK. I eventually picked one up on Ebay for just over £400. The underwater housing, strobe, wide angle lens (but not the dome) cost me just over £1000 - so probably about $1000 in the US.
Anyway, that's my input - I'm not claiming to be an expert, but thought I'd share my thoughts with the forum.
Neil.