Camera and housing choice

[Jetwrench]

Lead-in:
I have a Sony DSC-P10 with Sony housing and am looking to upgrade to a setup with more manual features (wb) and more easily accessible upgrades such as WA and macro lenses. Also, strobe applications will be a must.

?:
What do you have, what would you change if given the $ and the chance, and most important....What would you go for if you had to choose a rig and tell me why. I'm considering DSLR, but am a point and shoot tographer now so that will a bit of a stretch. Discuss

Jet

 

[Cecil]

Jet, although I'm a Sonyphile I normally recommend the Canon A series eg.Canon A95. It seems to have the best balance of cost, size, features, add-ins and availability. If you have more money to spend go with the Olympus 8080 or 5060. I can not justify the cost for a DSLR, I mean your looking at $3K when all is said and done. It will also be huge to carry and setup, but they do take nice pictures.

 

[alcina]

I'd go with the Canon A series, too.

DSLR is a huge commitment of time, money, space, maintenance & learning curve. I'd say 3K is light...you'll be looking at more than that probably so brace yourself!

Check out PhotoTJ, LukeRob, calypsonick and some others (sorry Guys, brain not working) for some great images with the A series and the Oly 5050 (can't think who shoots 5060 with no strobe). There are some excellent examples of what can be done without any accessories and with some, too.

 

[ssra30]

DSLR is nice. You will get more macro capability, wider wide angle (with Nikon anyhow), better sensor, better lenses but it does not mean that PnS is not capable of producing great pictures either. You can get an exellent PnS setup with housing and wetmount macro/WAL for only a fraction of the cost of dSLR setup. Not to speak of more compact setup, ability to change wetmount lenses underwater (in some models) so you can do both macro and wAL on the same dive. $3000 for dSLR is very conservative. Camera body and housing is already at least over $2000 and most likely you will want at least 2-3 different lenses to start of with and ports so you will already be at $3000 before you even add a strobe.
I am not trying to discourage you from getting dSLR as I have one but like Alcina said, it is a huge investment and a big hazzle as far as maintenance, weight etc are concerned. I was PnS shooter for a couple of years before moving to dSLR. If you are still shooting everything in auto mode with built in flash, it might be better to familiarize yourself with manual mode, external strobe in manual mode first before thinking of going dSLR so it won't be a huge jump in learning curve. If you are comfortable shooting manual, positioning and using manual external strobe, willing to lug a big camera setup around and have lots of cash to spare, you might be ready to come to the dark side

 

[calypsonick]

Jetwrench, I just got the Oly C-8080 and part of me was regretting not having invested in the dSLR, macro and WA lenses (the money had something to do with it, I must admit, the 8080 in an Oly housing costs $900-$950 whereas the Canon rebel with Ike housing, macro lens/port and strobes was going past $5000) until a dive buddy here who just went the dSLR route told me a story.

He had his macro lens on his Canon D20 and was taking little critter pics when a dugong (the very shy Asian cousin to the manatee) swam within 10' of where he was. Well, since he had the macro lens on, he was only able to get some blurry silouhettes of the animal before it swam away. To give you an idea of how sad he was, we have heard of only 5-6 sightings of dugongs in the last three years and it was his first sighting after more than 250 dives.

So, I am quite content (and less poor) with my 8080 which allows me to take wide angle shots and supermacro on the same dive. Now, if only a dugong would come and visit me!!! ;-)

 

[Chad_Ordelheide]

I have an Canon A80 and love it. If I bought one now it would be the A95 for the extra megapixel. I guess it all depends how much your going to taking pictures. If you want to document your trip...get a point & shot. If your going pro, get the DSLR. Anyway, plenty of great ideas above. If you want to see what less than $200 for the camera and around $150 for the housing can do feel free to look at my gallery. Good luck choosing.

Chad

 

[ChrisA]

Lead-in:

What do you have, what would you change if given the $ and the chance, and most important....What would you go for if you had to choose a rig and tell me why. I'm considering DSLR, but am a point and shoot tographer now so that will a bit of a stretch. Discuss

Jet

I have a Canon A80 and Sea and Sea YS90DX strobe.

If money were not an issue I'd have two camera systems. A smaller point and shoot
like my A80 and a DSLR. There are many dives when I could not use the DSLR or would not want to lug it with me. But a smaller P&S ca be clipped to the BC.

Very few people can afford the DSLR. You are talking five grand by the time you get a couple lenses, ports and strobes. It would be easy to spend $7K

My A80 makes a nice P&S but if you intend to add a pair of strobes and some add on lenses you may as well spend a small aount more on a better camera. Why buy a $300 camera and add $1,500 worth of addons. May as well go fo rhte $600 camera in that case.

But if you want to keep it simple the A80 and one low-cost strobe is a good system.


The Olys have some nice features
1) Some of the third party housing allow you connect TTL sync cables to the housings so you can do automatic flash.
2) the 5050 has "RAW" mode image format. This allows much better image quality
3) Some 3rd party housings have provision for wet changable lenses

It's all a matter of cost. You have to look at the total "system" package. You also have to be relistic in how hard you are willing to work. Do you like to smimm around and take snaps at what yu see or do you dive with the goal of getting some specific photo and like to stop and "work" a subject

 

[dbh]

Jetwrench, I just got the Oly C-8080 and part of me was regretting not having invested in the dSLR, macro and WA lenses (the money had something to do with it, I must admit, the 8080 in an Oly housing costs $900-$950 whereas the Canon rebel with Ike housing, macro lens/port and strobes was going past $5000) until a dive buddy here who just went the dSLR route told me a story.

He had his macro lens on his Canon D20 and was taking little critter pics when a dugong (the very shy Asian cousin to the manatee) swam within 10' of where he was. Well, since he had the macro lens on, he was only able to get some blurry silouhettes of the animal before it swam away. To give you an idea of how sad he was, we have heard of only 5-6 sightings of dugongs in the last three years and it was his first sighting after more than 250 dives.

So, I am quite content (and less poor) with my 8080 which allows me to take wide angle shots and supermacro on the same dive. Now, if only a dugong would come and visit me!!! ;-)

If you were shooting macro, would you have time to screw your macro lens on, change your settings and get a decent shot? I guess it depends on how long the Dugong stayed around. With my Nikon 60mm, I feel I could have gotten some good shots. Maybe not the entire body. I am not familiar with the Canon lenses.

Dave

 

[ssra30]

That's one problem with dSLR, you are stuck with the lens you put on above water.
So do your homework and plan on what kind of pictures you are going to take. It is always annoying when those dugong, whaleshark etc make an unannounced visit. They are so inconsiderate and never show up when I have the right lens for the job.
However my dive buddy managed to get a good picture of a large silvertip shark with his 105mm lens once

 

[calypsonick]

If you were shooting macro, would you have time to screw your macro lens on, change your settings and get a decent shot? I guess it depends on how long the Dugong stayed around. With my Nikon 60mm, I feel I could have gotten some good shots. Maybe not the entire body. I am not familiar with the Canon lenses.

Dave

Dave, the nice thing about the Oly 8080 is that you can preset a number of parameters into what they call mode settings. So, I have a mode for supermacro with the internal strobe set for slave and corresponding shutter speed, f-stop and another one for wide angle with the internal flash turned off. So, all it takes to go from nudibranch to whale shark is to push one button and turn a dial. Quite handy. I usually stay in wide angle mode as I dive and when I look over to see what my buddy is frantically banging his tank about I switch modes depending on whether he/she is looking at the bottom or out into the big blue.