Canon camera/housing question

[zuzanne]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I just ordered the Canon A540 from Best Buy. It offers everything I need and was on sale for $189.00 with free shipping. I will see if it will fit into my housing and if so which controls it will work. I will post and let you all know if it works or not. If it doesn't then I will need to buy a new housing or stick to my old Sea & Sea MMII film camera for underwater photos. At least with it I have all the extra goodies. All the lenses, the strobe, optical viewfinder etc. You all know the things that don't work with the Canon digital camera housings.

 

[DaytonaDave]

I would go with either a high mAh NiMH or get Lithium batteries. The lithium batteries are usually good for the equivalent of about 5 sets of normal AA's. I use them when I have a wedding to shoot or a project that is going to require a lot of hand-held flash where I don't want to/won't have time to switch out. Lithiums cost about 2.5 times as much as standard alkaline, but last much longer.... and you can buy them just about anywhere... even Wal-Mart.

 

[SFScuba]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I just ordered the Canon A540 from Best Buy. It offers everything I need and was on sale for $189.00 with free shipping. I will see if it will fit into my housing and if so which controls it will work.

I believe the A540 requires the WP-DC2 housing. I also flooded the housing on my A520 last year (grain of sand). I looked at the other models, and they did not fit quit right. My biggest issue was that I needed to control the flash mode, in addition to just power, zoom, and taking the picture itself. The cameras all look the same, but are a little different in terms of dimensions.

As an FYI, I've seen the A520 sell AS-IS for parts on ebay for around $40-60 (haven't gotten around to trying to sell mine yet). People buy them for the LCD etc... (assuming your flood only destroyed the circuit board).

GC

 

[zuzanne]

I have questions on the batteries. You all recommend the 2500mah NiMh batteries. I saw a Duracell packaged set that said 2700 on them. They came with the charger 6 AA size and 4 AAA size batteries in the pack for $19.99 at BJ's and Energizer ones that were 2650 with 6 AA batteries and charger at Best Buy $39.99. Help which brand do you think will last the longest with a full charge? I was surprised to see the difference in the price so I left feeling confused and decided to have you all set me straight on which ones to get. I guess they are all not the same and I want to get good ones. Thank you...camera is in route via UPS and should be here Thursday.

Suzanne

 

[jmps]

I have used the Energizer 2500's and they last a long time. I buy them at Sam's Club. Best Buy seems to charge a LOT more. If you get get above 2500 even better!

 

[zuzanne]

I bought the Duracell 2650 at BJ's for $19.99. It came with the charger, 6 AA and 2 AAA batteries. Hopefully the camera will arrive tomorrow and I can test it out. UPS says is slated for delivery 10/12/06.

Thanks again everyone for all your help. As a beginner I need all the help I can get.

Suzanne