Canon S1 IS or Canon A95 or any suggestions

[alg]

I am new to underwater photography. I am going on vacation to Cayman Islands and would like to take some underwater shots to document my experience. I would also like to use it for underwater photos in San Diego also. I have been researching for a few weeks now. But I am unsure and overwhelmed what type of camera to buy that is reasonable in price and will take good underwater photos. I have been looking at the Canon A95 and the Canon S1 IS and their underwater housings. People have also mentioned the S60 and the S70. Any suggestions. I don't want to buy something too expensive but I want photos to show and give to family and friends. I am new to underwater photography and I am worried about flooding my camera. In addition this camera will be used on land. I am not stuck on using a Canon - other cameras are welcomed!! Please advise.
Thank You,
ALG

 

[yakivet]

I am new to underwater photography. I am going on vacation to Cayman Islands and would like to take some underwater shots to document my experience. I would also like to use it for underwater photos in San Diego also. I have been researching for a few weeks now. But I am unsure and overwhelmed what type of camera to buy that is reasonable in price and will take good underwater photos. I have been looking at the Canon A95 and the Canon S1 IS and their underwater housings. People have also mentioned the S60 and the S70. Any suggestions. I don't want to buy something too expensive but I want photos to show and give to family and friends. I am new to underwater photography and I am worried about flooding my camera. In addition this camera will be used on land. I am not stuck on using a Canon - other cameras are welcomed!! Please advise.
Thank You,
ALG

I really like my S1. You may have already seen these pics but here are some from a recent trip to Ambergris Cay, Belize. I found the S1 and Canon Housing easy to use both up top and under the water. :42: Ken


http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/36473

 

[alcina]

I love the Canon A series - as you may have seen if you've been wandering around here

I have seen a lot of S series cameras come through and the users seem to like them, too.

Canon is still my preference over the other "point and shoots".

 

[Chad_Ordelheide]

Go with the A95

A80 User here!!! My dad has the S1 and we both have the Canon Housings!! Please check out my Photos and tell me what you think. I ended up with better pictures for my dad for one big reason. The flash on the A80 (and A95 is assume) has a nice diffuser. The S1 doesn't!! So macro shots are limited. It's possible that they changed that, but I would be sure before you get it. The other big thing is A95 is 5 MP, and the S1 is 3.2. It's really nice to crop some times. The long zoom on the S1 is great on land, but doesn't do much good underwater! Being someone who has seen and used both. Buy the A95...you won't regret it!! Let me know if you have other questions!!

 

[alg]

Thank you everyone for your input. I appreciate all of you sharing your photos (they were extremely helpful). I hope to share my photos soon. Dive safe and thank you again!!

 

[alg]

Thank you all for your input. Chad-were your pictures enhanced with photoshop or some type of photo program. Also are you using any add ons? For example a strobe, lenses, etc.? Or is it just the A80 and the underwater housing? Thank you for sharing your photos. Are any of the pictures in your gallery from the S1 IS?

 

[Chad_Ordelheide]

Alg - I use ACDSee to edit my pictures.The only thing I do other than simple stuff like cropping. Is send it though a color correction program they have. It doesn't change a lot, but sometimes it takes a bit of the blue haze away and accents the reds. I've taken the scatter out of a few pictures, but that is really labor intensive. None in my gallery are with the S1, in reality the S1 didn't preform as good, but you already got that spiel. Even though, it looks like Ken got some good pics, soooo a lot of pictures are the operator takin them...
As far as add ons, I don't have any...yet. I wouldn't mind getting a strobe some time, but I need a few $$$ first. I'm not sure what pictures you were looking at. But a few, like the Orange line trigger came out of the camera like that. He was just really close and turned out great, almost fake great!! Anyway, write back again if you have more questions!!!

 

[hamilton]

I am new to underwater photography.
<snip>
suggestions.
I don't want to buy something too expensive but I want photos to show and give to family and friends.

In addition this camera will be used on land. I am not stuck on using a Canon - other cameras are welcomed!! Please advise.
Thank You,
ALG

Alg
you'll doubtless get lots of 'advice' from people - photographers (and divers) are an opinionated lot.
I'd ask a few questions which might help you narrow down the choice:
- do you already have a film/digital camera; how comfortable are you with that cameras controls/layout
- what sort of photography do you do? general snaps, wildlife, action sports, still life, architecture.... these demand different lens types (wideangle, tele)...
- is size important (camera size, output image size: do you need/want to blow up to A4 on a regular basis, or are you happy with xVGA (1024x780 or similar 'on screen' size).
- how much use will you make of video modes? probably the key issue here is storage capacity; certainly in the UK, Sony proprietary storage is much more expensive than commodity memory like CF.

I have an S1, bought because:
- I am used to Canon (also have an Eos100 and a 10D
- I wanted a long zoom for surface wildlife
- appreciated the benefits of Image Stabilisation (very useful on the surface, and when shooting video)
- I dislike 'proprietary' solutions like Memory stick
- takes normal batteries (cheap to replace if lost/damaged)
- certain design features (e.g. folding screen) are much better than alternatives
- camera is extendable with wide/tele adapters. (a 600mm IS video cam is a neat tool for, e.g. action watersports pix)

your mileage may vary!
good luck

p.s. look on pbase.com for photos from different cameras & people, use the search engine. You'll soon realise (like I did), that for u/w pix the user and their ability/experience counts MUCH more than any difference between camera!