Canon S1is / WP-DC20 Combo - any opinions yet?

[sbloomer]

Has anyone started using this camera/housing combo yet? I've had the camera for a week now, and am still awaiting the housing (arrival promised around 3rd August). What's the general opinion on the Canon housings?

Simon

 

[hamilton]

Ok, here's my feedback.
For those who can't read <grin>, pix at:

http://www.pbase.com/hamilton_w/water



Caveats - this is my first digital P&S, and my first underwater camera.... although I have now about 8 months experience with the 10D, and before that about 10 years using an EOS 100, so I know a little about the principles of surface photography... but I'm no pro!

Regarding various questions:
- you CAN use the flash underwater

- you CAN turn it 'off' once it's popped up, but only in a couple of the 'image' modes (e.g. 'fast action' mode, with the icon of the sprinter on the mode dial). In P mode, you CANNOT turn off the flash. (well, I can't find a way, short of pushing the flash down... not an option once under water.

Pro's:
- all the buttons work under water.

- unit is 'slightly' positively buoyant... it bobs nicely around my head when I'm not using it, but you'd need to watch it on swim-throughs

- o ring is easy to remove & grease

- glass element in front of lens, with a reasonable amount of 'bash' protection from the metal sealing ring at the front of the unit

- the video mode! Have some excellent (IMHO!) footage of reef shark, and aggressive trigger fish... will post this in due course!

Con's:
- can't retract flash once fired

- no 'filter' for the flash... other cases have an semi-opaque sheet in front of the flash, which I _presume_ is to cut down on glare.

Thoughts:

- you need to be a confident and capable diver to use this (or any u/w camera).... I frequently found myself forgetting my buddy, my buoyancy etc, and not watching where I was going.

- beware of spending all your time looking thro the viewfinder, and not at your surroundings.... on land this is not so important, but there are agrressive/territorial fish!

- I get thro' a set of batteries (2.3Ah Sanyo's) in 2 dives
- don't forget to flip out the LCD screen before closing the case....



If you've any specific questions, drop me a line. Am off to Manado in Indonesia in a few days, more diving!

regards
h.

 

[sbloomer]

Hamilton

Thanks for this. The pics are really good and the one's with flash weren't too bad either - better than I might have expected.

I'm on business about 1000 miles from the my home by the sea and am looking forward to going home to play with the new toys....

I will post mine when I get the chance to take pictures with the housing....

 

[hamilton]

Seems theres still some debate on which modes all 'full' flash control.
I also need to get my head round the flash 'power' settings, as quite a few pix are coming out 'washed out'.
Manado was sublime, will try to post some pix from there in due course.

Lessons learned: in 'wide angle' mode, closest focus distance is 10cm... in 'zoom' mode, it is 50cm.... so better to be in WA for closeups..... had to read the manual to discover that tip.

Also, setting WB to 'flash' rather than cloudy seemed to give better colours when using natural light at shallow depths (5-8m or so), at least in the medium bright Indonesian sun!

Gripes: the camera sometimes 'forgets' the settings (like WB)... I _think_ if it is powered down for several minutes, it switches off... whereas I usually have it set to 'sleep' after 10secs to conserve battery life. When it switches off, the settings are lost.

oh, and don't judge the camera on the 'quality' (or lack) of my images.... I'm still learning this u/w stuff.
There are some VERY good pix on www.dpreview.com (Canon forum)... some awesome kitesurfing shots (also taken in the housing... can't wait to get back home to try _that_ out).
l8rs
h.

 

[sbloomer]

Gripes: the camera sometimes 'forgets' the settings (like WB)... I _think_ if it is powered down for several minutes, it switches off... whereas I usually have it set to 'sleep' after 10secs to conserve battery life. When it switches off, the settings are lost.

So then when you;re going to do some diving, use the Custom feature.

As a matter if interest, I've not noticed my camera "forgetting" settings.

 

[filipe]

Hi,
I've dives with my Canon S1-IS few weeks ago. This is a quite good camera. The quality of movie is good and it can be compressed into SVCD format. The output is smoothly.

The Shutter of the housing is not as good as the Olpymus' housing. You need to press it hardly to take the photo. But this time, the housing is improved. It include a LCD protector in order you can see the LCD clearly under the water.

Filipe