canon s40 or s500?

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col89

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Messages
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Location
ireland
# of dives
50 - 99
hi. I'm trying to decide which camera to get for my first foray into underwater photography. The reason I'm deciding between the two/three above is simply because they, along with their respective housings, are available immediatly and are within my budget.

Now they are both quite old, with the s40 being released in '01 and the s400/500 a few years later... but being a lowly student I'm on a budget!

The s40 seems possibly to be the better option as it apparently has shutter and aperature priority wheres the powershot s400/500 does not. However the s500 being a newer model with more pixels would possibly produce better photos.

I'm used to using an slr on land, the compact would pretty much be exclusivly for underwater use, both diving and snorkelling. I've just been diving a short while if that makes any difference and i can't see myself buying a strobe etc for this particular set up.
Plan to buy in the next day or so.

Anybody able to offer any info or help at all on this? Any comments would be really welcome!

Col
 
A first consideration is whether you can locate a used housing. I had an S40, and have an S50, which fits the same housing. I don't know how popular the S400 was as an underwater camera, so it may or may not be more difficult to locate its housing.

Reading the spec, the S400 doesn't seem to allow manual focus, which can be handy. It's "manual" mode seems to be more like the "Program" mode of other Canons -- you don't seem to be able to change shutter speed, aperture, or both. Based on that alone, I'd get the S50/S40, which allows complete control including flash compensation.

The S40/S50 housing doesn't come with a diffuser for the flash. You will want to make one, using an old plastic milk jug or something similar, and rig up a way to fasten it to the housing.

If you go S40/S50, carefully check the operation of the multifunction (R,L,Up,Dn,Push) switch. The Push(select) function failed on my S40 -- it could be mostly worked around, but not completely.
 
I had an S410 and now an S500. They just do not compare to a newer camera like the G11. My S500 now gets used for caving where risk of damage is high.
Canon G11

What is your budget?
 
Skyndive: Yeah, I agree, the manual options of the s40 (it's a package deal so wouldn't get s50) seem to make it the more attractive option at the moment. Does that advantage outweigh the the fact that the s400 is more modern, do you think? I know I can get my hands on a housing for either of these cameras, thats pretty much why I decided on them. I tried to locate a housing first and then see if I could find the relevant camera.

Peter: My budget is small, about 100euro including delivery (I'm in Ireland) so I'm kinda forced to go for second hand older models unfortunately.
 
Advantages to the S400: macro focus 5cm instead of 10cm, smaller lighter camera for surface use.

Advantages to S40: full control (Av, Tv, Manual), as well as flash output control 1/3 eV steps; flash is more powerful.

Battery life? Don't know. The S400 probably has a power switch on the housing. For the S40, no power switch, but you can "turn it off" by holding some other button for 5 seconds, then wake it up when you like. I'm not sure, but I think it is still burning some power when in this "off" mode, which may mean that you cannot prep the camera/housing hours ahead of use.
 
Thanks for that info'! Pretty sure I'll be going for the s45 (seller was mistaken calling it s40).
Anybody know if it accepts 2gb and 4gb capacity CF cards or do you have to buy the smaller ones?
 

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