asterosdeals
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Have an old Canon T4i sitting around with some lenses. Is it still worth it to invest in an underwater case and start using it for underwater photography?
Canon T4i still good?
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Chris Ross
Contributor
The camera is only a small component of an UW system and the answer is really it depends on what lenses you have, what you like to shoot and where and how much you want to spend.
Useful lenses underwater might include the 60mm macro and various wide angle zooms around 16mm equivalent focal length at the wide end (Canon 10-22?) or perhaps a fisheye lens. If you focused exclusively during a dive on macro or wide angle then using a dedicated setup may suit you, but if you just want some nice pics which might be a nudi one minute and a giant sea bass the next that's another thing - an SLR is less well suited for that scenario.
Where you want to shoot is also important, a big housing and ports is harder to pack for air travel but less of a problem if diving locally.
$$ is another issue you could buy a housing and a compact like the G7XIII for a few hundred $ less than just the housing for your DLSR if purchased new and you haven't even purchased a port as yet. Your camera is fairly old and housings have likely been discontinued for it so you would have to shop around for a used housing. Do you have a budget in mind?
An SLR is less flexible in that you generally either go in with a port/lens for macro or for wide angle options to both are limited and tend not to do either as well as they could. A compact like the Canon G7XII has a zoom that covers a reasonable range and you can add wet lenses to go wider or for macro.
Then there's the question of strobes - you can generally get away with a smaller cheaper strobe with a compact - compared to a DSLR.
Useful lenses underwater might include the 60mm macro and various wide angle zooms around 16mm equivalent focal length at the wide end (Canon 10-22?) or perhaps a fisheye lens. If you focused exclusively during a dive on macro or wide angle then using a dedicated setup may suit you, but if you just want some nice pics which might be a nudi one minute and a giant sea bass the next that's another thing - an SLR is less well suited for that scenario.
Where you want to shoot is also important, a big housing and ports is harder to pack for air travel but less of a problem if diving locally.
$$ is another issue you could buy a housing and a compact like the G7XIII for a few hundred $ less than just the housing for your DLSR if purchased new and you haven't even purchased a port as yet. Your camera is fairly old and housings have likely been discontinued for it so you would have to shop around for a used housing. Do you have a budget in mind?
An SLR is less flexible in that you generally either go in with a port/lens for macro or for wide angle options to both are limited and tend not to do either as well as they could. A compact like the Canon G7XII has a zoom that covers a reasonable range and you can add wet lenses to go wider or for macro.
Then there's the question of strobes - you can generally get away with a smaller cheaper strobe with a compact - compared to a DSLR.
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