Choices Choices

[Jonathan]

I like the Sony's - I have the DCS-85 and love it, topside and under water. Still more of a snapper though so could have my mind changed.

I know a number of people with P5 - P10 and they all love them. Very easy to slip into a bc poket and get when you want it.

From other manuafacturers the main gripes seem to be battery life and fogging up. Sony battery life is fantasic - with the camera and lcd permanently on you can get a full days live aboard diving before a recharge. On the fogging side it happened to me once in about 80 dives - I suspect it was me rather than the camera...

Having said that I do like the new waterproof (still need a housing for diving) Olympus cameras - could us that for snapping and the 5050 for more professional stuff.

You do have to hand it to Olympus on the range and support of their cameras for diving. I would guess 80% out here are Olympus

Jonathan

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

Ruu once bubbled...
Well,

Having poked around, looks like my options currently look like this:

1) Canon A70 + housing - $460 for both online. Takes four batteries, so it doesn't die out after ten minutes and uses compactflash so it can go all the way up to 1G (at least the CF cards do, so hopefully the camera can).

This is what I have.

I wanted a smaller pocket sized camera that would do the job on land that would give me good control over settings. The A70 has a little more heft and as you mentioned takes AA batteries which you can swap out easily when needed. I already a few CF cards from a Kodak digital I had, so new memory wasn't a issue either. The housings for the Canon cameras are cheaper than those I've seen for the Olympus cameras.

I've been quite happy with my choice.

Marc

 

[Ruu]

Zept - How long was your DM course? If I do the divemaster course I figure I will spend at least 3 months, probably more somewhere with good diving (I would probably stick around for a while after the course). Compare this with my current diving twice (maybe three times if I've been a good boy) a year - I figured with that much opportunity I would probably take more pictures and deserver a slightly better camera. Its as good an excuse as any to get a better camera, and I would definitely want something capable of taking digital pictures. I should find out a little more about the job situation at the end of the week - we'll find out a little more then whether I am doing a week in Florida between jobs or six months in Egypt between careers.

I agree that the Canons definitely seem to have cheaper (and more readily available, from what I can see) housings than the Sonys' and Olympus' - I'm not in a position to judge whether they are better right now (obviously).

As far as S45 / S50 - how would they compare to the Oly 4000 / 5050? They seem to be competing against one another on price.

Dave

 

[ReyeR]

As far as S45 / S50 - how would they compare to the Oly 4000 / 5050? They seem to be competing against one another on price.

Here's what I posted on another board:

//----------------------------------------------//
I don't have an S50 (perhaps someone who does can fill in the blanks) but just looking at the canon site:

The C5050 has a:
- Hot shoe
- Histogram and
- 8 MyMode settings

Yes you can use standard AA batteries (NiMH recommended) in the C5050. Battery life (dpreview.com) C5050: 3 hr 48 mins (1600mAh); S50 2 hr 39 mins (NB-2L)

C5050 works well with both the Ikelite TTL and Manual slave sensor.

Both have a 'slave' flash (or non-TTL) mode where the pre-flash can be switched off. The S50 has 3 levels, the C5050 10. The slave flash of the C5050 will fire in continuous shooting mode - not sure about the S50.

PT-015
- has double serviceable o-rings - not sure about the Canon housing
- all buttons/ features of the camera can be accessed just like you would without the housing - you have to use workarounds with the Canon (see: here - bottom of the page).

The 2 most annoying things (in my opinion) about the C5050 - holding down the +/- button and turning the jog dial to adjust aperture in Manual mode and waiting for the flash to recycle in TTL mode.

What I like about the S50:
- features packed into a camera of that size
- Intervalometer
//----------------------------------------------//

Other differences:

The C5050 has a brighter lens 1:1.8 over the 2.8 on the S50.
Macro on the S50: 10 cm (W)/ 30 cm (T) - 50 cm
Macro on the C5050 20cm - infinity; SuperMacro 2cm - infinity (zoom locked to 11.9mm)
C5050 is faster in continuous shooting mode.
It also has 2 card slots to hold different cards at the same time.
The PT015 housing is rated to 40m over Canon's 30m.
The C5050 is rated to have a noiser picture possibly due to it's more aggressive sharpening and contrast which can be turned down in the menu. You can compare the full-rez pics here: S50 and C5050
On a minor note the C5050 can shoot unlimited length movies w sound - about 1500 secs @ 320 x 240 w sound on a 512 CF card.

BTW the Olympus housings are readily available and cheap too.

 

[Finesse]

I realize this is getting further from where you want to be (cost and size??) ...But ReyeR does a nice comparison .....

And to add to it

ReyeR once bubbled...


The 2 most annoying things (in my opinion) about the C5050 - holding down the +/- button and turning the jog dial to adjust aperture in Manual mode

It also has 2 card slots to hold different cards at the same time.

The Ikelite housing has the feature that depresses the buttons allowing one hand control of the Aperture, shutter speed, Flash comp etc..... I really like that feature as you can leave it depressed and easily adjusts levels (using the jog dial) to get the "perfect" shot.

The other point is the 2 card slot ....... For underwater that is phenomenal......you can shot huge files and never need to worry about filling the card up .... as you have two... hence no need to open the housing between dives to swap memory cards

Again ...sorry for getting further from where you started this post but just an FYI !!!!

 

[Ruu]

Finesse once bubbled...
Again ...sorry for getting further from where you started this post but just an FYI !!!!

I consider all of this vauable input - there is no such thing as an over-informed decision. It surely beats wandering into BestBuy and listening to a teenager with a week's worth of camera training.

Dave

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

If you'd like to compare the different Canon cameras mentioned, go here. It'll compare up to three different models at a time side by side.

Keep in mind that Canon does not make their own housings for any of the G models.

Marc

 

[Ruu]

Hmm...

I didn't realise that there were two types of compactflash. The A70 only takes type I (only the S range seem to take both I and II), which means it's limited to 512MB (I think - can anyone confirm this?) - hardly a big issue on a 3MP camera, and I probably wouldn't ever need more, but still. I suppose I'm complaining about absolutely nothing really - a 1G flash card currently costs as much as the camera itself...

Dave

 

[Scubatooth]

Ruu once bubbled...
Hmm...

I didn't realise that there were two types of compactflash. The A70 only takes type I (only the S range seem to take both I and II), which means it's limited to 512MB (I think - can anyone confirm this?) - hardly a big issue on a 3MP camera, and I probably wouldn't ever need more, but still. I suppose I'm complaining about absolutely nothing really - a 1G flash card currently costs as much as the camera itself...

Dave

yes that is correct about the memory forthe cameras. type I compact flash memory is 3.3 mm think as were type 2 is 5 mm think this is why type 1 can fit in II but not vice-a-versa.

as for only being limited to a 512 Cf card that would be more then enough room for me on 3MP camera because event at fine compression levels (IE very little shrinking) i could still get over 400 pictures from the card and you more then double that by going to a normal compression rate.)


FWIW

 

[Ruu]

I guess its like finesse says - the less you have to unseal and reseal the housing on a days diving the better. With a a 3G type II card (lord only knows how much one of these costs), you could probably just weld the housing shut.

Dave