Cozumel divers - what camera are you using these days?

[robint]

Why does that make it not a good choice? That looks like a pretty solid housing. You can get the set at B&H for $1,057.50. That doesn't include off camera flash, but you can go the diffuser/pop up flash route that has worked well for me.

Edit to add:
Flash Connection and Use

• Dual fiber-optic cable ports in a removable plate enable connection of optional external strobes, which provide enhanced illumination and color correction for better image quality
• Camera's built-in flash fires to trigger external strobes as slave units
• If using camera's flash without external strobe, put included diffuser over it to soften it and ensure that it will not create backscatter, glare, or hard shadows

Ron says this is one he was considering until he read all the rave reviews for the Oly TG-5, which is several hundred cheaper.
I think these two are in the running right now.

 

[robint]

Olympus TG-3 owner here with the Olympus dive housing. A great camera with an absolutely fantastic UW Macro mode (for the price of course). By itself it is a great and virtually indestructible pocket travel camera. With the dive housing it becomes a full blown economical dive camera in a small package. If it get's stolen, lost or sinks to the bottom so be it - no "2nd mortgage on the house" set-up is lost. You can build and add to the basic setup as you see fit. I say good and even great cameras are pretty cheap, it's what you care to add in terms of housings and lights/strobes that really ups the ante.

Also, our TG-3 was a replacement for our Oly 5050 that was stolen. That old 5050 was a FANTASTIC camera with its Zeis lens but the focus/shutter lag stank on it compared to the newer cameras. Personally, I think that 5050 took better pics than the TG-3 but that lag meant we missed lots of pics we can capture with the TG-3.

Yeah, that shutter lag on the 5050z was nuts. The TG-5 is supposed to be much better than the TG-3 even, he has been reading all the reviews for months, and the layout of it is just like the 5050z so he says no learning curve. He likes shooting Raw and it has that, too. So we'll see what he decides soon.
We have a camping/hiking 3-day trip in April to Grand Canyon, then a cruise in May where we are diving Grand Turk and St Thomas. Nice thing about cruising is that we can dive a new destination and see if we think its worth a future trip or not, without commiting to a whole week and airfare costs.

Thanks everyone, I'll let you know what he gets...should be in a week or so.
robin

 

[kmarks]

Ron says this is one he was considering until he read all the rave reviews for the Oly TG-5, which is several hundred cheaper.
I think these two are in the running right now.

The TG5 is much cheaper, but it is only waterproof to 50' without an additional housing (which costs about the same as the camera). It shoots in 12-bit raw vs. the G7x's 14-bit (more color depth, less noise in the dark areas) and has a 1/2.3" sensor. For me, that would be a deal breaker because that is a really tiny sensor, meaning very tiny photoreceptors that are going to be overworked to get good images in low light situations. Even with a good processor, you might find that the images are a little muddy looking because of automatic noise reduction. The G7x has a 1" sensor, which is a little over 4x the size, nearly as big as the 4/3 sensor in the OMD EM5 mentioned above.

Good luck with the decision.

ETA: The Sony RX100 that @outofofficebrb uses is about $450 at B&H and the compatible ikelite housing is another $450. It also uses a 1" CMOS and Sony is known for having the best low light sensors on the market (so much that Nikon uses Sony sensors in their flag ship DSLRs). Underwater photography is pretty much all low light.

I'll stop trying to spend your money now.

 

[cicopo]

I have found a couple of reviews for the canon including this one using the Fantasea Housing.

Review of the Canon G7 X Mark II in Fantasea Housing

This one lists the other housings available Canon G7 X Mark II Camera Review

And this thread is at one of the photography forums I belong to & the thread starter is a diver but it looks like he hasn't used it that way. I'm guessing he still uses his G 16 for diving. G7X Mark II Photo Thread

And one of his threads using the G 16 (in Cozumel) Cozumel February 2017

 

[robint]

The TG5 is much cheaper, but it is only waterproof to 50' without an additional housing (which costs about the same as the camera). It shoots in 12-bit raw vs. the G7x's 14-bit (more color depth, less noise in the dark areas) and has a 1/2.3" sensor. For me, that would be a deal breaker because that is a really tiny sensor, meaning very tiny photoreceptors that are going to be overworked to get good images in low light situations. Even with a good processor, you might find that the images are a little muddy looking because of automatic noise reduction. The G7x has a 1" sensor, which is a little over 4x the size, nearly as big as the 4/3 sensor in the OMD EM5 mentioned above.

Good luck with the decision.

ETA: The Sony RX100 that @outofofficebrb uses is about $450 at B&H and the compatible ikelite housing is another $450. It also uses a 1" CMOS and Sony is known for having the best low light sensors on the market (so much that Nikon uses Sony sensors in their flag ship DSLRs). Underwater photography is pretty much all low light.

I'll stop trying to spend your money now.

Yes, we would get the housing for any camera, would never use it even for snorkeling without one.

 

[kmarks]

Yes, we would get the housing for any camera, would never use it even for snorkeling without one.

Some years back, before I started diving, I bought a Pentax WG-3. It could go to 45 feet without a housing and the deepest I ever took it was about 30 feet at Columbia Shallows and Paradise Reef. I ended up getting the S110 I have now when I went to power it on, days before a vacation, and it was dead because it had flooded at some point. I opened it up, cleaned out a lot of salt, silt, and rust, and somehow managed to get it working again, well enough to take it on one more trip a year later, when it flooded again, even worse, at about 1 FSW. Not long after that I read about how most of the ratings for how deep a waterproof electronic can go are mere guesses, based on "Well, we very gently lowered it into a completely still pool that was 20 feet deep and it didn't break, so... 100 meters?" Even if it ever actually got as deep as they rate it, slight movements or more than a few minutes at the depth can be enough to compromise the seals. Now I know that when they say 40m, I'll stick to 30m and no more.

 

[cicopo]

Out of curiosity what DSLR system have you been using & what software do you use for the RAW conversions? I'm guessing it will also handle the Olympus RAW files but if not their software is a free download. No idea how much latitude it has compared to Lightroom (which I don't use) or Photoshop's Adobe Camera RAW which I do use along with CS6.
On another note there is no question that a bigger sensor is a good thing but I've printed 17 X 22 prints from my G 9 that were every bit as nice as similar photos shot with my DSLR's. I did a test print of one of my Eagle Ray shots from my Feb trip & it should print out quite nicely from that old body. It will be done at 16 X 20.

 

[robint]

I am guessing you are asking me for my husband, Ron..... he has been using a Canon 450D camera with a Sea& Sea housing, strobes, focus light, etc. Editing RAW he uses Elements 7.0 I think.

 

[cicopo]

That is what I was asking. He may have to update his software to use most relatively new cameras if he's using that old a version of Elements. Adobe Camera RAW is a free plug in for the older versions of Elements but I seriously doubt it will run on that version. SEE

Camera Raw plug-in and Adobe application compatibility

Cameras supported by Camera Raw

According to those pages he'll need Elements 14 or newer for it to process the files from a TG 5

Edited to add that you might also be forced to update your computer OS too depending on system requirements for the new RAW processor. I had to when I bought my Canon 7D2 which is why I thought to check with you.

 

[scubafanatic]

Also....I guess I should have explained to you this..... we call it the Death Star.

View attachment 450363

He wants to downsize!

Yes, disturbingly Borg-like!