Decent Entry Level Camera

[ScubaFeenD]

This has probably been covered many times, but I cant find any threads on it. Does anyone know what UW camera is pretty good for entry level wanna be photographers? I would like a camera that takes decent pictures, will allow me to learn UW photography on, and can take video too. Also, I am looking to spend no more than 200-300

All suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[adambayam]

Intova has the Sport 8 which goes down to 30' without the housing and to 130' with housing. Intova also has the IC12 with a max depth of 180'. Both are in your price range.

Getting a budget-priced camera is a good idea because it will give you the opportunity to hone your underwater photography skills before starting to spend the big bucks.

Also keep in mind that most of the big name camera companies, i.e. Sony, Olympus, Pansonic, Canon have underwater housings for their cameras, but it'll be a little bit more.

Enjoy!

 

[Divernoob]

I'd recommend a camera with a manual mode that allows you to independently adjust f stop, shutter speed and ISO. Not sure what models there are in your price range, though.

 

[stinkynewf]

Getting a budget-priced camera is a good idea because it will give you the opportunity to hone your underwater photography skills before starting to spend the big bucks.

This is really good advice as the most important underwater photography skill is diving.

Don't over tech in the beginning, get something small and easy to handle and don't worry too much about things like shooting with manual settings. It's much more important to learn to hover 4 inches off the silt and approach critters that are hiding under things without scaring them so they retreat then it is to be able to set your camera beyond automatic. It's also much easier to learn the diving part of uw photography with a small point-n-shoot than it is with a larger rig. You'll know when you're at the point that it's time to upgrade. Even when/if you do upgrade, sometimes it's nice to have a small camera to take on a leisurely dive.

I put pix in my gallery that I shot yesterday with a Canon Elph (sd700) in a Canon housing. Nothing special just used the uw mode, turned the flash on or off as needed and color corrected in post.

Happy shooting.