digital cameras for beginners

[fishbio101]

i am a high school student and am doing my senoir project on underwater photography and am trying to find a good deal on a digital camera that is good and reliable for a beginner photographer

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Take a serious look at one of the Pentax Optio models ... or one of the Casio Exilim models ... or one of the Fuji F-series cameras.

They each have several versions out which offer a range of features, functions, and resolutions. All are simple to operate, produce good quality pictures, and are reasonably inexpensive. Not all come with underwater housings, so you'll have to include that in your research.

Any of these cameras would suit your needs, based on the limited information you provided. You don't need to be a photographer to get reasonable results ... just a diver who likes to take pictures.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Diver Dennis]

Bob has some good suggestions there and you can also check this thread which alcina put together. http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=156914

There are also some more helpful stickies at the top of the Underwater Photography forum.

 

[Peter Guy]

a. Define good deal

b. Why a digital camera

c. If you just need to take a few pictures, the "good deal" way is to get one of the underwater disposable film cameras or any of the Point 'n Shoot 35 mm. cameras -- very cheap!

 

[Peter_C]

The Canon A710 can be had for a reasonable price and Canon's underwater housing can be found for around $150 from Amazon.com. I like that the fact that for a point and shoot, it has a 6x optical zoom, manual white balance, and I believe it even has an underwater setting, but am not sure.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/ Check here for more info on any camera you are thinking about.

From Costco's website which includes a 2 gig card too.

Canon A710 IS 7.1MP 2.5"
6x Optical 24x Total
Image Stabilizer
& Bonus ATP 2GB SD Card
Movie Mode with Sound
20 Shooting Modes
$269.99
Item # 174706
Shipping & Handling included *

 

[TSandM]

I like my Olympus 720 that Peter got me for Christmas. I'm no photographer, and the camera is simple enough to operate that I have no problems with it. The camera and housing is still pretty small, so I don't mind carrying it underwater, and the best thing is that the camera itself is somewhat waterproof (they rate it to 10 feet for an hour, but what that means to me is that if the housing leaks a little, I won't have fried the camera). And it wasn't terribly expensive.

It's a lovely little camera to carry around on land, too, for those "I wish I had a camera" moments.

 

[lifeisfullofgooddives]

Why do you need to buy a camera for the school project?

IF you happen to already have a camera, you could search to see if a housing already exists for it.

 

[alcina]

Lots of good suggestions and questions already...what do you want your camera to do?

I have one of the Casio Exlim cameras and it's OK. Very grainy images in anything but bright light. I carry this camera around in a pocket a lot of the time. I wouldn't house it.

I have one of the Olympus water/shock proof cameras and it's OK. Images not as grainy as the Casio in similar conditions. It's the one I grab to wander along the beach or out on the boat etc. Fun camera. I wouldn't house it. One of my friends has one and she does have the uw housing. She's delighted with her images. I haven't been impressed with them at all.

I have several Canon A series cameras and love them. I use the Canon housings. All the manual control one could want, good movie mode playback on the computer, easy to use, range of prices available and good results from the outset. Better in lower light than the two above.

Fuji has a couple of offerings (F30, I think) that do not have manual controls, but that produce really nice images. They are also meant to perform very well in low light.

There are so many options out there that it can be tough to decide. There are very few true losers in this category, really.