From canon s500 to ?

[hankthecowdog]

This was my first underwater camera and I was thrilled with what I got from the very start. I thought it would take hundreds of dives to get decent underwater photos. Even took the 130' rig to 200' once with no flood. But now some things nag at me and as I consider a strobe maybe it is also time to upgrade.

I know there are some great threads here with all the information I need but maybe someone can help me with a short answer.

Given that all the favorite cameras here are very good cameras my priority is shutter response time and a very good stock macro mode. I'm not interested in RAW yet. Am also of course looking to get a strobe.

Price is a consideration.

 

[alcina]

Canon A series, Inon strobes = short answer!

 

[hankthecowdog]

Thanks Alcina. My shutter lag is about 1.25, I would like it to be zero but half that would be worth a new camera. Tired of getting photos of fish tails.

 

[DesertEagle]

Most of the newer cameras are a lot faster. And they have better noise performance, too.

February and September are when most of the new models come out. Many of the newer Canon housings have an ovular port, which is going to make adding a wide angle lens difficult. These new models like the G9 and A650 would be fantastic in an Ikelite housing (when one comes out). The Cannon WP-DC16 and WP-DC18 housings for these models do have ovular ports, so be careful.

If you want to do this on a budget, consider the Canon A570is. It's got plenty of resolution and has the current Digic III chip. Focusing will be way faster. The Canon housing has a normal port, and Inon supports it with their lenses. The A570is is under $200. You get full manual control and AA batteries.

Fuji is coming out with the F50fd. They are finally bringing back full manual control, and the likelyhood that their housing will be supported with external lenses is high. They've bumped the resolution up to 12MP, which I think is too high, but the ISO performance should still be better than the Canon G9. I've got a Fuji F31fd, which has very little noise at ISO 400. Last weekend I took 400 photos at a friend's wedding and still had plenty of battery juice. My guess is that the F50fd will have low noise at 200, and acceptable at 400. They've added optical stabalization and now take SD cards.

The Inon strobes are great for small cameras. They magnify the small camera's pre-flash, so the small camera won't have to fire a bigger main flash. That saves battery power. You can later upgrade the fiberoptic connection into an electrical cord with a DSLR.

On my Olympus SP-310, I use a Sea & Sea YS-60/S, which was purchased from the factory closeout at $125. I added a Heinrichs-Weikamp optical adapter from Reef Photo for $130. Now the S model is sold out, so they have the Nikonos 5-pin models for $150. Reef has a slightly different optical adapter for that. While not as good as the Inon strobe, it was an inexpensive upgrade. I'd recommend it if your camera gives you the ability to dial up or downt he flash output. I think the A570 does, which means you can do all the strobe controls through the camera. Of course you can shoot half, full and TTL too.