good, cheap camera?

[JahJahwarrior]

I guess I might be looking for a tutorial on choosing a good first camera. I have a few decent digital cameras, like a Kodak Easyshare C533. I also have an old SLR I love, a Pentax A1000 or something like that. I'mhaving trouble finding a good cheap camera to take with me on a vacation trip in a few months. If I could find a good housing for either the Kodak or my Pentax, I'd love that. Otherwise, I'd settle for any old 35mm. I won't be using this all the time, but I'm going on a cruise in december. My parents will help me pay for some diving onthe trip, but they want good pictures. I don't want to buy a cheapo disposable, I'm not sure how deep those are rated for. My parents would be willing to buy a housing for a camera we already have if it were decently priced, my dad would use it to take a camera fishing in his boat. I'm just having trouble finding a good place to get a housing, especially for the Kodak C533.

 

[alcina]

Follow the pink link in my signature Ideas on cameras, places to go to find housings...bunches of info...

 

[JahJahwarrior]

alright, I'll read it. I read it once, but missed some of the links at the bottom apparently

 

[RonFrank]

I guess I might be looking for a tutorial on choosing a good first camera.

You have failed to discuss what *good* or *cheap* means?

There are a lot of posts about reasonably priced camera's that have housings available. In general I'd say plan on spending at least $450 for a new digital PnS with a housing, and more for what I'd consider *good* at least new.

However there are a TON of options out there especially if you include the used market.

Maybe a bit more info on your part would help others provide better advice. Budget is a BIG factor, so start with that!

 

[JahJahwarrior]

$100. Which completely seperates me from 99% of the UW camera market. I cannot find a case for any of the three cameras my family has, two different Kodak digitals and an old Pentax SLR. I've looked at some of the Sea and Sea cheaper cameras....I want something more than a disposable because I would take the camera with me to more places than just on this vacation, however I'm used to working with an SLR (even though I'm not that good and don't understand all the camera terms ) and it would depress me to use it on land. For land, I'll be taking my SLR and a buttload of B&W film. I'm probably only diving twice during the trip (one dive I think is a two tank dive).

 

[MarkH]

You can get an older Ikelite SLR housing on Ebay for around that. most of them are fairly interchngeable with different SLRs. The problem with them is that they are bulky for travelling (flying), especially as you are only doing a couple of dives.

 

[jeraldjcook]

Canon has their new line of digital cameras coming out so you could buy one of their old models cheap and pick up a Canon housing. I have a A620 and Canon just release 3 new [up to 10mp] that use the EXACT same body so I can upgrade my camera in the future and use the same housing. Might look into it.

 

[Tollie]

For $100 you are really limited.

There are good "reusable" film cameras with u/w cases that are rated down to 100 feet. They produce good pictures but not great. Given your budget and the limited amount of diving that you plan on doing I would recomend this route... using one of your existing digitals for the land based portion of your trip.

 

[jeraldjcook]

For $100, Newegg.com sometimes has an underwater camera. I bought it and promptly returned it. It took horrible pictures. Only other option for $100 is a film camera, but I would waste my money on one of those. $200 is probably the cheapest you could do it.

 

[RonFrank]

I have THIS camera that I'm going to be putting on ebay.

If you want it, I'll sell it for $50 shipped in the USA. I can take some photo's of it when I get home if you are interested. It is new and unused. It's not going to be the BEST UW camera, but a couple steps up from a disposable film camera.

If you are interested let me know, otherwise I'm going to put it up on ebay.

NOTE: Edited and replaced the link with the RIGHT camera.