Good entry level SLR camera for underwater photography beginner?

[Ben Prusinski]

I want to learn underwater photography without spending a small fortune on an expensive SLR camera. What entry level SLR cameras would be great way to get started as a beginner? I am looking at Canon, Olympus, and Nikon. The underwater housing and strobes cost more than the cameras! Also what places are good for buying one? Backscatter in Monterey has a good selection but MSRP no discount pricing.

 

[Steve Barsky]

I want to learn underwater photography without spending a small fortune on an expensive SLR camera. What entry level SLR cameras would be great way to get started as a beginner? I am looking at Canon, Olympus, and Nikon. The underwater housing and strobes cost more than the cameras! Also what places are good for buying one? Backscatter in Monterey has a good selection but MSRP no discount pricing.

Ben,
This may sound stupid, but you need to see what housings are available first. If you settle on a particular camera, you may find the housings are not readily available - for example, I am sure there are less housings available for Olympus than Canon or Nikon. See which cameras have the most housings available, which will give you an indication of their popularity. You may also want to look at some of the smaller cameras today, like the Sony Nex7. Traveling with an SLR, dome ports, strobes and arms is a real nightmare today. You might be better served by a smaller camera that you can carry on the plane if you plan on diving in the tropics.

Housing choices are better today than they probably have ever been in the past. I personally like Aquatica, which I think is a good compromise between quality and price.

I have done business with Backscatter and have found their service to be very good. Yes, you can probably find gear cheaper elsewhere, but you may not get the help with putting a system together.

 

[derway]

The only really good entry level SLRs are the canon ones like ts2i. They have a million housings and can take the full set of lenses, including the tokina 10-17, which is the ideal wide angle lens for many uw photogs.

I am perfectly happy with ikelite housings, and been using many different ones since the early 90s. I see no reason to ever spend more money, unless you are trying to go pro, or shoot underwater many months per year. The ikelite is half the price of the alu housings.

The nikon entry SLRs do not have a focus motor, so they cannot do auto focus with many of the lenses that you would want to use, including the tokina. You have to go up to a d7000 to get a really functional DSLR.

Oly's SLRs are not up to snuff compared with canon or nikon.

I agree with Steve, that at this point, a good interchangeable lens, mirrorless camera makes much more sense, for many folks. The micro 4/3 cams have sensors very close the the sensor in the DSLRs, at much less weight. They are made by both oly and panasonic, and have vastly more lens offerings than the sony NEX family.

The oly micro 4/3 cameras have lots going for them. And oly makes quite reasonable price housings for many of their cameras.

My current dream camera is the oly omd em5, which has the latest and greatest sensor for this size, which is fully competitive with all the APSC DSLRs for image quality, and dynamic range. Fantastic auto focus, and a built in electronic view finder. The oly housing is due out this summer.

You can read about it at dpreview and wetpixel.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Cool thanks guys for the tips! I will check out Canon and Ikelite for a good travel camera that I can use for warm water dive trips as well as for underwater photos in Monterey and California. I want something better than a point and shoot but not as expensive as a high end pro SLR camera that costs a small fortune.

 

[alcina]

Yup, figure out the housing first. All dslrs are more than capable so aim for something in your budget and it will be fine. Forget all the pixel peeping reviews, there really isn't a bad choice out there at the moment. Don't forget to add lenses & ports to your budgeting.

You may also want to consider something like a Canon G12 system that is
- less expensive
- offers full manual controls if you want them
- allows RAW shooting
- has a variety of housings in different price ranges & with different expansion capabilities
- less bulky
- lighter
- has no need to keep buying more lenses
- does a great job above and below

Perhaps talk to Reef Photo & Video Reef Photo & Video!, The Underwater Photo Pros, Backscatter etc - they may have second hand dslr units and/or will be able to direct to what is in your budget for your needs.

 

[mjh]

If I were starting fresh in the hobby it would be a hard choice between an Entry Level DSLR and the new 4/3 cameras..... I would take a HARD look at the Sony Nex7, Nex5n, the Panasonic GX1 and any of the Olympus 4/3s EP3, EPL3 EPM1 or the new OMD EM5. I shoot the Nikon D7000 in an Aquatica housing, and love it, but these new 4/3 cameras are making me think twice about a DSLR.....

 

[PeeBee UK]

Another vote for M4/3, I am a big Olympus fan especially when combined with the Panasonic lenses which also fit perfectly. If starting out and wanting to keep costs down look on the classifieds on here regularly 2nd hand systems often come up at fairly sensible prices. OLympus make their own housings and they are very good although rated to 40m or 45m. Many 3rd party manufacturers make deeper rated housings but for most people 45m is plenty. I've taken my Oly EPL1 housing to 58m without any major issues although a couple of the buttons became a bit sticky. These will give you an idea of what these M4/3 cameras can do in my hands, you could probably do better .

 

[t-mac]

Nice shots PeeBeeUK! Of course, this is all a matter of perspective and this exercise is kind of like shopping for an entry level Ferrari! Even on the cheaper end after adding housing and strobe(s) it still leaves a big mark on the wallet. Good luck, Ben!

 

[PeeBee UK]

Nice shots PeeBeeUK! Of course, this is all a matter of perspective and this exercise is kind of like shopping for an entry level Ferrari! Even on the cheaper end after adding housing and strobe(s) it still leaves a big mark on the wallet. Good luck, Ben!

Tell me about it t-mac, I'm planning on upgrading to the EM5 in the next couple of months and since I'll also be keeping the ePL1 setup it's new housing, new body, new ports etc etc, it's gonna hurt ;0

 

[t-mac]

Tell me about it t-mac, I'm planning on upgrading to the EM5 in the next couple of months and since I'll also be keeping the ePL1 setup it's new housing, new body, new ports etc etc, it's gonna hurt ;0

I feel your pain. Ouch! Diving is merely expensive; underwater photography is financially masochistic!