Good underwater camera

[Puffer Fish]

If all you are going to do is take images in shallow water, then there are dozens of nice camera's that have affordable housings....if you plan on taking anything really serious, they you need a camera that can shoot in RAW..so that would be:

1. Panasonic LX3 (now LX5, which is a far better underwater camera).

2. Canon S90, now S95

3. Canon G11, soon to be G12.

Getting a housing for cannon is easier, but as a usable camera, the Panasonic's are better.

Lighting is nice, but getting a huge strobe is not required. Oddly enough, you can use a dive light, if it has a nice wide beam.

From yesterday, with an S90:

A natural light image in fairly poor vis:

Over 100 ft down, no filter, no strobe:

Knowing how to use the camera, is far more important than the camera, though.

 

[Shayne]

Hi like drmark i use an intova ic-10 with an intova iss-2000 strobe and get really good shots can view them under my name the simple thing about the intova camera set up is the price is relly goooood and you can learn alot more about getting the lighting right with this camera than the more expensive one's view my photos they speak for themselves.

 

[Gilligan]

If you are a "vacation" diver and don't want to spend a lot of money, maybe don't want to buy an external strobe and just want to have a compact camera that takes great photos then IMHO the Canon S95 and Canon housing (soon to be released) is the camera.

It has all the manual functions needed for top quality photos and shoots RAW which you can't beat for non-strobe shots.

The camera's strobe is good for the macro shots as the housing does not block the strobe as with my G10 and shooting RAW on the non-strobe shots will give you the best the camera can produce. The Canon DPP software that comes with the camera is great for processing the RAW files.

All for $600. or so.