I own an FE 280. Any feedback on this camera?

[Sonet]

My wife got me an Olympus FE 280 last christmas. As I was messing around with it I found the underwater settings. I looked up the housing just to find out that it has been discontinued. I can still find the housing but my concern is that if some part of the housing breaks will I be able to get a replacement? Another question would be... does Ikelite make housing for this camera.

And last but not least, is it a good u/w camera or should I invest in something else?

Any suggestions will be appreciated:14:

 

[Dannybot]

The Oly housing is cheap and easy to use. You get full controls. I have an FE-230, the predecessor to the FE-280. It takes good photos on land, but the shutter lag is frustrating underwater, also the underwater settings don't do much to help with the color correction. The onboard flash works well on extreme closeups, but if the water has anything at all in it, you'll get backscatter. I got an Olympus UFL-1 strobe, adn mace a fiber optic cable to go with it, but I won't get a chance to use it for a couple more weeks.

If all you want is a basic P&S to take UW photos, the it is an okay setup. You can find some of my pictures at Picasa Web Albums - Mary & Danny Look in the Roatan and Grand Cayman folders, all the underwater photos were take with the FE-230 and are unedited, some of the Belize photos were taken with a Sea&Sea camera that the DM had, these are the ones with yellow date stamp.

 

[Sonet]

Thank you for the info.
I just want a point and shoot to take pics for myself. On the other hand people tell me that when you start with underwater photography you get hooked. For now I guess it will do but if I decided to get into it a little more serious i will have to post another thread.