I would like to switch to digital........

[caymaniac]

I have used a housed camera for over twenty years and had great results. I would like to switch to digital now. I'm thinking of spending a couple of thousand. What would you suggest? What kind of problems am I going to have?

Thanks,
Caymaniac

 

[Dee]

And I don't regret it at all. As for problems, I doubt you'll have many. You're already used to dealing with a housing. You'll need fresh batteries about every other dive. A good charger (less than $50) and a couple sets of rechargeable 1800 mAh batteries will solve that. Instead of film you'll need memory cards. My Olumpus uses Smartmedia and a 128mg card costs me $40-50. I have one card that's had over 1000 pics written and removed to it and it's still going strong.

One advantage of digital is viewing the pics. You can make gross cuts by looking at the 2" monitor but you'll need a bigger screen to make final decisions because you just can't see fine detail in the camera monitor. On a trip you'll want to download the memory cards, if no other reason to see how you're doing and what the pics are looking like, so I'd suggest a laptop. You can always buy several memory cards and just d/l when you get home.

Olympus, Sony and Cannon are the most popular for housed u/w use, with Olympus in the lead. My system...Oly C-4040, Oly PT-010 housing, Fisheye tray, S&S YS90DX duo strobe, MAHA batt. charger and 3 sets of batteries, with various SM cards cost me around $1600 if I was to add up every nickle and dime.

Problems with actually using digital cameras...the only one I can think of now is 'shutter lag'. Until you get the hang of 'tracking' your subject as you push the button, it'll drive you nuts! But all the other advantages of digital far out weigh it. The Olympus, and I'm sure the others, have pre-focus and several other features that will help you learn and manage the lag problem.

I'll not go back to film. I can take over 70 pics per dive (more or less depending on the resolution), I can see those pics before printing and adjust any minor detail I need to (ex. deleting backscatter), and I print only those pics I want. After a trip, I know longer pay $150+ for film developing and start by throwing half of them away. I may pay more per pic for prints now but those pics are keepers and not make dos...know what I mean?

Here's a few of my first...

Taken ambient light only...

Here's a link to my first digital pics taken in CoCo View Resort, Roatan

 

[CheeseWhiz]

Great pictures!! I too switched to digital (at least on land) some years ago and don't regret it a bit. I still enjoy my 35mm camera, but the last time I used it was 2 years ago at an auto race...the digital "shutter lag" you mentioned was more than I could tolerate.

I have a rudimentary film camera for u/w work, but an investigating digital alternatives. Dumb question du jour....what is a fisheye tray? Sounds like something they would have at a Japanese seafood buffet.

Thanks.

 

[Dee]

LOL...does sound like an entree' doesn't it?

Here it is...Fish Eye Tray

When I had my S&S MMII set-up, I had some flexible arms that I really loved and hated to quit using. When I say the Fish Eye tray it was the answer to what I'd been hunting for the digital...small, secure, flexible arms with a counter weight.

 

[CheeseWhiz]

Thanks for your help. Your testimonial and excellent pictures have gone a long way toward helping me reach a decision on a u/w digital camera setup.

 

[Dee]

Glad I could be of some help!

 

[tx.lakerats]

Have you had any problems with your housing on the digital?

 

[Troy33]

I will never give up film, but I have a digital camera and I am buying a housing for it. I cant tell you h ow the photos are underwater yet of course but I can tell you how they are on land. It is a Sony CD300, now discontinued but they have a new CD400 a 4.4 megapixel version that is of course cheaper than my camera. The ole, they get better and cheaper. It takes Great Photos! The reason I went to that camera is because it doesnt use a memery card, it burns the image right on a CD a 3in CD With my camera I get about 108 photos on a disk at Very High Resolution equal to 3 rolls of 36 photos. Plus I can put CD-RW in it and reuse them for other things. I have found a couple online photo places to get nice prints from, other than my printer at home of course. Good Luck with your switching to digital, hopefully mine will be a good learning experience from my film camera.

Troy Ostendorf

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by tx.lakerats
Have you had any problems with your housing on the digital?

I haven't had any problems with the housing at all. As long as you're careful in inspecting and preparing the O-ring, there's not much to it.

 

[Wally_lamma]

Your pic's are great.
I will echo the film thing also. Only used my MM-II twice before trying a digital.

I have been trying out a OLY D150 with a housing. Seems to work good.
Do you use any outboard filters or lens? Also do you use a different light setting when your underwater or do you let the camera do the selection. As you will gather from my questions the OLY D-150 is pretty much an point and shoot as compared to the MM-II or other high end Digitals.


Thanks
CHrisR