Ikelite housing in a Sony Point and Shoot

[susan6868]

Hi guys, this is probably WAY beneath those of you on this board, but here's the thing.
I have a SONY PSC-P200 digital camera. I wanted tto take some pics underwater, so I bought a Sea&Sea 35m MX10, which, has the strobe etc, and I get mediocre pictures. The cost of film and developing is killing me.
I'm thinking of buying a housing for the SONY from Ikelite and going with that instead. Easier to travel with, cheaper than buying a whole new digital setup, etc. I'm a vacation diver and would be taking shots simply to share with friends and family.
I can't afford to invest in the tray and strobe from ikelite, and just wondered if you thought I'd get at least decent, not award winning pics with the internal flash. I'm only doing tropical diving with great vis. The ikelite housing costs more than my camera, so before I spendthe money, I thought I'd hang it out here on the boards.
Another Scubaboard member just posted pics from a Casio Exlim Z1000 and they're incredible with the internal flash only. I hate to have to buy another digital, and housing, but if you think the Casio is way better than the Sony, I'd consider it. The only difference I can see is the meapixels. Not a big deal, I'm not doing posters.
Well, any advice is appreciated before I spring for a $280 housing.
Thanks for any input.
Susan

 

[Fastmarc]

Well, I was pretty much in your position a few months ago. I wanted to capture some memories to share with my topside friends and I had a Sony p&s camera, so I checked and saw that Ikelite had a housing for it, so I bought it.
I am very happy I did so. I have been able to capture some decent photos and it has taught me a lot. I am now looking forward to moving to a more complex setup to further this new passion I have.
From what I see your camera is better than mine, so you should do well.

You can have a look at my photos (in the link below) to see what you can expect or better. All were taken with internal flash (when flash was used).

 

[fppf]

My wife uses a Canon A640 in an Ikelite housing with a flash difuser and gets great macro shots. Wide angle is tough but if you have an adjustable white balance you can bring up the red down to about 50 feet.

 

[Karibelle]

Hi guys, this is probably WAY beneath those of you on this board, but here's the thing.
I have a SONY PSC-P200 digital camera. I wanted tto take some pics underwater, so I bought a Sea&Sea 35m MX10, which, has the strobe etc, and I get mediocre pictures. The cost of film and developing is killing me.
I'm thinking of buying a housing for the SONY from Ikelite and going with that instead. Easier to travel with, cheaper than buying a whole new digital setup, etc. I'm a vacation diver and would be taking shots simply to share with friends and family.
I can't afford to invest in the tray and strobe from ikelite, and just wondered if you thought I'd get at least decent, not award winning pics with the internal flash. I'm only doing tropical diving with great vis. The ikelite housing costs more than my camera, so before I spendthe money, I thought I'd hang it out here on the boards.
Another Scubaboard member just posted pics from a Casio Exlim Z1000 and they're incredible with the internal flash only. I hate to have to buy another digital, and housing, but if you think the Casio is way better than the Sony, I'd consider it. The only difference I can see is the meapixels. Not a big deal, I'm not doing posters.
Well, any advice is appreciated before I spring for a $280 housing.
Thanks for any input.
Susan

I did the same thing - stopped using the film camera, and bought an ikelite housing for my cheap digital camera. The photos you'll get even without the strobe will be miles ahead of the ones you could take with the film camera, IMO. At least they were for me. Much better. Use the diffuser and they'll be even better... I have since added the tray and strobe, but that only lead to the realization that I need to work on the basics of photography.

Good luck and have fun!
kari

 

[Cecil]

Yes the Sony will do an excellent job without an external flash. Get close use the internal flash. The only possible issue is the Ikelite housing may block the internal flash if you get to close. I have the P150 and the Sony UW housing. Sony does not make an UW housing for the P200. Here's some examples with the P150 (same camera, smaller LCD)

http://www.bonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/116771/300143.html?1167415677

 

[Karibelle]

Yes the Sony will do an excellent job without an external flash. Get close use the internal flash. The only possible issue is the Ikelite housing may block the internal flash if you get to close. I have the P150 and the Sony UW housing. Sony does not make an UW housing for the P200. Here's some examples with the P150 (same camera, smaller LCD)

http://www.bonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/116771/300143.html?1167415677

In my case, the ikelite housing DOES block the internal flash - unless you use the diffuser. It took me a while to figure that out, so I have a lot of great pics with a blacked out corner... then I had a "oh that's what that thing is for!" moment, and now all is well.

kari

 

[susan6868]

Well, all great advice. Did a littl more research and it turns out my P200 is about 3-4 years old, lacks the stabilization technology which is standard on the PS models they're coming out with now. I can't wrap my mind around spending $279 on a housing for a camera I can buy on ebay today for $80. Sony makes housings for the newer P&S's but this one is too old, they don't have it anymore.
Solution might be to invest in a newer P&S for about $250, get the stabilization feature (I have a heard enough time keeping steady topside no less floating in current), then I can get the marine pack, or housing that's retrofit directly from Sony. They claim I won't need a difffuser as the housing is made to consider the onboard flash.
Strobe, well maybe after I pay for my next dive trip. I wonder if there's a way to use my Sea and Sea Y25 with the Sony housing? Probably not.
Oh brother, off to do more research..............

 

[Jim Baldwin]

I see another Cozumel dive trip in the works. You'll need practice with that new camera.

I'm on my third underwater housing and camera. My first was a Sony Mavica that used a floppy disk and took 25- 28 pictures. Now I've got a 2 gig card and a set of double strobes. Donna is on camera number 2 and every afternoon it's download about 150-200 pictures and start deleting. Cull all the blurry ones, over exposed and fish tails roughly 30 percent. Then it's looking a little closer and cull another 15-20 percent. The more you shoot the better and more critical you will be become it's just one of these things. Get close, shoot up and shoot a lot.

And don't forget after you buy the camera and housing you will need a laptop and all the cables so that you can download and work on your pictures.

Hi, my is Jim. All I wanted to do was take some pictures to show friends back at work.

Look forward to visiting with you again sometime in Cozumel.

 

[JMcBrew]

Hi Susan,

I was in a similar situation a couple years ago. I has a Sony DSC-S70 (still do), which I loved (still do). I started looking at housings, and the cheapest option (other than plastic bag-type housing was an Ikelite at $1,000!!! I decided to go for a new (at the time) Sony DSC-P150 and the Sony Marine Pack for it. Together, they cost me about $500. The P150 has 7.2mp resolution, rather than the 3.3 of the S70. The S70 does have a better lens, but no cheap housing.

Anyway, I worked with it like that for a while, then I found a Sea&Sea YS90 Auto strobe for half price at a local dive shop... plus they threw in an arm for free. I bought a tray and the fiber optic sync cable later.

Anyway, the camera with its internal flash is good for taking some pics... although, like others have mentioned, you won't have much light for wide angle shots, and more backscatter than with an external strobe. However, you can always add onto your system later.

If you really want a newer camera anyway, go for a newer P&S plus a housing. If you like the camera you have, get a housing for it. Age doesn't matter. I still love my P150 and my S70. Newer doesn't always mean better.

And, get yourself a big memory card. I use a 2 gig Memory Stick Pro/Duo. This allows me to take 588 pics at high res 7.2mp or 27.5 minutes of full res 640x480 30fps video!