I'm lost.

[Chaseh]

I'm starting after many years of diving to get really intersted in photography, but I'm freaked at the options.

Obvously there will be many opinions, but see if my general sense so far is accurate and please offer any constructive advice.

I was looking at Sealife, their cameras certainly seem to be the most economical, but there are questions about quality. Many threads here seem to suggest that the photos will not be of good quality, especially when taken at decent depth, say below 50ft.

I've looked at Canon and some of the other major brands for converting land based cameras into dive cameras. The cameras themselves seem to be of much better quality, but the total price seems to absolutely soar vs. sealife when adding decent case, and strobe.

Canon offers a bunch of cases that had mixed reviews, and didn't seem very versitile. Are there optional lens attachments available for these? Ikelite cases seemed really pricey, along with strobes which cost more than anything else.

I haven't seen memory chips mentioned with the sealife digital cameras. Do these use one of the many many widely available mem chips, so that large capacity chips can be used?

Is sealife versitile enough to keep me happy for a few years on various types of dives and for various types of photos.

I really like what I've seen from the major commercial brands on here, but I'm worried that the inexpensive cases will eventually flaw and flood, and are dynamic enough, and that the great photos I've seen posted are either from very very expensive set ups, or generally taken in 15ft of water with 100ft of vis.

One more concern, the advanced systems seem really bulky and I'm not so sure how much I'll enjoy lugging that around on deck or in the water.

Again, thanks for helping a photo noob.

 

[havnmonkey]

Canon and Olympus are the ones to go for if you are looking for a P&S camera with a housing made by the same company; all of which are made with a light, durable plastic... the buttons are very simple to use and %99 of camera functions are usable with them. Ikelite is better, more durable and probably better service/maintenance.

Add on lenses for these cameras would most likely be limited to Inon America, there should be more but these are the most popular; not all Canon/Olympus housings are supported by an adapter to mont these lenses. I think I've seen Olympus lenses some where.

You're looking at $500+ to be happy...

 

[Jim Ernst]

I'm starting after many years of diving to get really intersted in photography, but I'm freaked at the options.

Obvously there will be many opinions, but see if my general sense so far is accurate and please offer any constructive advice.

I was looking at Sealife, their cameras certainly seem to be the most economical, but there are questions about quality. Many threads here seem to suggest that the photos will not be of good quality, especially when taken at decent depth, say below 50ft.

I've looked at Canon and some of the other major brands for converting land based cameras into dive cameras. The cameras themselves seem to be of much better quality, but the total price seems to absolutely soar vs. sealife when adding decent case, and strobe.

Canon offers a bunch of cases that had mixed reviews, and didn't seem very versitile. Are there optional lens attachments available for these? Ikelite cases seemed really pricey, along with strobes which cost more than anything else.

I haven't seen memory chips mentioned with the sealife digital cameras. Do these use one of the many many widely available mem chips, so that large capacity chips can be used?

Is sealife versitile enough to keep me happy for a few years on various types of dives and for various types of photos.

I really like what I've seen from the major commercial brands on here, but I'm worried that the inexpensive cases will eventually flaw and flood, and are dynamic enough, and that the great photos I've seen posted are either from very very expensive set ups, or generally taken in 15ft of water with 100ft of vis.

One more concern, the advanced systems seem really bulky and I'm not so sure how much I'll enjoy lugging that around on deck or in the water.

Again, thanks for helping a photo noob.

i dont know how much help this will be to you, but from my expierience this is what i got, i started with a $50 dollar camera and was happy for a couple of months, then i went to an $800 sealife reefmaster, was very unhappy, that is a hole nother story in itself, then i bought my canon ps pro-1, ikelite housing,ikelite strobe, love it, i thought it was big and bulky, got use to it in no time and found it to be very easy to keep out of the way and use in the water,not bulky at all, the moral to my story, i went cheap then another step and another step, lost a lot of money doing it all that way, had i bought a good one in the first place i could have saved several hundred dollars, besides all of the many night mares i had with reefmaster, i was not happy with the quality, so try to consider that a heads up as well!! my 2 cents worth,oh in my gallery you can go to the last pages and see some of the pics with first camera, then a few pages of reefmaster, then all others canon, if you click on the picture it will tell you what camera was used!!

 

[Chaseh]

$500+ is okay, I got a bit freaked by $1000 strobes, and I'm not sure if a $1000ish Sealife kit with strobe is gonna get me to where I need to be.

I don't need to be taking photos for publication, but wanna be able to appreciate what I've taken at home or in emails, and I don't wanna lug a vw beetle around underwater to get there.

 

[ocrmaster]

Chaseh

Checkout my gallery. All images taken with my Canon S80 w/ Canon Housing.
Price Tag about $500 to $600 depends if www.dell.com is having a sale or not.

What is the limitation of the Canon Housing ... NON, except that your max depth is 40 Meters only. The ikelite Housing w/c is $329.00 from www.b&h.com goes to 60 Meters.
So if your a rec diver and your never going to do any tech diving. Go with the Canon Housing.

If your purpose is to just take cool looking images up close - you wont need a strobe.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I recently got a crash course in Photography from a friend. After a 3 hour workshop, I realize if I wanted to improve my images underwater, I have to upgrade to a DSLR camera w/ a Strobe.
Price tag about $2,500.00 for Camera, Strobe, Housing, etc.

I hope to view your u/w pics soon.

Dive Safe!

 

[Jim Ernst]

Chaseh

Checkout my gallery. All images taken with my Canon S80 w/ Canon Housing.
Price Tag about $500 to $600 depends if www.dell.com is having a sale or not.

What is the limitation of the Canon Housing ... NON, except that your max depth is 40 Meters only. The ikelite Housing w/c is $329.00 from www.b&h.com goes to 60 Meters.
So if your a rec diver and your never going to do any tech diving. Go with the Canon Housing.

If your purpose is to just take cool looking images up close - you wont need a strobe.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I recently got a crash course in Photography from a friend. After a 3 hour workshop, I realize if I wanted to improve my images underwater, I have to upgrade to a DSLR camera w/ a Strobe.
Price tag about $2,500.00 for Camera, Strobe, Housing, etc.

I hope to view your u/w pics soon.

Dive Safe!

chaseh, i very strongly agree with the above so check and shop very carefully, i think you would be SO SO much happier with oly or canon, yes you may pay a bit more, or you can pay a little here and a little there untill you spend way more then you would have if you had got what you want in the first place

 

[Henryville]

EBay is your friend. Between there and the Olympus outlet I got a C8080, PT-023 housing, two Sea & Sea YS 60 strobes and a Pelican 1550 case for well under $1000. I added a Heinrichs Weikamp TTL bulkead (see posts in Oly Outlet here) and I have full TTL capability. And I got it all insured through homeowners, which looked at "replacement" values.

 

[ocrmaster]

Strangely enough I find ebay to be very expensive considering that most of the goods are used.

I typically see something I like at ebay... then I check www.scubatoys.com or www.leisurepro.com and the price difference is really low. For an additional $10 to $20 I would rather get it from www.scubatoys.com and get it new w/ warranty.

I suggest that you checkout www.leisurepro.com - then give Larry or Joe from www.scubatoys.com they give special discounts to SB members. And they are really
cool and knowledgable.

For Ikelite Housing checkout www.b&h.com they have killer prices.

I got a Pelican 1600 with Pic and Pluck for $116 from leisurepro.com to house all my Photo equipment and HID light.

 

[Henryville]

Strangely enough I find ebay to be very expensive considering that most of the goods are used.

I typically see something I like at ebay... then I check www.scubatoys.com or www.leisurepro.com and the price difference is really low. For an additional $10 to $20 I would rather get it from www.scubatoys.com and get it new w/ warranty.

I suggest that you checkout www.leisurepro.com - then give Larry or Joe from www.scubatoys.com they give special discounts to SB members. And they are really
cool and knowledgable.

For Ikelite Housing checkout www.b&h.com they have killer prices.

I got a Pelican 1600 with Pic and Pluck for $116 from leisurepro.com to house all my Photo equipment and HID light.

I agree you have to be discerning, but both the C8080 and PT023 I got were under warranty and eligible for the Olympus factory extended warranty. And way cheaper than they would have been from any store. I also didn't bid like a dope or buy the first one that I saw, but that's a whole different story. If one doesn't understand how to manage an auction and how to avoid chasing the bid, then one should stay away from eBay because all those bidders do is wreck the prices for those who understand the game.

 

[Wildcard]

Gotta second the Oly option. I shoot a 5060 with case for about$800. GF shoots a Stylus 500 with case for under $400. Big diff in pics but I have seen real photogos with crappy cameras shoot some awsome shots. Look for Gilligans sticky about UW cameras. Real photog with a crap camera can take some awsome shots, he proves it.