Is it worth buying a strobe for a Sealife 320

[Rudebob]

At a local scuba show last weekend I won a Sealife 320 with the extra wide angle lense during a dive treaure hunt. I know that this is a very basic, entry level camera at best, but since I am somewhat of a new diver this might be a good way to see if underwater photography interests me enough to spend big money on more suitable equipment.

I also know that if I even want to take any kind of a decent pictures I will need a strobe-a digital being even better to offset my lack of experience with lighting and distance. However, a single digital strobe for this camera costs more than the camera and wide angle lense. I am not opposed to spending the money if it will improve the quality of the images enough, and if I were to later upgrade to a better camera that I could still use the same strobe.

So any opinions here. Being in my current circumstance can a strobe increase the quality of images from this camera to justifies its purchase? Also, would a strobe for this camera be of good enough quality that it could be used on better camera down the road?

Thanks,

'bob

 

[jgeldin]

Bob,

I have a SL320 Reefmaster Mini and an SL960D Digital Strobe. I owned the 320 for about 6 months before deciding to get the strobe. You can see a variety of my underwater images (good, bad, and really ugly) at Flickr: Joel Geldin's Photostream and decide for yourself.

My experience is that I get MUCH BETTER images with the strobe in low light situations and better images in shallow normal light situations.

Joel