Let's throw some money away!

[Coll]

Well as we all know, getting into underwater photography is basically a commitment to never saving money! I've been diving with a Canon SD630 with it's WP-DC3 housing, very simple I know. Well, I feel the need to upgrade and was hoping for some suggestions. Here are a few limiting factors:

I would like to spend no more than $500 for camera and housing. Ok, maybe $600!
I would like a housing that has the option of adding a strobe later down the line once I have more money to throw around
Looking for a camera with a nice large LCD screen on the back and relatively simple and user friendly controls
I am a big fan of Canon's but could be dissuaded from them with a well placed argument!
I'd like a camera that shoots in RAW mode
I love macro photography so a camera with the ability to shoot very close up shots would be lovely.

Thanks for helping me narrow it down! Any suggestions as to added features I haven't thought of would be great! Happy diving!

 

[Larry C]

Sounds like you need a G10/G11 with Canon housing. You'll need the whole $600 and you'll probably want to get a strobe because the lens/port will get in the way of the internal flash on the real close shots. It seems to focus really well zoomed in, though, (See Gilligans pictures) but all the crap in our water around here might not work so well with zoomed pictures. Gilligan shoots with a single manual strobe (YS-27) and no add on lenses with his G10. If you're not a wide angle freak, I can't think of any disadvantages. The new G11 has less megapixels, probably to make less noise at higher ISO settings, and is a bit wider but generally newer is better. You might be able to pick up a G10 at a discount now that the G11 is out, too.

 

[Coll]

Larry, looking at the underwater housings for the G10, it appears Ikelite makes one that costs around $600 but then Canon makes one and it's only $170 and I'm having trouble seeing any difference other than the Ikelite comes with a handle. Am I missing something? Obviously I'd far prefer the Canon housing.

Also, it appears that even though the G11 is a newer model, it costs about the same as the G10 and seems a bit worse? It has fewer megapixels (10 vs 15) and the LCD is smaller. The only discernable advantage I could see was that the G11's LCD screen can pop out and rotate which of course is useless to me underwater.

Thanks as always for your advice, it's much appreciated!

 

[Larry C]

There's a lively discussion on G10 vs. G11 below. The main advantage to going with Ikelite over Canon on the housing is that Ikelite has a dedicated strobe for ttl shooting that can be wired to their housing.
With the Canon housing, you'll need to use an optically fired strobe. That seems to be the way many people are going, as the wired strobe is the weak link in an underwater set-up. I've flooded my bulkhead a couple of times, resulting in a few hundred dollars in new sync cords and bulkheads each time. Optical cords don't corrode, but they haven't fired quite as reliably in the past. The newest ones seem to be really reliable though, and a fiberoptic cord costs about 1/4 or less what a wired cord does and will never flood. They break from too much bending sometimes, but they can be spliced. The other advantage of Ikelite is a 67mm port that allows add on lenses, but I don't think they recommend a wide angle lens for those cameras. With the Canon housing, there are a couple of adapters available, I think, but the native wide angle is decent, and they focus nicely when zoomed somewhat. I think Fantasea makes something called a "big eye" to improve the wideangle if you want to go that way.

 

[Jorgy]

Perhapes you might consider looking at the Canon S90 with it's housing........

Nothing against the G10/11 I dive a G9 myself......but lower price, wider field of view and better low light fast lense.........

M

 

[Coll]

Thanks for the suggestion Jorgy but I think I'm still leaning towards the G10. I don't really take any wide angle shots and like the feel of the G10 more. Having said that and done a bit more research, could you guys help explain in layman terms this whole issue over the lack of ability to use the manual control on the G10 with the Canon housing? It sounds like you can pick a couple of preset settings (with regards to f stop and all that) that you can cycle through once you're underwater but that you can't actually change the settings, is that right? Thanks for your help guys, it's very much appreciated!

Also, could you guys recommend an effective, inexpensive strobe for this set-up? I looked at the YS-25 and almost fell over at the $400 price tag. There's no way I can afford that with the price of the G10 and housing.

Thanks again!

 

[hammerhead man]

For around $600 you can also get the Sea&Sea DX-1G that gets great pics as well. You can eventually expand the system by adding strobes, a wide angle lens, and a close-up lens. I have used this system for about a year and am very happy with the results. If you click on my "photos" link you will see some shots taken with the camera in the Galapagos, Turks and Caicos, and Eleuthera galleries.

Regards,

Bill

 

[penti]

There's a lively discussion on G10 vs. G11 below. The main advantage to going with Ikelite over Canon on the housing is that Ikelite has a dedicated strobe for ttl shooting that can be wired to their housing.

Well, the thing is you can't use TTL with Canon cameras in the manual mode anyway...
You have to use the strobe in Manual mode as well, which is not too bad anyway even if you over or under-expose a few shots sometimes... I'm not a big fan of TTL, I'd rather "all-manualize" my picture-taking...

For less than $600 you won't get any of the newer Canons (G10 / 11), why not looking at the older ones in the Axxx series, or, better, try to get a G9 ??

Others good cameras with a manual mode are the Nikon P5000 and P5100, the Olympus SP 350, the DX1G...

 

[Peter_C]

I didn't see it mentioned but having the ability to shot RAW I would consider very important.

Here is another thread on the cameras.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/norcal/310667-question-local-photographers.html

 

[Coll]

Dumb question, what is TTL shooting?

So I'm a strong fan of the Canon G10 with Canon housing right now. My main concern though is the price of a strobe, does the internal flash really not work at all with the Canon housing? It's really deflating to find a camera I really like and a reasonably priced housing only to find that a) I won't get any good shots without a strobe and b) I can't afford a $500 strobe. I can't even really afford a $300 strobe. ARGH! I've been diving a Canon SD630 underwater without any external strobe and am pretty happy with my shots using the internal flash and diffuser. Not an option with the G10?

Also, I'm not 100% clear, was I correct in my understanding that you CAN shoot with manual settings but you have to preset them on land and then you can cycle through your presets underwater to set up a shot?

Thanks as always guys!