need advice on digital camera and housing selection

[thor1]

im looking to buy a new point and shoot digital camera for on land and in water use ive been looking at the canon a610 and a620 along with olympus 310 and stylus 600. I realize that canon, olympus, nikon, and sony all have underwater housings available for most of their cameras that would suit my purpose just fine but the sheer number of models and styles is overwhelming. I would prefer a 5 to 7 mp camera but I could even be interested in a 4. so any information that i could get would be appreciated.

 

[Gilligan]

It sounds like you have been doing some research as you mentioned some models.

There is no need to go with a 4MP camera when there are 7 and 8 MP models available.
Compare F stop ranges, shuttter speed ranges, RAW capability (if that is important to you), manual white balance capability (a must in my opinion), macro mode distances, type of memory card and maximum size the camera can accomodate, availability of a housing, strength of the built in strobe which may require a hands on test.

Keep in mind that the larger the megapixel rating of the camera the larger the file size of the pictures. That translates to needing a larger memory card.

Do not consider the capability of digital zoom only optical zoom. Digital zoom is basically worthless.

As far as use on land and underwater, a 10X optical zoom is great for land use but of little or no use underwater. A 3 or 4X optical zoom is all you need for underwater use. So you have to decide if a 10x optical zoom camera has all of the other features needed for underwater.

You may start out using the camera on Auto but will eventually switch to Manual controls for better quality photos.

Ikelite makes under $300. housings for some of the point and shoot models. Compare that to the camera brand housings as the price difference may be close enough that you would want the Ikelite housing.

 

[Jim Ernst]

i shoot canon, and love it, a friend (ishie) also has olympus and she loves hers, both are great, but i have to say we both highly agree on the ike-lite housing for many reasons!!! ike-lite is well worth the money!!! you would not be sorry

 

[Gilligan]

thor1 you may also want to look at the Olympus SP350 which is an 8mp camera with the respective PT-030 houisng. Ikelite will have a housing for it by the end of this month.

 

[bennedc]

I have a Sony DSC W-7 and love it! It is 7 mp and does great with rechargeable batteries. Tons of shots! Also, the shutter speed is quick and there's not a lot of lag time when you take the picture or when it saves to the mamorystick. This is important as fish and animals swim by really fast sometimes! I just bought a Sony housing and used it for the first time this past weekend. Check out my pics! I am very pleased with it. Both of the Canons you are looking at are kind of big and I would think that the housings for them might be a bit awkward. However, they do take good pictures. I am really partial to my Sony, though. I just love it. With the Sony housing, all of the features are accessable underwater. The video works great, too.

 

[mrbill4]

thor-

I have a canon SD400. No one seems to make a housing for this camera. Although it is powerful, small, and handy, the only housing comes from canon and is good only to 10 feet. Obviously, worthless in a diving atmosphere. Hope it helps. For underwater, I am still using actual film in an older SLR body!

-BIll

 

[Gilligan]

Another thing to consider is the ability to add on wide angle and close-up lenses. The newer Canon, Olympus, Fuji, etc. underwater housings do not have a 67mm lens port.

The Ikelite housings for the newer point-and-shoot cameras have an optional add-on attachment which allows the use of these 67mm lenses.

The Ikelite housing will be larger, especially with the adapter, but you will be able to use the add-on lenses.

 

[thor1]

the more research I do the more i start to lean towards the oly ,seems that the olys are a little less expensive to purchase and they also have an underwater mode, also im looking to keep it somewhat inexpensive so if something does happen (flooding theft etc) im not out a ton of cash this is not going to be my primary camera, im just going to use it long enough to get used to underwater photography then ill upgrade so that i can use my surface equipment underwater.

 

[hudson_hawk]

The canon a610 and a620 also have under water settings
im looking at olympus ans canon im leaning to the canon a620

 

[Gilligan]

I'm not convinced on a pre-set "underwater" mode.
The ability to calibrate your own white balance is very important. I don't see how the "undertwater" mode can take the varying light conditions, water clarity etc. into consideration versus setting your own white balance.
Maybe I'm wrong on that.