need advice on digital camera and housing selection

[bennedc]

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.

I agree. I usually take a pic with something true white in it, like the pic of my husband in my manatee pics, and then use Photoshop to edit each one individually. Light changes in an instant, and sometimes so does the viz. You can't take the time out to recalibrate white balance each time, or else you would miss tons of shots of everything around you.

 

[Wolverine]

Underwater mode doesn't really help a lot. You can actually set the so called "underwater" mode by changing the white balance and the hue settings. More important is the ability to control the aperture and the shutter speed. Varying underwater distance, light conditions and composition requires different settings. The more flexibility there is in the camera, the more control you have.

Both Olys and Canons are good.

 

[skippy77]

i would go sony small compact housings have nice big buttons and they make a great pic

 

[DesertEagle]

WB should be one of the top considerations. The Canons have an excellent menu system. Press the Func button and everthing is there. If you change WB, it will be readily accessible the next time you press Func. Kudos to Canon for doing this on all their models.

Sony makes WB almost as easy on the P-200. Unfortunately it is an auto-only camera. Not great for anyone using a strobe.

The newer Olympus SP-350 makes you go into the 4-way menu, and then choose WB. It's not the easiest, but still not as bad as Nikon. Of course you could shoot RAW but it's slow.

Worst of all are the Nikons. I have an older one. Even the new ones have WB hidden in the menu. When you choose to change WB, the lens will zoom a little (I have no idea why).

As far as wide angle lenses, wait a month and see what Inon releases. It's been almost a year since they've made new adapter mounts. I am hoping they will find a way to put an AD mount on the Canon WP-DC90 for the A610 and A620. We will see soon.

 

[thor1]

well ive narrowed it down to 6 cameras the canon 610, 620, sd500, sd550 or olympus sp310 or sp350 all depends on what i can find the cheapest we will see what happens

 

[BobArnold8265]

I also am doing my homework and picking out a new camera. I'm pretty set on an Olympus at this point. The C-8080 and SP-350 both have hot shoes which with an Ikelite housing allows you to shoot TTL. I think I'm going with the C-8080 but Olympus is discontinuing them (I'm told that the C-8080s were taking sales away from the E-Volt DSLRs). I like the C-8080 because of the lens (28 to 140 mm) and the fact that it got outstanding reviews. It seems to me to be very close to a DSLR than most of the point and shoots on the market.

I think I'm also going to get an Ikelite housing. They run about twice the price of the Olympus housing (you can find a new Olympus PT-023 (for the C-8080 only) on eBay for around $200, the Ikelite runs $450 to $500). I believe that the Ikelite housing for the SP-350 is less expensive than the one for the C-8080.

From what I have heard, the Olympus housing isn't built as well, doesn't sync with non-Olympus brand strobes and the customer service from Olympus on housings leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[thor1]

well i finally broke down and bought a new olympus sp350 online for about 284usd shipped at mpsuperstore.com and the olympus pt-030 housing at etronics.com for about 181usd shipped, so ill try it out and if i like it i can upgrade it later and sell off what i dont need and shouldnt be out to much money. Thanks for all the input and advice i greatly appreciate it