Need help...how much better is 3x+ zoom and housings for newer compact models

[bostondancer]

Hi folks,

I am having a heck of a time coming up with a camera to buy. I'm hoping someone here can shed light on how companies decide which camera's they are going to create housings for.

I had a Nikon Coolpix that I took on the boat and left under the seat like an idiot and it got soaked and is now fried. It had 3x optical zoom which I thought was okay but I would like more zoom and higher resolution. For underwater I used an el cheapo camera from the dive shop and the pictures sucked. I am not an amateur and not a pro. On land I take pretty decent pictures but all with automatic settings. I'm still a newbie diver (30+ dives) so I don't want to futz with settings under water. Just something I can quickly switch between video and still.

I need the camera within this week but can wait to buy the housing till Aug. My camera budget is $300 tops and housing $200 tops. I thought I found everthing I wanted in the Kodak Easyshare Z712 but then I found that there are no housing for most Kodak products.

I looked at Fuji s700 which got good reviews and is on sale at Bestbuy but can't find housing for it.

Next I found the Olympus FE240 again good ratings and what I need but no housing. Looks like both the S700 and FE240 came out recently and I guess I could call the manufacturers to see if and when they will have housing for these.

I looked at a bunch of Canons which seem to have the largest number of housings in my price range but there seem to be 50 different models all with different ratings. I thought the A710 would be a good one until I read that the noise level is high because of the Image stability feature. I don't really care about IS so I still need to figure out which model to look for there.

Any advise appreciated. Especially if you have found that going with higher than 3x zoom doesn't buy you much. There seem to be a lot of well rated older models (pre-2007) in my price range that have housings but only have 3x zoom. I think I can live with 3x for land pics, but am hoping higher zoom will help get closer shots under water.

Thanks in advance!

 

[alcina]

Forget the larger zoom for underwater - use your fins. Underwater bigger zooms are not an advantage because you are too far away from your subject and the zoom enlarges all the stuff between you and the subject, not just the subject. That means neat snow and floaties in your images.

I like the Canon offerings. That's the first I've seen of the noise in the Canon 710...Canon has pretty good high ISO noise compared to a lot of the other brands. Fuji's F30 and a couple of others also have great low noise at high ISO.

So saying, not sure when you'll be using the higher ISOs...I don't flip over to over 100 and it's rare that I do that, even.

Canon 6xx series and the 710 seem to be making lots of people happy.

 

[bmemike]

I have an A710 IS and I've taken (what I consider to be) some good pictures (above and below the waves) with it. I also don't do any high ISO UW stuff, so it's never been a problem.

 

[bostondancer]

Thanks for the feedback and advise bmemike and alcina. I can't remember now where i read the reviews (may have been dpreviews.com) but I know there were a few that mentioned high noise on the Canon A710 due to the Image Stabilization feature (IS).

I did look at actual images at different ISO settings for the A710 and F30 on dpreviews.com and at higher ISOs the Fuji outshines Canon hands down. I also found some great pictures on scubaboard taken with the F30 at ISO800 with internal flash in macro mode and they just look amazing for a compact with no external flash. Also, as you mentioend

So at this point I'm pretty sure I'm going with the F30.

thanks again for the help.

 

[evil_xander]

If all else fails, you can also check out Fuji e900 + Ikelite housing, I believe the camera can be found for as little as 220 USD, housing is 270 USD @ bhphoto...

I'm currently doing baby steps with this setup, so far so good...

 

[bostondancer]

Although the housing price is a little out of my range. good luck with the baby steps.