New Canon (A720IS?) with filter

[bliew]

Hi,

My wife and I currently own Canon S500 and A620 with the Canon housings and they have served us okay in the past. We have a trip coming up next month, and are interested in trying to get a bit more out of our underwater photography and video. We also have an S3IS, but would prefer to avoid paying the premium for an Ikelite, since for the same price as an Ikelite housing, we could buy an A720IS with Canon housing. Also, we're moderately experienced divers, and have done a few liveaboards in tough conditions before.

I do have a few questions though, assuming we go with the A720IS since that seems quite popular on this board!

One of the things that would seem to help is the red filter for blue water, for both stills and video. Our next scuba trip is to Belize, where visibility is good and I imagine a reasonable amount of mid-depth reef diving where flash won't be needed. I have seen links in here to UWDigitalCamera.com which has the M67 Lens Adapter. I sent an email to them, but haven't heard back, here are my questions:

- can this adapter can accept a color filter, or is it only for macro/wide angle lenses?
- if so, what size color filter works? the 67mm doesn't correspond with other filter measurements
- is it easily removable and replaceable underwater?

We're also curious as to the extent that the Image Stabilization is a benefit underwater, especially in relatively calm waters. Has anyone gone through that transition?

Finally, after all those questions, are we better off just keeping our current setups and concentrating on getting an external strobe and/or becoming good at white balancing and improving in-camera settings?

Many thanks in advance!
Bryan

 

[Rickg]

Bryan,

1. WRT to UWDigital.com. They are located in Japan and this is the New Year's holiday season in Japan. Most companies are closed from 29 DEC 07 - 6 JAN 08.

The following is from the website:

"Happy New year 2008
Thank you for your patronizing our shop in 2007.

We will have the New Year holiday from 29,Dec to
6,Jan. Please check "Open Calender"
For this period we can not ship the items. and the
reply for your emails will be delay than usual.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Yuzo Kanda"

I'm sure you will receive a response from Yuzo when he gets back to work.

2. WRT "IS" use U/W - I don't think there is much benefit to be gained from having a camera with IS while U/W. I recently bought a camera with IS (the A720) but wanted the IS for out of the water pictures.

Rickg

 

[bliew]

Thanks Rick, I see it now on their homepage. One of the few pitfalls of direct linking to product page I guess!

Bryan,

1. WRT to UWDigital.com. They are located in Japan and this is the New Year's holiday season in Japan. Most companies are closed from 29 DEC 07 - 6 JAN 08.

Rickg

 

[bliew]

Hi Rick,

Curious about the benefits of IS with video - the IS works wonders on land, even if it's half as effective underwater, could still be noticeable. Any thoughts on that?

Cheers!
Bryan

p.s. found a 67mm red filter, so part of part 1 is already answered

Bryan,

2. WRT "IS" use U/W - I don't think there is much benefit to be gained from having a camera with IS while U/W. I recently bought a camera with IS (the A720) but wanted the IS for out of the water pictures.

Rickg

 

[Rickg]

Byran,

My gut feeling is that you are correct and that IS will help make for better UW videos but this is my first experience with a digital camera so I have no point of reference to compare it to.

I mostly concentrated on 2 things while shooting video. Pan slowly and don't zoom. I was really pleased with the quality of the video from the camera.

I have posted several Sipadan videos on youtube if you want to take a look at them. Unfortunately there is a big difference between the original clips and what they look like after youtube compresses them. Just go to youtube and search on "rickgreatting" and they'll show up.

Rickg

 

[TEERLKAY]

CHDK - CHDK Wiki

hack your a620 and it shoots raw - some folks aren't interested but we did it with our a710 and it's sweet (you're gonna need a bigger memory card). might make the old camera last a little longer!

the s500 isn't supported. neither is the a720 you are looking at. "They" are looking into it but it uses a different OS from other canon powershots, even ones that use the same DIGIC III processor - wierd.

As far as IS underwater, IMO, water acts as IS - the density and buoyancy really help smooth things out. We had an old a510 and the only time I could get non-jittery video out of it WAS underwater.

Observe:
YouTube - A Turtle in Jordan

Hope this helps

Paz

TEERLKAY

 

[bliew]

Hi Paz,

Yeah, I know our A620 and S3 have the hack - it's only memory resident, so my concern is forgetting to load it after each battery replacement and/or card change if that's indeed how it works!

Yeah, so many options now, the head is spinning: use better white balance, get the Magic Filter, get an external filter, get an external strobe, get a wide angle lens, get an Ikelite, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, it seems with the cameras we have, there's no real intuitive best option trying to keep a reasonable budget (at least to me).

Inon makes a mount base for the S500 Canon housing, but not A620 nor A720IS. If we go with the S500, we can add wide angle, filters and strobes, but the strobes are quite expensive. Plus it's on a nearly 4-year old digicam with only 5 MP, tough for cropping.

The A720IS is a nifty little AA camera (checked it out in person today), and with the Canon housing is very inexpensive. Could then get the Reefmaster SL-960D *or* the very inexpensive but seemingly impressive Magic Filter - however, they are mutually exclusive. Another option is that UWDigitalCamera does make an adapter for the A720IS (but not the S500 nor A620), which seemingly could be used with that Reefmaster SL-960D with a removable external red filter. But in either case, a wide angle lense is incompatible according to UWDigitalCamera.

Or just stay with our current cameras and get the Reefmaster SL-960D for either our A620 or S500, and some Magic Filters for whichever doesn't have the Reefmaster. This though rules out wide angle also for either camera.

Of course, the final option is to get an Ikelite for either our S500, A620, S3IS or a new A720IS, and then strobes, wide angle and filters are all possible, for a relatively hefty price. But I just hate paying a premium for a housing that is camera-specific and is not reusable if in a couple years we upgrade the camera either by choice or not!

Ah, the delicious options available...

 

[alcina]

If you have the A620, I'd be tempted to stick with that and really learn it. There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to get lovely images with this camera and housing on their own - the manual white balance works extremely well and you have control of all settings with this camera.

Then either add the magic filter if all of your diving will be done in the appropriate conditions, or keep saving and buy a good strobe that will move with you with any future decisions.

Just another option...

 

[Choyster]

The hack is a VERY small file. You can just load it on to each of your memory cards and set the hack to load automatically every time the camera is turned on. The loading process takes less than a second on my A570 and is not even noticable.

 

[bliew]

Cool! Should start making our S3IS shine as well...

The hack is a VERY small file. You can just load it on to each of your memory cards and set the hack to load automatically every time the camera is turned on. The loading process takes less than a second on my A570 and is not even noticable.