New Canon (A720IS?) with filter

[peterbj7]

On land I use an expensive DSLR setup that I don't want to risk taking underwater, but I would like to upgrade from my 3-years old Canon and Casio u/w cameras. I'm considering a Canon D9 with their WP-DC21 housing, which should total less than $700 for a pretty well state-of-the-art system. No strobes in that price, of course, and the housing is limited to 130'. Anyone any informed views on this? Are there any better (deeper) housings for the D9?

 

[bliew]

Well, after much research and reading, I've actually changed my mind; we're going to get the SD870IS with Canon's housing for the following reasons:

1) it has 28mm wide angle, reducing the immediate need for an additional external WA lens;
2) the proprietary battery, which I usually hate, appears to produce a strong flash;
3) it has the 3" high quality LCD which will be very useful underwater, as well as IS;
4) only thing missing is the Optical viewfinder, which we don't use underwater;
5) it has inexpensive ports to add additional lenses/filters down the road;
6) apparently it has a programmable button that mimics the instand video record button, eliminating the need to use the dial to toggle between modes;
7) as a small pocketcam, it fills a void with our existing A620 and S3IS cameras.
8) should accept the Auto Magic Filter quite nicely.

By going this streamlined way, we'll actually be able to purchase an external universal strobe for our A620 for deeper/macro shots. So I'll use the SD870IS for video and panoramic reef shots without worrying about White Balance, while my wife (who is the better diver) can concentrate on the little critters with the strobe.

So I think we're all set! Thanks for all the input and advice, it was really helpful...

Cheers!
Bryan