New P&S Compact Contender? Canon SD4000IS + Ike housing

[Nemrod]

Do you have the S90? You may be right, last I read on it was several months ago and seemed like people were having some issues with the Ikelite housing and the control ring.

Would love to hear more feedback if there is any.

I've gone back and forth on the RAW necessity. I've had an Olympus without RAW that I loved, then a Fuji with RAW that I really didn't see a huge benefit out of, and now this is camera number three.

I actually was being sincere when I said I like the camera SD4000, the back lighted sensor and HD movies and fast f2.0 lens. I was very disappointed in that it seems Canon is not providing a housing as I would like to have one to replace my aging Oly SW770.

I think the main issue with the ring control on the Ikelite S90 rig is a learning curve. I think Ikelite addressed the problem with success I do believe?

There will be a S95, rumors are back lighted sensor, 24mm wide lens (not good for wet lenses), improved macro function, HD movies, ergonomic refinement, should start hearing more in late August and September (if true). Hey, Canon can you just add the new sensor and HD and leave the "box" alone--please? Is that asking too much?

N

 

[Peter Guy]

I must say I agree with NW Grateful Diver regarding RAW. While RAW may be a help in changing the color temp during post processing when shooting wide angle, I'm still waiting for someone to convince me that RAW is any significant help when shooting macro with a strobe.

At least it is my understanding, the big advantage of RAW is being able to adjust color temp -- and I just don't see that as much of an issue when shooting macro with a strobe.

OK -- what am I missing?

(For what it's worth, BTW, I think the best deal out there now is the Olympus E-PL1 with Olympus housing. While more than the S90/Ikelite, it is also a lot more camera.)

 

[Nemrod]

I must say I agree with NW Grateful Diver regarding RAW. While RAW may be a help in changing the color temp during post processing when shooting wide angle, I'm still waiting for someone to convince me that RAW is any significant help when shooting macro with a strobe.

At least it is my understanding, the big advantage of RAW is being able to adjust color temp -- and I just don't see that as much of an issue when shooting macro with a strobe.

OK -- what am I missing?

(For what it's worth, BTW, I think the best deal out there now is the Olympus E-PL1 with Olympus housing. While more than the S90/Ikelite, it is also a lot more camera.)

I got to handle and drool over the ELP-1 housing in GC. But, since I mostly do very wide angle and even with the Zen dome the Oly is limited to about 100 degrees DFOV vs 165 degrees DFOV fisheye with the FIX90, I cannot agree with the "lot more" as in a lot more of what because it is certainly a lot less FOV.

But, the Oly is an exciting camera and for moderate wide angle, macro, it looks like a beautiful rig and surprisingly compact in my hands.

You realize the newest Canon rumors are a pint size dSLR still with a mirror box and live view and a new range of lenses with half the focal set back of current Rebel cameras.

I love my FIX90 and with either the Inon UFL165AD or Fisheye ultra-wide UWL-04 I can get a full fisheye FOV right at 165 degrees and focus from port to infinity, love it. I don't regret the purchase one bit and am more excited each time I use it. I would not have been able to get this type of shot with the ELP-1 and Zen 100 degree dome, the tarpon were inches from my dome, there was a lot of sediment and micro-life in the water, any further away it would have just been yet another bluish colored fish pic with lot's of back scatter. The shooting distance between/from the center tarpon to my dome was approximately 5 to 6 INCHES at most. It was a RAW file, dual D2000 in EA mode set two stops below camera aperture, S90 at -1&1/3 stop overall, the challenge was not having the tarpon completely blown out by the strobes as they are like taking a photo of a high speed mirror. The S90 focus was in Manual mode thus speeding the shutter response up to reliably get the pic I wanted, not the one after, .

N

 

[Aggie Diver]

Wow, that's an awesome shot. Love the ambient light coming through at the top and bottom.

Oh, for what it's worth, I've got an external strobe, and the Inon wet mount wide angle and macro lenses (the 100 wide, and 165 macro). So I definitely care about a lens that plays nice with the wide angle and a housing with 67mm thread mounts...

 

[slowhands]

The SD4000 is trying to be a cheaper S90, but they left out features I want, namely RAW and Manual exposure. The S90 still rocks for just a few bucks more.

I like some of the features of this new camera. I love the huge display for video, but for still shots it's the wrong aspect ratio so the image is cropped in the display, with the sides blank. Effectively the display is smaller for still shots, which is bad. The HD video is great though, although clips are short.

It does have P, A and S modes, but no M control. I can live with that but be aware of it.

It does not shoot RAW. I need this for correcting white balance in Photoshop, although a previous poster pointed out this is not needed for macro shots with strobes. I shoot a lot of macro, but wider shots too. Need RAW for that. So this is a how stopper for me, maybe others see it differently. I'd stay with the S90 for this alone. Perhaps a CHDK is coming to fix this??

This camera seems to have the same lens as the S90, a smaller sensor that is "backlit", which I think is just jargon for putting the interconnect out of the way of the light gathering cells, as is done on solar cells by Sunpower for the very same reason.

Ikelite makes a nice housing for it, but it does not spin the rear command dial, an inconvenience. I wish this had that feature, it's also missing on the Ikelite S90 case and for me it's a glaring omission, because you set functions with it. (I'd pay more to access this function, Ikelite, so put it in a larger box and give me the command dial! My other option is the FIX housing, which is such a gem and has the function. What did that guy say, you get what you pay for?) But since this is aimed at a cost conscious consumer, I can see why they did it -- the housing lists at $260, street price $220. Not bad.

The red camera skin is cute, what the heck. Maybe it will attract fish? It does not attract me enough to buy it. For now, the S90 gets the job done better than the SD4000. If you are trying to save cost though, and can live without RAW, it's worth a look.

Anyway, the mini mirror-less cameras are coming soon, from Canon, Nikon and Pentax. That should be interesting, in say 6 months.

 

[FrankPro1]

It does not shoot RAW. I need this for correcting white balance in Photoshop, although a previous poster pointed out this is not needed for macro shots with strobes. I shoot a lot of macro, but wider shots too. Need RAW for that.

I use white balance in post with CS5 in all my shots, both wide angle and macro. My Ikelite strobes tend to give an orange warm haze in macro, so wb is absolutely needed to correct that. What strobes do you and Peter guy use which don't require any wb correction in macro shots? Also RAW gives you a massive amount of data to manipulate in post compared to jpeg. I've found that I've been able to consistently create better end results with my images since I started editing with RAW exclusively. I agree with NWGratefulDiver that lighting and dive skills are much more important then RAW capability, but that's like saying having 4 wheels on a car is more crucial to an auto then it having a speedometer in the dash. Of course you absolutely need 4 wheels but a speedometer is a pretty important feature as well.