New P&S digital with ext. strobe? Which?

[apaka]

Hi! as an amateur diver/photographer I use a canon powershot a85 with an external strobe for 3 years, and now thinking of changing it to a newer setup. A compact digital, with ~10 megapixels, wide min.28mm, manual exposure mode, and of course a
housing. and if possible under or around 1000 US. looked up and down on the net for 2 days, but still don't have an idea which to buy. if anyone has please answer!

 

[Gilligan]

Up to a day or so ago I was ready to buy the Canon 10 with its 28mm lens along with the canon housing as an upgrade to my Oly C4000Z relic.

A little research has opened a can of worms regarding some model Canon cameras, including the G10. So far this has prevented me from buying the G10.

I am seeing lots of blogs on Canons lens retracting and extracting problems ending up with a non-functional camera showing an "E18 error" on the monitor.

Some of the sites addressing this are:
Canon e18 / Lens Error Experiences
Amazon.com: Customer Discussions: Beware the fatal "Lens Error" that renders this camera unusable if you are unlucky
Digital Camera Disasters: Will Yours Get Fixed? - PC World

Apparently there is a class action lawsuit against Canon!
Canon Named in Class Action Suit

I opened a thread on this in the Canon forum
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-corner/262602-canons-dreaded-e18-error.html

As for a strobe my experiences are with fiber optic slave strobes being the Inon and the Sea & Sea. My Inon D-180 (replaced by the D-2000) finally died but what I loved about it was its focus/target light. It is an invaluable tool and I would not buy a strobe without one. The sea & Sea I am using was given to me and does not have a target light. The Sea & Sea YS110 Alpha does have one and would be my choice. I like the the sea & Sea YS-90DX I am using over my old Inon because of the shape and it is more buoyant. It is also more powerful. The weak point of my non D-180 was the combination button/dial for the target light. It fell off several times. Luckily I did not lose the tiny screw and spring inside it. For that reason alone I would not buy the D-2000 if it has the same control.

 

[JackConnick]

The Nikon P5100 and the newer P6000 should be taken a look at. There will be a housing out for the P6000 in January probably.

Jack

 

[apaka]

Thanks, I will wait for a while, the Nikon seems a good choice. As for Canon I never had any problem with the Powershot A85 on land or uw, used it with a Sunpak G-flash, made good photos, the 2 points for I want to change is : "old" slow exposure, and mostly the 35mm lens. On the Kona manta night dive the mantas were too close for it. I was thinking of the Panasonic TZ or FX but they have no MANUAL mode, so you can't use a slave flash with them.

 

[divengolf]

The Nikon P5100 and the newer P6000 should be taken a look at. There will be a housing out for the P6000 in January probably.

I'd second this. I've got the P5100/Ike housing and two Ike strobes. Great setup and easier to haul around than a SLR, etc. As with all P&S, the only issue is the shutter delay, which isn't real bad if you use a focus light and pre-focus when you can.

I'd suggest sticking with the Ikelite housings and strobes. Seems to be less compatibility issues that way.

But the Canon G9 & G10 are getting lots of good press also. First I heard of the lawsuit issue cited above. Not sure if you'd have the same problems with an Ike housing and G9/10. But then I'm a Nikon/Ikelite person.

You can find some pretty good deals for G9s and P5100s plus housdings on Ebay since they're now not the current models. But they still work great. I've seen a couple reviews that have said that the P6000 isn't enough of an improvement over the P5100 to make the switch. Also you'll have to stick with the Ike DS-51 strobe to stay under $1000. The DS125/160s strobes are around $700 used.

Also you can put a wet WA lens on the Ike Housing and remove it as needed. I use a INON 67 mm (threads), but there are others.

PM me if you want more info on this setup.

 

[JackConnick]

What compatibility issues? The S&S 110a will work in manual or D-TTL with a fibre optic sync cord. Or the YS27DX in manual mode. That means a lot smaller and lighter case than the Ike.

The P6000 is a pretty big increase in camera. 28mm base lens & RAW for one. I think the low light focus is improved. Lots of small things. Cost is very nearly the same. Reviews are promising, but not really out yet.

I think it's going to be a killer UW camera, IMHO.

Jack

 

[randini]

I agree that the P6000'll be a killer, especially if Fisheye comes out with the housing & dome port to accompany the P6000 & Nikon WA lens that has been rumored that they have testing. (sorry Jack, but on a lighter note I do want a Fantasea FP5000 to go with my P5000 until I can afford to upgrade).

Photo quality of the P6000 doesn't seem to be much different from the G10, but the shorter zoom should make the use of WA lenses more feasable than in the G10 in housings like the Fantasea & Ike which is a good thing for UW photo!

 

[JackConnick]

I saw a new dome port that Fantasea is probably coming out with, very similar to the Inon ultrawide. Will fit all their 46mm port mounts. Very nice lens, reasonably priced.

Shhh, you didn't hear it from me... ;-)

Jack

 

[hammerhead man]

I have the Sea&Sea DX-1G and am very happy with it. The camera comes with a 24mm-72mm lens which is very wide. However, you can get an optional wide angle lens attachment that offers and even wider angle. It is very compact, can be used in manual mode, and takes great pictures (IMHO). It is a 10 meg pixel camera. Click on my gallery to see pics taken in the galapapgos. One complaint some have raised is the slow RAW mode it offers. Sea&Sea is coming out with the DX-2G that offers most of the same features of the DX-1G but also offers a much improved RAW mode. Here is another link showing the pictures that the 1G is capable of taking: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/un...sea-dx-1g-sipadan-mabul-kapalai-malaysia.html.

Regards,

Bill