newbie question

[Les]

hiya all. I am wanting to get into underwater photography but am unsure what i will need. I live in Northwestern Canada and the vis can be pretty bad at times but the life is amazing nontheless.
What i want is to be able to take photos under probably poorer conditions than the rest of you out there, without breaking the bank, and the option of upgrading once i get the hang of things.(like strobes,macro,micro frames).I want to get a camera with a housing as opposed to using our camera and trying to find a housing to fit and want something that is user-friendly.we up here dive in cold water so gloves are thicker and more cumbersome. I like the look of sea n' sea and the ikelites.can anyone give me any feedback it would be appreciated.the stores will love to sell me anything they can make the sale on so i want to get some other diver views and opinions to reflect on my decision.thanks, Les

I have the urge to submerge

 

[ssra30]

What kind of budgets are you looking at? I generally would recommend starting with a digital setup since you can get instant feedback so learning curve is much faster than shooting film. In a long run, it is also cheaper as you won't have to pay for film or development. Starting cost is a bit higher though.
Most people start with either Olympus or Canon since both company also make cheap housings for their line of camera. However, Canon does not make housing for their higher end non SLR digital camera such as G2 or G3. On the other hand, Oly has housing for just about all of their digital cameras.

A good place to start is probably something like Olympus C5050Z with PT 015, a bit less would be the C4040Z with PT010 housing (discontinued but still available at some places) or C4000Z with PT010. Not sure about Canada but in the US, you can get Oly C5050Z/PT015 for around $US800.

I have Ikelite housing for my Oly C4040Z. The bottons, toggle etc are a bit bigger so it might be a bit easier with thick glove. It also rated to 200ft rather than 100 ft like the Olympus PT010. However Ikelite housing is significantly more expensive than Oly housing.

If you want to go Ikelite housing route, you might also want to check out Nikon Coolpix 5000/5700 or Canon G2/G3 also.

Once you play with your camera/housing enough, later on you add strobes, macro/WAL lens if you wish. Any of these camera should last you quite a while before something significantly better will come along that might want to make you upgrade.

 

[Ruu]

My newbie-esque questions are reasonably well chronicled here - I just got my first u/w rig (well technically I'm still waiting for it to be delivered, but it should be here on Monday - yay). I ended up going down the Olympus route (Dee is our leader here, and we shall soon wipe out all of the other infidels and their shiny Sonys and Canons).

I got a C4000 and a PT-010 housing in the end - a word of warning though, the housing is more difficult to come by than those by Canon, and even others in the Olympus range so you may end up paying a little more for it. The camera itself can be had new for $350 online now though, which is pretty good, but you may find yourself wanting to spend a little more on the 5050 - I know I did, I just couldn't afford it.

A little lower on the scale was my other choice of a Canon A70 (cheap but with some good manual controls to play with) and the Canon housing (again, pretty cheap and easily obtainable). You could pick up that combination for about $460 online if you look hard enough (and the price of the A70 is probably going to go down a fair bit soon - it has just come out). I am not sure about the expansion of this rig though - getting a strobe attached could prove extremely difficult, whereas the Olympus has several tried and tested options.

The sky is the limit if you are looking on the other end of the range, but thats somewhat out of my experience.

My two cents.

Dave

 

[Dee]

I wish I knew your budget. So assuming it's like mine, I would suggest either a C-4040, if you can find one, or a C-5050. The 5050 is a little more involved to learn and operate but it's worth it in the longrun.

Normally I recommend the Oly housings but since you mention the cold water and heavy gloves, I'd suggest the Ikelite housing. It IS more expensive but it has a tray and handle(s) built on so later down the road that's two expenses you won't have. The Ike housing have knobs instead of buttons (I don't think there are many buttons) which is easier with gloves or really large hands.

Ruu...I don't know about that leader thing but the Oly cult is building! ut: