Newbie =}!

[Tigerman]

yeah I'm just trying to get a camera which snaps...nothing fancy....!
For recreational diving..
xx

Thats what I was doing when I got mine as well, but you might want to take into account that in a while you might want to go a bit more advanced and then its handy not to have to buy a new camera and housing. If I did buy one of the most basic setups 2 years ago, I would have bought a G-series or similar not too long after. At the moment Im drooling on some of the real fancy gear, but atm the price for that is more than Im about to fork out ($1500 ish for a dslr housing, $4k+ for the camera, a $loads for strobes)..

 

[Puffer Fish]

Any particular reason not to use the G11 with strobes that I have missed? It does have the hot-shoe and you still have the choice of optically fired strobes as well?

It would work fine with strobes.. just that they have down sized the sensor.. good for some things, not so good for others.. as an overall camera, I believe it is an improvement...but am betting one will loose the lovely 15 x 20 prints you can currently make with a G10 in iso 80...

 

[Tigerman]

It would work fine with strobes.. just that they have down sized the sensor.. good for some things, not so good for others.. as an overall camera, I believe it is an improvement...but am betting one will loose the lovely 15 x 20 prints you can currently make with a G10 in iso 80...

Its less megapixels yes, but if the physical size of the sensor is the same thats actually a good thing.

Apparently the sensor in the G11 supposedly will be 1/1.7 inch and the G10 one was also 1/1.7 inch which means youll have the possibility to use larger, more sensitive pixels. High megapixel counts on small sensors has more potential for noise and distortion than a lower megapixel count on the same sensor.
If the information I found regarding the G11 sensor was correct, they didnt actually downsize the sensor, but reduced the pixel count - hopefully for improved light and color sensitivity and reduced noise..

 

[mksmith713]

The housing available for my DSLR will run me about $1799.
If I were to buy that right off the bat,.....then discover I'm not really that INTO underwater photography......that would have been huge waste of $$$$$$$.
Better she should try something a little more economical to get her feet wet.....then decide if an upgrade is in order.
I started with the SeaLife ReefMaster ECO SL321.
An awesome little camera for the price.
No housing hassles either and...... fully waterproof to recreational dive limits.
When I decided I did like UW photography, I decided that I didn't like it so much that I wanted to drop close to 2 thousand $$$$ on a UW housing for my DSLR.
Instead, I bought the DC1000 from Sealife.
It takes great photos and I still have enough $$$$ left over to pay for tank fills for a few years.


QUESTION.....how many of you bought expensive dive gear before you did your first dive?
That's what everyone on the thread is telling the OP to do.

 

[Tigerman]

No, the G10/G11+housing is not "expensive" as far as I see it.
And no, I did not buy my dive gear before my first dive. I did however shortly after my certification..

 

[randini]

OP: you don't need the G10 or the G11 to take decent snapshots, these are going to be total overkill. Don't get me wrong, they are fantastic cameras, I just don't see them as being ideal for what you said you want to do. There are plenty of other options out there that are more suited to taking basic snapshots, and that will be more compact than the G's. Since you asked in this subforum, I'm assuming you're interested in a Canon. That's fine, they do make great cameras. Look for one that has a limited zoom (ideally about ~3.5x) and starts wide (28mm eq. or lower). A nice basic camera (very limited manual controls) that seems to have gotten favorable reviews (even underwater) is the powershot SD880 with the canon housing.

Good luck.

 

[randini]

sorry double post.

 

[Tigerman]

To make my point perfectly clear as people seem to have missed it;
The G10 or coming G11 are not the cheapest, simplest UW cameras you can get. They are however cameras that allow you to grow from full auto point and shoot to the step below DSLR cameras which is a serious expense. I find this better than to be unhappy with your current camera in a short while and want to upgrade. Why not spend $700 once than spending $300 just to find out in 6 months you want to spend the same $700 and end up having paid $1k rather than getting away with $700 in the first place.
If you find out UW photography is not for you, youll still have a great affordable everyday camera for dry-land use in the G10/G11.

I HAVE gone for "just what I need at the moment" a couple of times and those purchases always come back to bite me in the ass in the end anyways.