NooB question

[bzalmano]

OK so I want to get back into diving and I would like to explore underwater photography and I only want to put a minor dent in the piggy bank not smash it completely and remove every dime.

What would be a good starter still camera package, either 35 mil or digital, for lets say around $500 or am I dreaming?

I can get a housing for my little olympus digital but not sure that it is going to give me what I want since I do not think you can add external flashes etc.

I also have a Nikon N-60 that I could get a housing for (at a much higher price) but I think I could get an entire rig for the prices of housing for that camera.

Any ideas would be great.

 

[kapula]

This has been asked quite a few times already. You should be able to get a decent package for that money. Just make sure whatever it is that it has manual white balancing. I'd go for some canon model and their housing. I started up with a70 and canon's housing. Got some great shots. You can also buy some additional lenses for those canons later on. But do a bit of browsing on this site and others. You'll find many advises and opinions. Don't think it'll hurt to browse ebay or such for used ones aswell. Oh and the more manual controls the better because you just mite get excited and want to control your photos more

 

[Mike Veitch]

go digital. you will get much better photos of a wider variety of subjects with any number of brands of small digital cams such as oly, nikon, canon, fuji etc than by spending your money on the housing for your N60. you would be amazed at the power of things such as manual white balance and using filters such as the new magic filter that is comin out for small point and shoot cameras, stuff you could never get on film....

and of course you won't spend the money on developin your film.....

 

[Gilligan]

Go with the above advice.

The Canon S80 or the Fuji E900 or the Olympus Sp350. The Oly is discontinued but still available. Be sure you can get the housing before buying the camera.

The Canon and Olympus are 8 megapixel. The Fuji is 9.

The canon does not have RAW mode . The Olympus and Fuji do.

All have manual white balance.

One of the down sides of buying a used older model digital camera is it will have a smaller monitor. The newer models have larger monitors.

You will need a software program for editing your photos.

IMHO, whatever you do don't go with a film camera. You will spend hundreds of dollars, on developing costs on the learning curve alone. You will not have the ability to see the pic underwater right after taking it so as to take another if it doesn't look right. You will be limited to 36 photos with film. I could go on and on about not getting a film camera for amateur underwater photography.

 

[tankboygreg]

Go digital! I bought my Canon A620 digicam with Canon housing for just under $500. However, when shooting macro the housing block sthe flash creating a shadow in part of the frame. I need to add a strobe for which I will probably spend another $500.

 

[bzalmano]

I have an Olympus C-60 that Olympus makes a housing for. I am wondering if there is a way of adding an external flash on to that housing. Does anybody have any experience with this camera in a housing? I have posted a similar question on the Oly sub-forum but have not recieved any replies so thought I might try here.

 

[Warren_L]

I believe with the olympus housings, it uses a standard 1/4" mounting screw on the bottom of the housing, so you should be able to fit a tray and handle on. You can then mount your strobe(s) provided they are optically triggered using a slave sensor (or connect via fiber optic cable) to an attachment point in front of the the onboard flash on the housing (like the diffuser).

 

[Gilligan]

I have an Olympus C-60 that Olympus makes a housing for. I am wondering if there is a way of adding an external flash on to that housing. Does anybody have any experience with this camera in a housing? I have posted a similar question on the Oly sub-forum but have not recieved any replies so thought I might try here.

Sunpak (link) is an under $200. strobe that comes with a tray.

Talk with Larry C or SeaYoda about it

 

[bzalmano]

OK How does the slave thing work? What fires the flash? I know this is very elementary but I pre-warned you that I was a NooB-NewBee-NewB-New (to be sung)

 

[Warren_L]

A slave sensor a sensor that triggers the strobe to fire when it detects a pulse of light from another strobe or flash. In this case, your onboard flash would fire and then triggers the slave sensor to fire the flash that it is connected to. This does not require a wired connection from the camera to the strobe (which requires a wire to pass through a bulkhead from outside the housing to the inside of the housing. Your onboard flash controls the firing of the external strobe.