Tripophobia
Registered
Scubaboarders,
I need your help again as priorities have changed a bit since my previous considerations on underwater cameras:
scubaboard.com
We will fly to the red sea in October for the first trip since COVID planning to do two dives a day for ten days. With a baby this will probably be our only annual dive trip for the next couple years, so we will not have >50 dives per year as we have regularly done in the past...
With my focus being on videography for underwater, I would still like to use the opportunity to tinker with underwater photography, but without investing a lot of money. Hence, I am checking the market for used equipment for some time and concluded on a few options where I would like to get your thoughts on.
I do not plan to buy any strobes, wet lenses as the package should be rather small. I have a 5000 lumen video light for my GoPro that supports a flash mode which I would then also use for the camera. I did have an RX100 M1 some time ago but the pictures were mostly crap (probably due to my limited capabilities).
Option 1: Olympus XZ-2 with the respective Olympus housing. I like that the lense is very bright and the sensor comparably big. It has underwater modes. However, I read the housing has only one o-ring and it is comparably old. I have an offer for roughly 150 USD
Option 2: Olympus TG-4 with an Ikelite Housing. I understand this camera has the macro mode similar to TG-5 and 6 moreover it is waterproof and thus less risky to drown. However, it has the smallest sensor and least bright lense. I have an offer for about 130 USD
Option 3: I use my backup Sony A6300 and buy a new housing (eg. Seafrogs Salted Line). This delivers probably the best picture quality but bears the highest risk. Moreover, I only have the Sigma 30mm f2.8 that would fit the housing. With another port I could use my Sony 18-135 but then I would spend like a 500 USD
Option 4: Go back to Sony RX100, maybe the M3 but this requires the most significant investment and as previously mentioned I was not really happy, neither with wide angle nor macro in the past...
Your thoughts are highly appreciated!
EDIT: I am a decent photographer above the surface, so I know what I am doing
I need your help again as priorities have changed a bit since my previous considerations on underwater cameras:
Point and shoot options
Hi Scubaboarders, every now and then I am considering adding a proper underwater camera to my GP7 but I am always struggling between hazzle, size and money: I am doing videography with my Gopro/Drone and I am extremely happy with it. I got the backscatter flip with the macro lense that does...
We will fly to the red sea in October for the first trip since COVID planning to do two dives a day for ten days. With a baby this will probably be our only annual dive trip for the next couple years, so we will not have >50 dives per year as we have regularly done in the past...
With my focus being on videography for underwater, I would still like to use the opportunity to tinker with underwater photography, but without investing a lot of money. Hence, I am checking the market for used equipment for some time and concluded on a few options where I would like to get your thoughts on.
I do not plan to buy any strobes, wet lenses as the package should be rather small. I have a 5000 lumen video light for my GoPro that supports a flash mode which I would then also use for the camera. I did have an RX100 M1 some time ago but the pictures were mostly crap (probably due to my limited capabilities).
Option 1: Olympus XZ-2 with the respective Olympus housing. I like that the lense is very bright and the sensor comparably big. It has underwater modes. However, I read the housing has only one o-ring and it is comparably old. I have an offer for roughly 150 USD
Option 2: Olympus TG-4 with an Ikelite Housing. I understand this camera has the macro mode similar to TG-5 and 6 moreover it is waterproof and thus less risky to drown. However, it has the smallest sensor and least bright lense. I have an offer for about 130 USD
Option 3: I use my backup Sony A6300 and buy a new housing (eg. Seafrogs Salted Line). This delivers probably the best picture quality but bears the highest risk. Moreover, I only have the Sigma 30mm f2.8 that would fit the housing. With another port I could use my Sony 18-135 but then I would spend like a 500 USD
Option 4: Go back to Sony RX100, maybe the M3 but this requires the most significant investment and as previously mentioned I was not really happy, neither with wide angle nor macro in the past...
Your thoughts are highly appreciated!
EDIT: I am a decent photographer above the surface, so I know what I am doing
