KazooDiver:
I am thinking about purchasing this camera with an external flash for myself for my birthday...I have been giving my self a birthday gift for a while.
Has anyone had any personal experiences with this camera? Which flash would you recommend with it? Any other thoughts?
Thanks
I have the DX8000g for about six months now. It's been with me to the Bahamas, to 90 feet in 52 degree quarries, and it's coming to Key Largo in a couple of weeks.
At about 9 bills it's certainly not cheap, however, at 8 megapixels, and with the all the important adjustments built in and made simple (such as white balance), it offers awesome pics above and below the water, in a point 'n shoot form factor. (Although, I learned the hard way to *definitely* use the small desiccant capsulated bags it comes with if you're diving cold water).
The housing is extremely well thought out, and makes access to all the controls simple, even with gloves on. I've pulled off the plastic strap the housing came with, added a low-resistance retractor, and it's almost unnoticed hanging off a lower D-ring (it's slightly positively buoyant, which was lucky for me, first time I took it down!).
I've always used Canon for land-based photography, however, after doing a bit of research, I settled on the Sea & Sea (which is an OEM'd Ricoh, btw), because of the matched housing and camera, and the extremely fast shutter delay (I believe among the fastest in it's category -- relatively important when you're shooting marine wildlife).
I never did buy the strobe (was looking at the YS-25 with the articulated arm), because the camera's compact size was one of its selling points, and I didn't want to add any bulk. However, I'm still considering it...
Good luck with whatever you choose...