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Hutchel:RE: Professional vs hobby.
I am under no delusions about my purpose here. I am a computer geek that likes to dive and I love to take pics. Right about now, I should mention what my 35 mm SLR setup consists of - a Kalimar KX7000 - never heard of it? Minolta sold their old XGM product - I bought an XGM in 1982 (I'm showing my age) and have taken 1000's of pics with it - the light meter finally fried in 2000 and I replaced it with the current model. Believe me this is a nothing special camera - no self respecting prof would use it - but it's very easy to use and it's quite reliable. And one final thing to be clear - it's a mostly manual camera - I focus, I set the f-stop, and I can set the shutter. (I pd $200 for the body, and a 35-70mm lens) I have a 70-310 lens and a fisheye that I can use also - that I bought years ago for the XGM.
One other comment - I purchased a Vivitar Cruise cam in 2003 (Ok everyone cringe now please) - it's a 35mm point/click in a plastic housing. Very reliable and takes reasonable pics - I've had it to over 80' - no external flash though. My point is my bar is not real high here. I have reasonable expectations and the Sealife product failed to meet them on several accounts.
As to the picture quality, I am a bit of a purist here. I expect the picture from the camera to not require an doctoring. Having to involk Photoshop to clean up every picture is not only time consuming, but makes me feel like I had to cheat - I don't like cheating. It is still my work, by now am a passing off computer assisted graphics as a picture I took. It ain't the same.
Granted I don't have as much experience underwater as on land, I have the basics under control here. I just don't like having to fight the hardware. When I get frustrated enough or find someone willing to buy the sealife setup I will replace it - I just don't have $1k or so right now to do that. sigh.
Did you take an underwater photography class? We give an underwater specialty to all that purchase a Digital Camera. This way you are more comfortable and know more about taking pictures underwater which is completely different than land. I think you said in your last post that a pic of the sand didnt turn out......and I wouldnt really expect it to. The flash will do nothing if there is nothing to bounce the light back to it....Just trying to figure out more of what happened so I can better help my customers......