sealife or canon

[Daiika]

Go with the Canon, I got a Canon, older model. G11/ s90 is the housing the same price?

and Becca your underwater shots look better than your surface ones.

 

[friscuba]

thanks all i guess the real question now is g11 or s90

If I was picking, I'd try to get a look at housing for both cameras. Size may be a concern if you're thinking about carrying them with customers around.

While looking at housings, see what kind of wet lenses are available for the housings. The Canon housings are nice and form fitting, but they've got the funky oval lens thing going so you need adaptors to add any add on lens. I'm thinking the the Ikelites might be a little more flexible in those regards. The Inon macro wet lenses really add to your macro capabilities, if that's something you're interested in, with those cameras. I'm not sure how well a wide angle wet lens works with any of the housings, it'd be nice to know if there were advantages with one housing over the other.

 

[scubadada]

Hey Black_3000psi

I loved my Canon SD750 and Canon case but it always leaked a little no matter what I did including having the case replaced. It finally flooded and became nonfunctional. I now have an Olympus camera and case. The quality is much better, I have a great TTL flash from Sea & Sea, and a wonderful wide angle lens attachement. Sorry, I would add an Olympus camera and case to your short list of underwater set-ups.

Say hi to Alex for me, I hope to get back this year.

Good diving, Craig

 

[Becca_007]

I need another dive trip so I can add more underwater pics . On our most recent trip we used both the SD550 (point and shoot) and the 40D (dSLR). It was the first outing for the SLR with a brand new housing and brand new strobe. The difference between the SLR and Point and shoot is amazing, but you can't beat the price of the point and shoot or the convenience. Even with the more expensive setup we wouldn't hesitate to replace the small one if something happened with another Canon in another Canon housing.

 

[kanonfodr]

I would second Canon over Sealife, but as far as which camera model goes I can't comment. I've got a Canon Rebel DSLR that I would love to get into the water but housings are so freaking expensive!! So I stick with my Sealife DC600 with a strobe when I feel like shutterbugging underwater. It does just fine for me, as the camera works a lot better than the photographer does, I'm afraid.

Also, got to try out a friend's G9 in an Ikelite housing: WOW!!! That's a nice setup and I even managed some good shots with it (using an Ikelite strobe), my only complaint is the size of that housing: It's huge! I much prefer the compactness of my Sealife (even with the strobe I can fold it up and tuck it under my arm when diving so it is out of the way) but I was very impressed with the picture quality of the Canon.

So while I am a fairly happy Sealife owner, I would recommend the Canon if you don't mind the housing's size.

Peace,
Greg

 

[WarmWaterPursuit]

I along with Gabe bought the Canon S90 based on his recommendation and absolutely love it!

 

[Black_3000psi]

thanks all, after a serious look on line im going to go with the g11

 

[ChimChim75]

Several of my buddies dive with Sealife cameras and Canon cameras. Canon G11 or S90 will produce a MUCH better pic for the money. Sealife cases seem to have lots of button issues with jamming. I'd personally go with the G11 for the extra features. You may want to look at a Panasonic TZ7 if you shoot video a lot. AWESOME video and pics are just slightly lower quality than the G11/s90.

 

[eelnoraa]

As for S90 vs G11. They have same sensor, same wide angle, which is more important for UW. Image quality will be very close. S90 has faster lens at wide end, f/2 vs f/2.8 of G11, so at low light without flash, S90 will produce better picture at wide end.

What G11 wins is handling above water, more button, so less likely need to go int menu. Longer range on long end. Bigger battery, so better battery life. More powerful onboard flask, Also hot shoes for flash.

Now the big question here is for under water usage. I will highly recommend S90 over G11. Reason is with Canon case, they camera become a lot bigger. S90 isn't small anymore, G11 is really big with case on. make it harder to handle while dont produce better pictures.

 

[Altamira]

I too am looking at the Canon S90 with an Ikelite housing. I read several comments in other posts and on other camera sites that you cannot operated the rear ring with the Ikelite housing. I hate to ask a dumb question, but that would seem to indicate that you cannot operate all of the functions on the camera. What do I lose if I use an Ikelite housing verses the Canon housing for the S90, and what would I gain. I don't have experience with any underwater camera or housing, but became very attached to the Ikelite name when I was using their dive light when cave diving in the 60's.
Thanks for any advice.
Guy