sony or canon?

[jjagreen]

Hi All,

I am a magazine journalist and want to get into underwater photography to help sell some of my stories.

I wanted an inexpensive way to shoot reasonable quality stuff underwater without lashing out a fortune. Up top I use a Nikon F100 but want to switch to a D100 later.

Housings for these cameras are crazy expensive.

So I came across the Sony DSC W1 which is about to ber replaced by the Sony W7 - which is 7.2 megapixels and I also came across the Cannon A95. Both have $200 housings by the manafacturer which seem fine.

The advantage of the Sony is that I could replace the W1 with the W7 when it comes out and still use the same housing. The Canon I couldn't but the Canon seems teh better camera.

So would these cameras be OK for 5 megapixel magazine quality work? Would I need more strobes or would they be OK with the built in flash? And would I need a wideangle on these?

Anyway which one shuld I get if at all?


For any help I would be indebted.

Kind regards,


Jonathan

 

[Bob3]

I'll leave the "which one" answer to folks that have used both cameras, but I can comment on the built in flash. I made a little flash "blocker" so no light goes directly out from the front of the camera; it's very desirable to have a lot of distance between the flash & the lens so as to minimize the backscatter. I use a minimal wide angle for video & "sometimes" on the stills.
Having clear water helps a lot, though most of my favorite places have really bad viz.

 

[jjagreen]

thanks Bob - so I can't use a flash at all?

surely it would be a good thing to flash as much as you can as the water is so dense and hard to photograph.

Best,

J

 

[jjagreen]

And, on another, level.

Can I use a wide angle lens with either of those and fit it all in the housing?

Best,


Jonathan

 

[lukeROB]

And, on another, level.

Can I use a wide angle lens with either of those and fit it all in the housing?

Best,


Jonathan

I sent you a pm. Hope it helps otherwise let me know.

 

[Tom Winters]

I've seen Sony rigs with the Memory Stick. I'd stay away from them. Any wide angle or close-up lenses fit on the outside of the housing. I also coverd up my built-in flash - any flash you use should be as off-axis as far you can reach to avoid backscatter.

 

[diveborg]

My opinion; Canon over Sony. I haven't used a Sony camera so I can only comment on the Canon product. I started UW photography with a Canon A20. It did a decent job underwater for a point and shoot camera, and an very nice job on land. I think Canon makes some excellent cameras and reviews I've read seem to agree. I also think that using Compact Flash like Canon does is a better choice than having to use Sony's proprietary memory stick. CF is less expensive and you have a much wider choice of manufactures than memory stick.

 

[jjagreen]

Thanks Diveborg,

As I'm on a budget would I be able to shoot reasonably OK pictures in Carribean water just with the A59 and the housing?

Best,

Jonathan

 

[lukeROB]

yes can can shot some good stuff with the housing and A95 alone. Check my gallery - there are shots in the non-bali area which were taken with A70 and housing only. See if you can guess which ones.

 

[jjagreen]

Hi Rob,

OK give up - which ones wern't and which ones were.

Can you send me links to contrast the two?

J