Standard manufacturers and housings vs sea and sea/sealife cameras

[Robertcrockett]

Ive been looking at various sea life and sea and sea cameras and im starting to wonder if some other standard manufacturer such as olympus, canon etc with an added housing wont give me the same quality at a reduced price. I can get an olympus FE-3010 12mp camera with housing for 254.00 I can throw in a Fantasea Nano Single Pro Set #2075 flash for another 211.00 and im still way below cost of a sealife dc1000 with a pro flash kit which sells at 899.00 on leisurepro. So my question is for all u entry level shutterbugs. Can u please relay any recommendations or experiences?
I leave the serious photography up to my wife I just want to be able to record dives and get a nice color range on coral formations, fish, etc. Most of my underwater use will be in tropical waters or clear mountain lakes and basically my photos will just exist for personal use and to elicit Ohhhhs and Ahhhhhs about my latest trip.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

 

[hammerhead man]

Based upon your stated expectations, I think that a point and shoot camera will work fine. However, I would get a camera with manual options so that when you want to go beyond just point and shoot, you don't have to get a whole new setup. I have used Sea&Sea cameras a lot and find that they have very short lag time and take great pictures. Lag time is the time between when you press the shutter button and when the picture is actually taken. Any camera you get should, in my opinion, have a short lag time. If the camera doesn't have a short lag time, then you have to lead the fish when you take the picture, so you are always taking the pic where you expect the subject to be rather than taking the pic of the subject. The other consideration is the availability of different lenses underwater (wide angle, macro, etc). As you get into UW photo you will want to get these accessories. I currently have the Sea&Sea DX-1G and am very happy with the quality of pics I get from the camera. It has a short lag time, and wet lenses that you can get as well as some great strobes. I know that many on the board will recommend the G10, which is also a great camera.

Now to get to your question, obviously, you can get a setup that is cheaper but you have to consider the quality of the pics that your going to get. Just because the Olympus is a 12mp camera doesn't mean that it's going to take great underwater pics. In my opinion, higher pixel counts are overrated. Most photographers get 4x6 prints and occassionally 8x10 prints and any camera 6mp or higher should be able to produce an 8x10 print. I couldn't find any reviews for this camera so I'm not sure how it would work underwater.

Just my thoughts.

Regards,

Bill

 

[emoreira]

A friend of mine bought a sealife UW camera. I don't know now which model, but, after using it in several dives now, we found out that :
1) The camera, as it has no housing, is heavily negative buoyant, so, it will be hanging down when not in use. If you loose it it will go directly to the bottom as a rock. A PS camera with a housing is normaly positive buoyant and you can add several weights to make it less buoyant, neutral or negative buoyant, It's your choice.
2) He had several issues with it. The camera SW hangs and, to solve the situation he needs to remove the bateries, as the usual turn off and on again was not possible. Of course, he must go to the surface, dry the camera and open it to remove the batteries.
3) Not sure, but I think it has no built in strobe, so you cannot use it to take a picture in a dark room over water.
4) A positive one, as it has no housing, it's smaller and easy to handle.

For me, it's not a good solution.

 

[marcaumarc]

I think basically any P&S with a strobe would beat any P&S without a strobe under most circumstances. Unless you are snorkeling it's almost the difference between shooting in black and white versus shooting in color. For example, same camera:

No strobe:

Strobe:

 

[hammerhead man]

I agree with marcaumarc, you absolutely need a strobe to capture the color at any depth below 15 to 20 feet. The camera's strobe will give you quite a bit of backscatter and is not as powerful as an external strobe. I would recommend a camera and a strobe as a basic setup.

Just my thoughts.

Regards,

Bill

 

[JackConnick]

There are a lot of good cameas and housings out there. To a certain extent you get what you pay for.

The FE3010 & PT-046 housing is probably one of the better buys out there in terms of the quality of the camera, lens and software. It has many built-in shooting modes including underwater modes. I think it is vastly superior to SeaLife. The housing is decent quality and works well. Street price is around $280 for the set, but they have been very hard to come by lately from Oly.

As far as Sea & Sea goes, the 1200HD and certainly the new 2G cameras are very good, but are quite a bit more money.

Yes, you want a strobe. The NanoFlash is a small, lightweight unit that has been popular, especially in tropical waters. I have been selling lots of the very slightly (when you figure a sync cord into it) more expensive UltraMax UDXS strobes and they are much more powerful, adjustable and robustly built.

You might want to read this article on my blog to get started.

Jack