Stuck between 3

[darylm74]

I recently bought an Olympus C-740 after verifying that it had a housing available (on Olympus's website) but to my dismay they no longer make the PT-018 housing and if you can find it, the cost is outrageous. I originally wanted to go with a Canon anyway so guess I'm giving the C-740 as a birthday gift since I never opened it and have been researching the Canon's ever since (my wife would like me to stop soon). Right now I'm stuck between three different cameras. I will be using this primarily in the northeast around Dutch Springs and maybe even on my ice dive in February. I am planning on going on a cruise though back to the Carribean as a present to my wife after our 2nd child comes in June. So will definitely need something versatile between extremes of water temp (think all the housings are 0-40 C anyway).

S1IS - I really like the zoom capabilities, the size and the features of this camera but I have heard that the images are soft. I have also heard in low light that it is hard to get a focal point and that it is loud (scare the fish away?)

S500 - I will be buying my camera from DELL since they are having a great sale and I get an Employee Purchase discount through my company. DELL has a housing available for this camera so it would be one stop shopping. What I like most about it is the size. The downfall is the lack of manual features and I hear there are issues with purple fringe.

A95 - This has gotten some top ratings, some of the best features, and is a 5 MP like the S500. I am thinking this is the one I'm going with however my original choice (at least on my Christmas list) was the SI1S and I have the option of getting the nice disounts on the housing for the S500.

....what it boils down to is I'd like to see some people's gallaries. I have seen a couple with the S1IS and one with the S500 (nice pics stu) but haven't seen much with the A95 yet. I've seen others from the A-series but realize that each camera has its own strong points / shortfalls. I'd like to see a little more before I buy. Being an IT guy (and having a job in college working with graphics with Photoshop) I know what can be done with images. I guess that is why I want to see a broader base. I would appreciate if some people could drop me a few links to their gallaries so I could see what has been done with each.

PS. I've been on digideep and dpreview to name a few websites so done my homework...just would like a few names in case I have further questions....

One last sidenote, DELL also has the Rebel Digital on sale as well....I would love to have this camera since I usually use an old Nikon EM and love my 35mm, but just have an issue spending another $1300+ for a housing.


Thanks all!!!


Daryl

 

[jonnythan]

I have an A75. My pictures are anything but impressive, but they were all taken camera-only, no strobe, in murky fresh Northeastern water.. and I'm not much of a photographer.

All the pictures after 5/04 (besides the kayaking in Manhattan pictures) are with the A75. The older pictures were with an S230, an older 2 MP version of the S500.

http://www.jonnythan.com/nyc/
http://www.jonnythan.com/selects/
and http://www.jonnythan.com/jons_favs/ are a few non-diving pictures I've taken with the A75.

It's a data point..

 

[alcina]

There aren't a lot of A95 users who've done a lot of dives yet with their new toys.

To find galleries before people answer here do an Advanced Search for A95 both here and in the general section...when you find a poster who has one, hit the gallery link. That might help.

I think having a look at the other galleries with the A series will give you a reasonable expectation...from all accounts the A95 is one of the best of this line. And with the added MP you have more room to crop and enlarge sections of a photo - which is usually the most common "fix".

Out of those three, for me the A series would be the winner hands-down.

 

[darylm74]

There aren't a lot of A95 users who've done a lot of dives yet with their new toys.

To find galleries before people answer here do an Advanced Search for A95 both here and in the general section...when you find a poster who has one, hit the gallery link. That might help.

I think having a look at the other galleries with the A series will give you a reasonable expectation...from all accounts the A95 is one of the best of this line. And with the added MP you have more room to crop and enlarge sections of a photo - which is usually the most common "fix".

Out of those three, for me the A series would be the winner hands-down.

After viewing Jonnythan's pic's along with other "A" users I decided to go with the A95. I picked up a nice case and a 1GB Fast Card with it as well. Will just pick up the housing, strobe and lenses after I get my taxes. I was wondering, what would be the first lense you bought? I was thinking either the fish eye or the ultra wide angle. Not sure I'd need any telephoto lenses right yet. I do plan on getting the camera out and do some heavy work with it before I take it underwater. I just hope I have all of this ready by the time I go ice-diving.

 

[alcina]

Which lens is always one of those questions - what kinds of things do you like to take photos of mostly?

For me, I love the tiny stuff and so macro lenses are almost always with me (I do not have any extra lenses for my Canons, only my Oly). Due to a quirk of fate, I actually had my WAL before the macros. I can honestly say I have used my WAL probably 20 times...but the macros get used far more and far more times per dive.

If you like bigger stuff or want to explore what you can do with a WAL (like close focus wide angle) then you'll be happier with the WAL than with the macros.

 

[jonnythan]

I forgot to link to the diving pictures, lol

http://jonnythan.com/pictures

 

[darylm74]

I forgot to link to the diving pictures, lol

http://jonnythan.com/pictures

I at least got to see what you had done with it. It was slow though this weekend (even with DSL) though from work today it seems to be much faster.
Luckily I caught the half-a$$ photo quickly before anyone walked by the cube farm I worked in. *LOL*

Thanks again

 

[jonnythan]

That wasn't just half

 

[ChrisA]

I like my A80. I'd like the A95 better.
Here is a recent batch of photos. I don't have and extenal flash http://albertson.dyndns.org/photo/index.cgi?mode=view&album=/CasinoPoint27Nov04

Some things to think about:

1) You really want a camera that take FOUR AA size batteries. My wife's camera takes two and she has to swapp batts. Mine will do over 200 shots on one set of batteries. This is importent in an underwater camera because you do NOT want to open the housing except in a very clean and protected indoor environment. You want the batiy and memory card to last all day.

2) Don't worry abut the zoom lens. You will set it full on wide and leave it there. For best quality you want to reduce the amount of water between you and the subject so go wide and get close.

30 user interface mattrs a LOT. It's hard to read tiny icons and text through a dive mask and camera housing. Ideally the camera should be usable by "feel" but none really are that good. Just make sure the functions you need to use are not three levels down in a menu on the LCD screen.

By the above the A80 is "not to bad" My biggist complaint is shutter lag. But once you get out of the automatic modes is a much reduced. s... look for a good usable manual mode.

The flat port on the housing introduces some optical softness and color fringing at the edges of wide angle shots. For the most part this is not to bad.

I recently bought an Olympus C-740 after verifying that it had a housing available (on Olympus's website) but to my dismay they no longer make the PT-018 housing and if you can find it, the cost is outrageous. I originally wanted to go with a Canon anyway so guess I'm giving the C-740 as a birthday gift since I never opened it and have been researching the Canon's ever since (my wife would like me to stop soon). Right now I'm
S1IS - I really like the zoom capabilities, the size and the features of this camera but I have heard that the images are soft. I have also heard in low light that it is hard to get a focal point and that it is loud (scare the fish away?) <SNIP>


Thanks all!!!


Daryl

 

[alcina]

Just got back from another dive with my A75. Shutter lag? Nope. I am sure there is some but it is SO much less than my Olympus 5050 that it feels like none.