The $200 Camera

[lotsofgadgets]

http://www.snapsights.com/products_pdsc.html

The pixtreme px-01 is rated for 125 feet and is a 3.1mp camera. I bought a refurb from newegg for $63.00. I talked to the company after a recent diving trip and they said they are releasing a new model around the first of the year that will have complete control of the camera and a better quality ccd.

 

[Jamdiver]

Canon A520 (new) or a refurbished Canon A95 are sub $200.

 

[-hh]

Yep, that's all this budget minded diver is willing to spend for a camera. I am looking for a digital that eventually will take an underwater housing. Any suggestions?

IMO, questions like this usually create more questions. For example:

Is this $200 intended to be just an initial investment, or the total investment?

Reason to ask is that Canon has UW housings for several of their P&S digital cameras for under $200...but they still are a bit lacking in the artificial light augmentation department...ie, in addition the the P&S itself, an external strobe will cost extra too, even though you can probably get away with starting without it.

Similarly, how demanding are you on the quality of your photos?

Reason to ask is that if your intent is to make 8x12 or 11x14 wallhangers, no 2MP camera is going to cut it. OTOH, if its to upload small images for casual viewing on SB, then its clearly adequate. Ditto for how much you want to spend on a strobe versus using the free Mandrake Technique in Photoshop to manually restore the lack of reds in your images to give them an acceptable color balance.

Hope this helps,

-hh