I am also thinking of getting a canon G11. I have an old canon camera and housing and have never had any problems with it. The newer canon housings i've seen don't appear to be as good quality but ikelike housings are three times the price....
The great camera debate.
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HerraduraDivers
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Diverfi,
imagine yourself that a Patima or Fix Fisheye aluminium housing cost the double of the Ikelite housing or is 6 times more expensive than the Canon housing and you feel that the Ikelite is actually not soooo expensive. It's just a matter of point of view.....
Anyway, you can go always with the Canon housing and pray that you are one of the ones who don't have troubles with it, that you don't need e-ttl and a way to attach wet lenses and you may be happy. You may get a Nikon Coolpix L22 with Ikelite housing or a Intova package and you pay less than for the G11 and use her only on land.
Chris
imagine yourself that a Patima or Fix Fisheye aluminium housing cost the double of the Ikelite housing or is 6 times more expensive than the Canon housing and you feel that the Ikelite is actually not soooo expensive. It's just a matter of point of view.....
Anyway, you can go always with the Canon housing and pray that you are one of the ones who don't have troubles with it, that you don't need e-ttl and a way to attach wet lenses and you may be happy. You may get a Nikon Coolpix L22 with Ikelite housing or a Intova package and you pay less than for the G11 and use her only on land.
Chris
PatW
Contributor
Scuba Trisha,
On land, I use a Nikon D300. I have a fair amount of experience with SLRs over the years. I take photos of wildlife, birds (which are wildlife of course), landscapes, and macro.)
In scuba, I have about 100 dives. I dive the FL keys and the carribean mostly.
When I chose a camera, I went with a high end point and shoot. The reason for the PS is I did not want to expend the $$$ on an underwater DSLR system and the extra weight of the underwater DSLR is a big consideration also. I already lug lots of weight in scuba equipment through airports without adding a pile of photography equipment.
I decided on the Canon G11. It is high rated. It does RAW. It is reasonably competent in macro. I went with the Ikelite case. For the strobe, I went with Ikelite's D51. I think that it is a more capable case than the Canon case and it is rated for 200' instead of 130'. I am not a big deep diving fan, but I can get down to 115' and pushing up to 90% of my cases rated capability does not seem like a really good idea.
The G11 is a very competent little camera. After using a DSLR, it was easy to figure out. The ikelite case works pretty well. The strobe works fine too. With RAW and a 4 GB card, one can get about 270 exposures which right now works for 2 dives.
I just got back from Key Largo and 10 dives.
My first round of photos worked pretty well. I could improve them by getting closer and by getting more adept at using the strobe. But I was quite pleased with the first rendition. The shutter lag is a bit of a problem but it does allow me to get photos or fast moving little fish like 4 eyed butterfly fish and damsel fish. So that was a big success.
Something I learned, you really want to get close, you really want a wide angle and you really need a strobe. Above all, if it doesn't have RAW don't touch it.
The G11 is a nice pocket camera for above water photos too. Many photographers use it for situations when they just do not want to lug around their DSLR. So it can do a dual role.
I have heard good things about the Olympus pseudo DSLR too. So if you wanted something that was a notch above the G11 without going to DSLRs, that would be the next step.
Pat
On land, I use a Nikon D300. I have a fair amount of experience with SLRs over the years. I take photos of wildlife, birds (which are wildlife of course), landscapes, and macro.)
In scuba, I have about 100 dives. I dive the FL keys and the carribean mostly.
When I chose a camera, I went with a high end point and shoot. The reason for the PS is I did not want to expend the $$$ on an underwater DSLR system and the extra weight of the underwater DSLR is a big consideration also. I already lug lots of weight in scuba equipment through airports without adding a pile of photography equipment.
I decided on the Canon G11. It is high rated. It does RAW. It is reasonably competent in macro. I went with the Ikelite case. For the strobe, I went with Ikelite's D51. I think that it is a more capable case than the Canon case and it is rated for 200' instead of 130'. I am not a big deep diving fan, but I can get down to 115' and pushing up to 90% of my cases rated capability does not seem like a really good idea.
The G11 is a very competent little camera. After using a DSLR, it was easy to figure out. The ikelite case works pretty well. The strobe works fine too. With RAW and a 4 GB card, one can get about 270 exposures which right now works for 2 dives.
I just got back from Key Largo and 10 dives.
My first round of photos worked pretty well. I could improve them by getting closer and by getting more adept at using the strobe. But I was quite pleased with the first rendition. The shutter lag is a bit of a problem but it does allow me to get photos or fast moving little fish like 4 eyed butterfly fish and damsel fish. So that was a big success.
Something I learned, you really want to get close, you really want a wide angle and you really need a strobe. Above all, if it doesn't have RAW don't touch it.
The G11 is a nice pocket camera for above water photos too. Many photographers use it for situations when they just do not want to lug around their DSLR. So it can do a dual role.
I have heard good things about the Olympus pseudo DSLR too. So if you wanted something that was a notch above the G11 without going to DSLRs, that would be the next step.
Pat
bvanant
Contributor
ScubaTrisha - go ahead and get the Ikelite housing, you won't be sorry. They are worth every penny. As far as not being able to shoot video - I have strong opinions about video shot with a still camera, it looks like s*** to me. If you want to shoot video, buy a real camcorder.
Just my 2 cents as an underwater photographer and videographer for over 10yrs.
robin
I guess a lot depends on which still camera you mean. One of the last episodes of House was shot entirely with a still digital camera (5DMII) which granted isn't a P&S but it is a "still" camera.
As for ikelite, I think it is an OK choice, but only if cost is your major concern, otherwise the Fix housings allow you a lot more freedom than the Ike's do.
My $0.02
Bill
PatW
Contributor
Scuba Trish,
Fix housings do look nice. But Ikelite offers TTL strobe support (for Ikelite strobes). Fix housings do not. Fix housings do allow you to add on wide angle lenses that Ikelite does not support. But the TTL support in Ikelite is a pretty nice feature.
Pat
Fix housings do look nice. But Ikelite offers TTL strobe support (for Ikelite strobes). Fix housings do not. Fix housings do allow you to add on wide angle lenses that Ikelite does not support. But the TTL support in Ikelite is a pretty nice feature.
Pat
bvanant
Contributor
I believe that FIX allows you to sync with an optical fiber. That allows you to get TTL with Inon and Sea and Sea strobes. In any case, the Ike solution does not get you TRUE Canon ETTL either, it uses an Ike TTL converter that is based on the HeinrichWeikamp converter or some other reasonable approximation of ETTL but not true ettl. The only way to get true ttl is to house a Canon land strobe.
Bill
Bill
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