Underwater digital camera quality?

[raxafarian]

I realize full sized sensors are out... that's why I added "and drop in price".

Any zoom lens makes a trade-off. Yes... the cheaper consumer cameras have iffy optics... The cameras in question that would be considered to be housed (I wouldn't consider housing any of the inexpensive cameras) have decent optics. I'm not talking a 100.00 hp camera or anything along those lines.
Basing a purchase on optics is fine, just understand the best zoom lens in a camera can't hold it's own against a regular prime lens.... Maybe we aren't talking about the same thing??? I'm just saying the lenses in these cameras range from poor to good, maybe even very good.... When I talk about a prime lens, they range from good to excellent... and cost 300.00 and up. No comparison... not even a fair comparison.

I'm not trying to compare a digital SLR with prime lenses to a consumer (or even prosumer) digital camera... again, it's not a fair comparison. I'm saying that is where I want to be, and as soon as a body comes out with the features I want, and at a resonable price (2000.00, or so), then I'll switch from an all-in-one camera to an slr style.


Are you going to buy a housing for your sony? You could probably move to an olympus 3 or 4 mp (3030?, 4040?) for the same or better quality, and house it for what an ike housing goes for.

 

[raxafarian]

Scubaroo once bubbled...
The sensor on a Nikon D100 is 23.7 x 15.6 mm, a 1.5 field of view crop factor. Nikon has just this week announced a new DX 12-24mm (18-35mm 35mm film equivalent) wide angle zoom lens to compensate for the smaller sensor and resulting loss of field of view.

See story at Digitial Camera Review

I believe the first full size sensor is in the upcoming Kodak DCS 14n SLR, which is a 14 megapixel camera.

I thought the canon was out...but not yet I guess....
the only 2 are Kodak, like you said, and the canon eos-1ds.

 

[Scubaroo]

raxafarian once bubbled...
I thought the canon was out...but not yet I guess....
the only 2 are Kodak, like you said, and the canon eos-1ds.

Didn't know about the Canon Been keeping up to date with prosumer digitals of late rather than D-SLRs...

 

[clive francis]

check my site

it is only a 3meg camera but like Dee said it has the bright 1.8 lens, and I would consider this to have high end optics as opposed to lower end optics.

 

[Dee]

raxafarian once bubbled...
...Dee: I can see a slight advantage of a faster lens above water, but don't see it coming into play u/w. If you're shooting without a strobe, and at a point you need the 1.8, everything is gonna be blue anyways.... the colors aren't there no matter how fast the lens is. Do you have many pics taken at f1.8?

I see everyone has pretty much explained about the brightness of the 1.8 lens. And yes...I do have a picture taken with it. This squid picture was taken without any auxillary lighting at all...no internal flash and no external strobe. Also there was no manipulation done at all. You're seeing it exactly as it came from the camera.

 

[raxafarian]

good pic... was it taken at 1.8? what was the shutter speed?

 

[Dee]

raxafarian once bubbled...
good pic... was it taken at 1.8? what was the shutter speed?

I don't remember the specs on it exactly and I didn't record the EXIF info. But I *think* the shutter speed was 1/250 at 1.8.

That one was taken on my first trip with the camera and I didn't think I'd ever need to record all the details!

 

[ScubaDipper]

Dee once bubbled...
This squid picture was taken without any auxillary lighting at all...no internal flash and no external strobe. Also there was no manipulation done at all. You're seeing it exactly as it came from the camera.

Hey Dee -

Nice pic! Where was that taken?

 

[scorpionfish]

Hi, gang!

I am an age-old standard film/camera user above and below the water. Just a creature of habit! However, I would like to note that nearly all the wire services require their professional photographers to use digital cameras. Currently the state of the art cameras that such photographers use are Canons.

I am not certain whether this will add fuel to the fire or pour oil on troubled waters (not quite mixed metaphors). I have stared long and hard at digital, but remain comfortable with film for now. But, then again, I typically have long gestation periods for purchases. You could not even imagine how long it was before I owned a car with an automatic transmission!

Scorpionfish

 

[raxafarian]

Dee once bubbled...


I don't remember the specs on it exactly and I didn't record the EXIF info. But I *think* the shutter speed was 1/250 at 1.8.

That one was taken on my first trip with the camera and I didn't think I'd ever need to record all the details!

right click on the file and it'll tell you the camera settings... you might have to select "advanced" or one of the other choices in the menu that pops up.