What's the best option (pros cons) for a complete package that includes the camera, housing, arms, strobes etc., for $2000? Considering sea&sea 8000gx package new or a used dslr and used housing et al. I'm not sure I can get a used (good working condition) dslr package for $2000. What do you all think is my best option.
UW camera and housing options
- Thread starter rjdm
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Nope, you'd be very very lucky to get a dslr set up going for 2G indeed.
I'd start with my strobe and work backwards when figuring out the budget, just coz there are fewer choices
It would be good to know more:
1 - how often do you dive?
2 - where do you dive?
3 - what do you like to take photos of?
4 - how experienced are you with a camera? and underwater with a camera?
5 - will you want to use this a lot on land, too?
6 - is size an issue?
7 - do you have any bits now? cf, xd cards etc? any brand loyalty?
There are many more questions and the more info you can give the better answers we can give. But to get started, have a look at some of the recent threads here on some popular choices.
I'd start with my strobe and work backwards when figuring out the budget, just coz there are fewer choices
It would be good to know more:
1 - how often do you dive?
2 - where do you dive?
3 - what do you like to take photos of?
4 - how experienced are you with a camera? and underwater with a camera?
5 - will you want to use this a lot on land, too?
6 - is size an issue?
7 - do you have any bits now? cf, xd cards etc? any brand loyalty?
There are many more questions and the more info you can give the better answers we can give. But to get started, have a look at some of the recent threads here on some popular choices.
1- maybe two to three times a year on scuba liveaboards.
2- all over carribean, galapagos, socorro, BVI etc
3- combo sometimes other scuba divers (i.e., with shark behind them and other times fish and macros.
4 - camera novice to intermediate both above and underwater
5 - it depends. would be nice.
6 - size isn't really an issue
7 - I have a panisonic FZ5 and 2.5gigs of SD cards
Do you like the sea and sea 8000?
2- all over carribean, galapagos, socorro, BVI etc
3- combo sometimes other scuba divers (i.e., with shark behind them and other times fish and macros.
4 - camera novice to intermediate both above and underwater
5 - it depends. would be nice.
6 - size isn't really an issue
7 - I have a panisonic FZ5 and 2.5gigs of SD cards
Do you like the sea and sea 8000?
No, I don't like it. But some do.
I'd go with a Canon A or S series in a Canon housing (except the 620 for which I would spring for the Ike housing so I could attach add-on lenses). Or maybe one of the Fujis - 900, 810...though these aren't as high on my personal list, even though they do offer RAW. Olympus 5050 if you can find one is still an awesome unit, despite a few quirks - I won't give mine up. The Oly 350 has a good following, too.
I'd head for a compact digital camera that has complete control of aperture and shutter and that has an underwater housing available for it. You'll use the compact on land far more than underwater so I would concentrate on finding one that meets your land needs with the ocean stuff secondary.
I'd go with a Canon A or S series in a Canon housing (except the 620 for which I would spring for the Ike housing so I could attach add-on lenses). Or maybe one of the Fujis - 900, 810...though these aren't as high on my personal list, even though they do offer RAW. Olympus 5050 if you can find one is still an awesome unit, despite a few quirks - I won't give mine up. The Oly 350 has a good following, too.
I'd head for a compact digital camera that has complete control of aperture and shutter and that has an underwater housing available for it. You'll use the compact on land far more than underwater so I would concentrate on finding one that meets your land needs with the ocean stuff secondary.
starlan
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Yes as Alcina says the Canon A and S series are good as is the Fuji E900. I recently got a Fuji F30 which isnt fully manual but offers Aperture and Shutter priority modes. It also has a few nice features such as an Iflash, which adjusts flash exposure and also excellent high ISO capability, I used to get blurry shots many times with my prior cam underwater but with the F30 you can easily use ISO800 and they look like ISO200 from the Canon A or S series, really is quite remarkable in that regard (you can see examples at dpreview). I was going to get a fully manual cam (adjusting both Aperture and Shutter) but then thought how often will I have time to adjust both the shutter and aperture and hopefully get a good exposure? What if I messed up and what I wanted was gone and I had to reshoot? I think A/S priority mode really is good enough on a compact cam and I doubt most people use those types of cams fully manual when underwater. Setting Aperture is most important when taking a photograph anyways and you can control that with all of these cams. Also all these cams have manual WB so thats good too. I would go to www.dpreview.com and check out the reviews there, they have reviews for all the cams here. The Fuji F30 for example you can get for about $500 with the Fuji housing and have lots of spare cash for good strobes, etc.. The Canon S80 is also excellent but I do believe it has recently been discontinued. The A series are good but I just dont like them as they feel utterly cheap and the plastic theyre made of is not very nice unfortunately. DSLR is your best bet and you probably could get a nice setup for maybe $2500 though so if you adjust a little I think you could get like a Nikon D50, housing and some strobes for it for that price. Go on to sites like dpreview.com and see what you like. I agree, working backwards might be a better idea than starting with the cam.
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