Hi there...advice please.I love taking photos topside and am keen to get involved in the UW action.I have borrowed a few friends' cameras at times and like digital for sure.I want to buy something lightweight,with not too hefty a housing would be good.Any recommendations?Price isn't a major issue but I don't want to have to take out a big loan!It'll be a piece of equipment I would plan to use for years so I do want to get a good one.Thanks
what camera is best for novice photographers?
- Thread starter waterfall
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you will allways spend more money then you wanted but some of the most typical ones are: olympus 5050 (5060, 5070 etc.), canon a75 (80, 85, 95, etc.), canon S30 (45,50,60,70, etc.)
uw photography is the black hole of your bank account and don't you forget it...
uw photography is the black hole of your bank account and don't you forget it...
We have the Olympus 5060 and although the housing and controls looked pretty intimidating at first it didn't take this non-photographer too long to get the hang of the basic functions. I bought a 1gig card for it and am extremely happy with that purchase. I can put approx 600 5.1mp photos on the card, that's plenty of room to get through a vacation if you delete the bad shots each evening or even between dives (you can do that without taking the camera from the housing). The housing has a counter-weight you can attach to make it neutrally buoyant (very nice). Make sure to get a strobe, underwater photos work better when the flash is located farther from the camera.
One thing I really like about the 5060 is downloading the pictures to a computer. You can choose which pictures you want to download and can move the pics straight from the camera to the computer. If you select "move" instead of "copy" it takes the files off of the camera card. We have a small HP that is a complete PITA to transfer pictures from. If you forget to erase the disk when you get done the thing transfers all the pictures again even when you mark the "pictures taken since last transfer" box. Then no matter what you have to go back and delete the pics from the camera, you can't just move them to the computer.
Good luck on your search!
Ber :lilbunny:
One thing I really like about the 5060 is downloading the pictures to a computer. You can choose which pictures you want to download and can move the pics straight from the camera to the computer. If you select "move" instead of "copy" it takes the files off of the camera card. We have a small HP that is a complete PITA to transfer pictures from. If you forget to erase the disk when you get done the thing transfers all the pictures again even when you mark the "pictures taken since last transfer" box. Then no matter what you have to go back and delete the pics from the camera, you can't just move them to the computer.
Good luck on your search!
Ber :lilbunny:
A good UW camera SHOULD take good photos on land as well... Obviously, people will tell you that theirs is the BEST.
Think about your price range, and how many mega-pixels you want... Narrow your camera choices down, and then see if they make reasonably priced UW housings for that camera.
There are several Camera comparisons available to check out on-line for free. I would suggest looking at the websites for Canon, Nikon, or Olympus, and make an educated decision.
IMO... Canon's point and shoot digitals are quite good. I worked in a camera store for a few years, and we sold the big 3, and my old boss agreed with me. He used to shoot Nikonos for many years, and he also shoots Canon UW.
Good Luck.
Think about your price range, and how many mega-pixels you want... Narrow your camera choices down, and then see if they make reasonably priced UW housings for that camera.
There are several Camera comparisons available to check out on-line for free. I would suggest looking at the websites for Canon, Nikon, or Olympus, and make an educated decision.
IMO... Canon's point and shoot digitals are quite good. I worked in a camera store for a few years, and we sold the big 3, and my old boss agreed with me. He used to shoot Nikonos for many years, and he also shoots Canon UW.
Good Luck.
waterfall:
I guess the choice ultimately depends on what kind of photography you want to do. Having gone the P&S route, I recently moved to DSLR and am really happy I made the move. I had some excellent results with my Oly C5050 which I still love dearly, but DSLR fits more my style. I am a long time land based SLR user and moving to underwater digital photography at the time, DSLR was way out of my price range. I believe the Nikon D100 at the time was about $5000 or so, so P&S it was.
But based on your comments, I would probably say that a recent Olympus or Canon P&S model with manufacturer's housing would be the way to go. DSLR is a bit of a beast underwater and even more of a beast on land when you're getting in and out of the water with a full rig with dual strobes, etc. But in the end, only you can really decide what's most important to you. Good luck in your choice!
Captain CaveMan
Contributor
i got a fujifilm f700 with the underwater case tahts made for it.
does realy nice and and has a big viueing screen.
does realy nice and and has a big viueing screen.
