What should I expect?

[Coll]

I currently own a Canon SD630 digital camera and LOVE it! Have used it for all my photography and now I'd like to take it into the underwater environment. I did the research and I believe the WP-DC3 is the housing designed for my particular camera and it costs a mere $160 or so. Now... I've used a cheap underwater camera and had mediocre results, I've used a Sea and Sea MX10 with the YS40 strobe and had pretty bad results (my fault of course) but the cost of film and developing adds up too quickly so I'd like to go digital. Here are my concerns however... $160 is a lot of money for a starving college student such as myself. I dive in the cold, usually relatively low-vis, backscatterish waters of Monterey, CA. I am curious if anyone can tell me what to expect or not to expect out of this simple rig. Canon SD630 with a WP-DC3 housing. Basically I would love to get some frame-able pictures on my wall. I don't need to shoot wide angle shots of reefs but would merely like to get some nice shots of anenomes and fish alike. I'm also curious as to how the video quality turns out with this set up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and if anyone has pictures from this set-up, well that would be phenomenal. Thanks for you time guys and for your advice in advance!

 

[fl-diver]

I have that exact setup. I like the SD-630 because of the size of the LCD and the whole rig is pretty small. For pictures I think the usual rule of getting really close is always true. I just started taking video on my last couple dives and it turns out good. I played with the custom white balance on my last dive this past Sunday and it turned out great. I just used some white sand on the bottom for reference. I was in about 65 fsw and the reds showed up well. I posted some videos on youtube and I have some pictures as well if you want see them. Unfortunately youtube kills the video resolution. The originals look great but are very large files.

 

[Coll]

Hey fl-diver, awesome that you have the same rig! I would love to see the pictures that you took with the set up and you can e-mail the vids also if you want. My e-mail is coll_perske@csumb.edu. What kind of visibility are the pictures taken in? Also, are you using any supplemental stuff like lights or strobes or anything? Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[fl-diver]

I sent you an email. Let me know if you need more info. I am just starting to use my camera underwater. I plan to bring it on every dive if possible. We have a lot of sharks around right now so I hope to get some video of them soon.