Digital camera with UW casing

[binbeto]

Hi all,

I only know Canon A** and Oly**** have under water casing.

Is there any other model with under water casing available?

** Digital consumer camera model only **

 

[discolite]

Tonnes of consumer-level digital cameras have housings made for them. The question is which ones have ~cheap~ housings available?

In the $200-$400 range:
Most Olympus cameras, except the C7x0 series, have housings made by Olympus Japan. Not just the Canon A-series but also the S-series have ready proprietary housings. Same goes for most Sony digicams.

Above & Beyond:
You can find Sea & Sea housing for the Nikon Coolpix 5000, approx $1500. Most Fuji digicams can be housed by Zillion, got to import from Japan though. And Ikelite can probably custom-construct one for any brand, do go to www.ikelite.com to check.

Then there's Epoque, Aquatica, Gates, 10bar...

Ah hell. Just go to www.digideep.com and find your camera/housing of choice from there.

Hope this helps.

 

[beivied]

yap, digideep is a very good website if you wanna look at the type of casings available, and you can get to see some sample shots.

i think to buy a third party casing is very expensive and not worthwhile. i might be wrong, but you might wanna stick to those with OEM underwater casing. so far that i know, olympus, canon and sony has OEM underwater casing for some of their cameras. you can go to AP and have a look. i saw another camera brand with underwater casing too, but i cannot remember if it is casio or .... hmm...

olympus and canon casing is about SGD300, sony's RRP is SGD530.

for OEM casing, i find that olympus casing is quite good. canon.. the earlier series are not so good. for A70 and the newer series digital cameras, Canon has improved on the underwater casing.

 

[binbeto]

Thanks for the help and info.

Won't be looking for those too expensive or custom made casing.

Most likely those with casing readily available. Maybe those around $300 type casing.

 

[beivied]

then you should consider canon or olympus. do you have any digital camera now?

 

[binbeto]

Originally posted by beivied
then you should consider canon or olympus. do you have any digital camera now?

Have a A20...

Was actually asking for a friend.

He has somehow narrow down to either ixus 400 or A70.

 

[beivied]

get A70 then. my personal opinion is that it is always better to use nimh rechargeable AA batteries if you can. it is very expensive to use lithium ion batteries, which is what ixus 400 is using. a spare battery costs you around sgd70. you can easily get 3-4 sets of spare rechargeable batteries.

you would need a lot of battery power, three dives can easily exhaust all your battery power. that would only be one day of your trip. if you use a lot, it can be exhausted in two dives.

a70 is less expensive than ixus, if i am not wrong. you would not be so panicky too to bring your camera underwater and afraid of flooding.

 

[binbeto]

Originally posted by beivied
get A70 then. my personal opinion is that it is always better to use nimh rechargeable AA batteries if you can. it is very expensive to use lithium ion batteries, which is what ixus 400 is using. a spare battery costs you around sgd70. you can easily get 3-4 sets of spare rechargeable batteries.

you would need a lot of battery power, three dives can easily exhaust all your battery power. that would only be one day of your trip. if you use a lot, it can be exhausted in two dives.

a70 is less expensive than ixus, if i am not wrong. you would not be so panicky too to bring your camera underwater and afraid of flooding.

Thanks for your valueable input.

 

[beivied]

 

[kng]

Originally posted by beivied
you would need a lot of battery power, three dives can easily exhaust all your battery power. that would only be one day of your trip. if you use a lot, it can be exhausted in two dives.

Yup, the Ixus will only last 1.5 - 2 dives max (45 mins each dive), whereas my A40 can easily last 3 dives continous use on 4x1600mAh AA's. Frankly, you don't want to keep opening the u/w housing after each dive cos just 1 strand of hair on the seal will flood the housing.

 

[beivied]

Originally posted by kng
Yup, the Ixus will only last 1.5 - 2 dives max (45 mins each dive), whereas my A40 can easily last 3 dives continous use on 4x1600mAh AA's. Frankly, you don't want to keep opening the u/w housing after each dive cos just 1 strand of hair on the seal will flood the housing.

*nods nods nods*

 

[cheechee]

Originally posted by kng
Yup, the Ixus will only last 1.5 - 2 dives max (45 mins each dive), whereas my A40 can easily last 3 dives continous use on 4x1600mAh AA's. Frankly, you don't want to keep opening the u/w housing after each dive cos just 1 strand of hair on the seal will flood the housing.

Ya.. true, my recent dive, the A40 lasted 3 dives before the 4 2100mah Sanyo batteries depleted.

Good.

 

[sehsuan]

wah, that means i was really kiasu when i changed my batteries after each two dives!

i turned off the lcd most of the time, anyway...

 

[kng]

Originally posted by binbeto
He has somehow narrow down to either ixus 400 or A70.

Hope this is not OT but what do you guys think of the S45 instead? I've seen the u/w output from the S45 compared to the A40 and, IMHO, the pictures appear more detailed and sharper. (A40 pix consistently 'soft'.)

Do you think that this is just due to the pixel count (4mp vs 2mp) or is the lens system the main determining factor? Has anyone compared the output of the A70 vs A40?

But for the short battery life, the S45 cld be a good alternative.

 

[beivied]

s45 uses lithium battery too. i was told by a few diver friends that the battery dies out pretty fast. and it does not have power save mode underwater, as the lens cap is different from a40.

a40 pics are softer not becos of pixel count. as to why i dunno la, haha, but i do know it is not because of pixel count.


CHEECHEE!!! i wanna see your photos!!!!!!!!!!!!