Opinions needed...

[trinitra]

Hello...just joined this forum recently as my friend introed me here to ask my questions...

I just finished my PADI's dive course last December in Osezaki, so I am not sure if I would be taking up diving as my main hobby yet...but ever since my fiance got his cert in May this year, we have been going on quite a few dive trips on the weekends.

I have been looking at photos taken by the rest of the divers in my tour and I really like all those nudi pictures they have as well as the sea hares...so...here I am thinking of getting a cheap setup to do some underwater photography. I will not be in Japan much longer...and I would really like to get a few good pics of the marine life here.

My finace owns an DSLR, Canon EOS, but I don't want to do a setup on that....as I said I am only interested in taking pictures for my own interest, and I really do not wish to fork out $5k just to get something going. So can someone recommend a decent PnS camera which I can get 2nd hand? I am just looking into getting a housing for it, with no strobes or additional lenses. I tried carrying one of those for experiment...and its HEAVY!!! ;( The pictures are wonderful, but on top of my dive gear, that is more weight than I would want to carry. I already weigh too heavy with just my gear on and no weights...

I am not sure about budget...because the Lumix FCS? model sells here for about 22,000 yen..and that is a 10 megapixel. Was thinking that price range might be good but will be glad to go for something cheaper...so please post your opinons.

 

[lovells19]

Hi hi,

welcome to the diving community,

there are so many compact available in the market, and its very hard for us to tell you which one to buy, because every brand/model has its plus and negative sides.

You'll need to work out your budget and probably allow space for expansion if you do get addicted to it like us .

Personally I would recommend the Canon G7/G9 with ikelite Housing however without strobes, this camera's flash is rather pathatic, same with most of the compact cameras, insufficient flash power.

Therefore a small and light Inon D2000s/ikeilite AF35 substrobe, these 2 strobes each weight about 1kg or less with batteries in, not like those huge big monsters you see the others use.

Then there is the Nikon P50, Fuji F50, Canon A720, A650, and many more.

And the Housing plays a big part as well, additonal wetlens option, stacking them allows a magnification even the DSLR find it hard to achieve.

Hope this helps

 

[trinitra]

Hmm...do I really need a strobe? I saw most of my other friends just using a normal camera without additional lenses and the pictures still turn out pretty clear.

Here's a link:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1039900&id=636746498&ref=nf#pid=1039906

Its on facebook...so not sure if you can see it. I was thinking if I do really get addicted to u/w photography, might just use the SLR then. But the PnS is so I could bring along anyway with me for land shooting as well as u/w...

 

[howeikwok]

There are smaller strobes out there for sale. You might consider sea & sea as well. They are launching a new small sized strobe to replace the YS-15 i think.

 

[lovells19]

oh yeah sea&sea got those really tiny strobes

strobes does makes alot of difference.

See this, pictures taken with strobes, the color and contrast is way better then what the compact camera internal flash can produce.
Lovely Pictures

If the dive site visbility is good most picture will turn out clear, whether is there color and contrast, its another issue


However! if you're happy with the clear photo your friend have taken, then you don't need a strobe

 

[howeikwok]

Of course it's possible to take really good pics w/o external strobes. Just that it's a lot easier to have saturated colours in your pics with the use of a strobe? :dunno:

 

[cat64fish]

there are so many compact available in the market, and its very hard for us to tell you which one to buy, because every brand/model has its plus and negative sides.

While a agree that there are a lot of PnS in the market ... take a walk to a local store and ask to see which cameras have housings (made by the manufacturer). I suspect (as I found in my own serach) that you'd have a smaller range to choose from.

Of course, if you go the Ikelite way, there'd be a bigger range of cameras to choose from, but your costs would triple.

My opinion: the best camera to take a photo is the one you have in your hand - no camera, no photo

Good luck.

 

[howeikwok]

well if you don't want to spend so much in the beginning, then maybe get a canon powershot series of cameras, big range to suit the budget. It's pretty good for starters i feel cos it's not very expensive for the more basic models (starts from ard $300+ for the camera??), it has full manual controls so that you can try different effects as you go along, it uses AA batteries (no more sweating about getting extra batteries in the future if you're sticking with the camera a long time or you can easily use alkaline batteries if you run out), it takes pretty decent pictures. :think:

 

[kthan]

get the casio exlim range. very small, and comes with compact housings made by casio.....i have seen some decent pics taken with just the internal strobe and if you are just a holiday diver taking memory shots, underwater video is so much more fun with a compact.

 

[foxwagon]

Get the best within your budget range & won't lose money over "upgrading" later.

Many of us (myself included) had been infected by the BBB/Upgrading virus.