What camera/housing for underwater photography?

[yorky500]

Ok, so the Mrs and I went diving at the weekend in Oman (Dayminiyah Islands) and somehow the camera came off her BCD and she lost it despite us doing a bit of search and (un)recovery, so we need to replace it.

Does anybody have any suggestions/recommendations for a decent camera incl. housing for around US$500-600?

So far the Canon S100 is looking good with either the Canon housing or the Ikelite. I did have a look at the G12 + housing but that is going above the budget somewhat.

Any divers here into photography, your comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

[TigerS6]

I've just come back from the Seychelles, and took freshly purchased (and therefore untested!) Panasonic Lumix FT3/LS3.
To say I was impressed is an understatement! Its only a point and shoot, but even the non-underwater pictures came out well. (plus it does 3D photo's too which were just as impressive).
This was one of the very first photo's I took with the camera. (it has a max depth of 10m).

[yorky500]

Mmmmm, 10m max depth will not cut it for us.

Still researching though but the Canon is coming out tops at the mo.

[TigerS6]

Yeah, thats fair do's. It's only a waterproof compact (no case required), but for the casual snorkeller or shallow diver, it's perfect

But will read with interest the other suggestions.

[Seight_Returns]

I'm a diver and I have a Canon S100 - but I've never used it for diving.

It's an excellent camera and ticks the "almost as good as my DSLR but small enough to take everywhere" box very well - but it is very small and fiddley though - if I was going to use it wearing gloves, in a waterproof housing - I would make sure I'd had a go at handling it wearing my diving gloves before I made my decision.

[Zod]

yorky500 said:

Ok, so the Mrs and I went diving at the weekend in Oman (Dayminiyah Islands) and somehow the camera came off her BCD and she lost it despite us doing a bit of search and (un)recovery, so we need to replace it.

Does anybody have any suggestions/recommendations for a decent camera incl. housing for around US$500-600?

So far the Canon S100 is looking good with either the Canon housing or the Ikelite. I did have a look at the G12 + housing but that is going above the budget somewhat.

Any divers here into photography, your comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

S100 with the Canon housing - the Ikelites are generic cases, adapted to specific models. The Ikelite housing for the S90 can't operate the ring around the lens, whereas the Canon one can. I suspect the same applies with the S100.

The S100 is a great dive camera with full manual operation possible underwater. The Canon housing will go down to 40m+. Start with those. Then you'll decide you need a strobe and a wide angle lens (you can buy Inon lenses and adpaters that fit the housing).

With gloves, you can operate all of the controls, but you might struggle with the smaller buttons. With shutter, zoom and ring controls, you'll have no trouble.

[Du1point8]

How about a Canon G10/11 and one of these:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=canon+G...

Or a Gopro Hero 2 with a few additions, namely, the blur fix lens to readjust the dome lens on it, plus get 2 coloured lenses for blue/green water.

There is another thread on this, but I can't find it at the moment.

I went for the GoPro (20m+ depth) as I couldn't get the canon casing in time, but yet to get the blur fix lens, will probably buy the canon case as OH has a G11 so we both get to take photos underwater.

[yorky500]

Du1point8 said:

How about a Canon G10/11 and one of these:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=canon+G...

Or a Gopro Hero 2 with a few additions, namely, the blur fix lens to readjust the dome lens on it, plus get 2 coloured lenses for blue/green water.

There is another thread on this, but I can't find it at the moment.

I went for the GoPro (20m+ depth) as I couldn't get the canon casing in time, but yet to get the blur fix lens, will probably buy the canon case as OH has a G11 so we both get to take photos underwater.

I already have and use the Go-Pro with head mount (I must look into those blur fix lens though as the quality is not the best). The G12 stood out but as I said, bit over the budget (with casing) and possibly too fiddly when underwater in that there are way too many options.

As for gloves, Mrs only uses one glove for the hand not holding the camera and seems to work for her (when she is not losing the camera that is! hahahahahaha).

She likes the look of the S100 with the canon case (thanks for the comments on the case). I will post up some pics of what we saw when we went diving this last weekend (when we get copies of the pics taken by others).

Will also review the G10/11

Thanks for the replies

[yorky500]

Seight_Returns said:

I'm a diver and I have a Canon S100 - but I've never used it for diving.

It's an excellent camera and ticks the "almost as good as my DSLR but small enough to take everywhere" box very well - but it is very small and fiddley though - if I was going to use it wearing gloves, in a waterproof housing - I would make sure I'd had a go at handling it wearing my diving gloves before I made my decision.

She only uses a glove on the hand not holding the camera (well, in warmer waters).

Another option would be to really splash out and buy underwater casings for the DSLR camera's we have, but thats going a bit far for us.