Photography

Thinking of a camera purchase......any input as too funtion and value for a new shutterbug? Land & Sea, Sea & Sea, whatever?

Heheh... well that's not an easy question to answer...

I guess you could start with, what do you want to do??

Just dive and take a few snapshots underwater?? or you're into photography and really want to pursue it???

All the big names, Fuji, Canon, Nikon, Sony and Oly have good starter systems that you can grow into.. they all have the housings to match...

Need more info to go any further...
go digital of course...

Hope that helps...

picking a camera is a little more different for me bacuase of being a photo student (IE higher end gear)

for me on digital cameras my big sticking points are start up time, shutter lag (from the time i press the shutter to the image is taken, with most consumer cameras it can be a eternity), then finally is sensor ISO noise the lower it is at high iso numbers the better)

lobster im working with WW on a dedicated photo session but im willing to work with you on a camera purchase.

first answer me these questions

1. budget (And what you want to get with that money)
2.what do you want to shoot
3. biggest print you plan to make from the image
4. what is you photo skill level point and shoot modes or do you run on full manuel mode

let me know

Tooth

The first question is do you want digital or film (I recommend digital). Second, how much do you want to spend, and third, what do you want to do (a lot of this may depend on how much you want to spend or vice versa)

Several companies have reasonable priced 3-5 megapix cameras and also manufacturer housings for these camereas. This is usually a much less expensive option than going with something like a Tetra or Ikelite housing. I'm a pretty big Olympus fan. They make housings for many of their point and shoot digital's as well as the models with more bells and whistles. I have a 4040, which they don't make any longer, and an 8080. I would also recommend looking at the 5050, 5060, and 7070 (which is what I would get instead of the 8080 if I had it to do over again.) I think you could get into any of these with housing for no more $1K; point and shoot, even less. If you like it, you can add strobe and wide angle lenses down the line. These camera's also make great land cameras, so you don't need a seperate camera.

Hope this helps.

Also as an FYI, the 7070 (which is what I WAS planning to upgrade to) is being phased out.. from what I've heard...

They're all moving to a cheaper DSLR in the $600-$900 pricing...

Nikon is coming out with some new models pretty soon.. Nov/Dec, so as pointed out, it depends upon your pricing and really what you want to do with it..

the 5050 on up are good enough to keep you going for a long while.. at that level...

Most of the lag time will be in the lower end, but believe it's pretty much eliminated at the 7070/8080 range and the start up time doesn't matter UW as you turn it on before you dive and turn it off after you're done.. sleep mode, if you are shooting all the time, might occur, but then you're not really shooting "Action" shots all the time.. soo...???

Don't forget strobes if you'll looking to get into it..
Like I said, you need to figure out what your parameters are, then get the info..

Also as an FYI, the 7070 (which is what I WAS planning to upgrade to) is being phased out.. from what I've heard...

They're all moving to a cheaper DSLR in the $600-$900 pricing...

Well, geeez, THAT camera wasn't on the market long. It wasn't even out when I got my 8080 a little over a year ago. I love the 8080, but the lens port on the housing is just out of control

Heheh... well that's not an easy question to answer...

I guess you could start with, what do you want to do??

Just dive and take a few snapshots underwater?? or you're into photography and really want to pursue it???


Need more info to go any further...
go digital of course...

Hope that helps...

Well, not a HUGE picture person but want better than average gear. I do want digital, and I would assume with the attachable flash. As far as pricing I WAS prepared to spend between $500-$700 figuring that would get me in there close. Am I in lala land on this or in the hunt?

I am not a photographer by trade so the need at this point for "high end" probably isn't there but a quality picture is still what I am looking to get. Who knows this may push me into the deep end if I find I develope an "eye" for underwater photography.

Well, for "better than average" you are probably looking at $500-700 JUST for the strobe set up. If you have never dove with a camera before, I recommend starting without an external strobe. You can probably get into a decent (a little more than point and shoot) digital camera and housing for $700-1K. Shoot with it for a while, get used to the camera underwater, then if you really like it, add the strobe.

There is a WEB site; I think it is DigiDeep.com, where you can find cameras with matching underwater housings. The prices they list are the MSRP, so if you look around, you will find most things for less.

for me on digital cameras my big sticking points are start up time, shutter lag (from the time i press the shutter to the image is taken, with most consumer cameras it can be a eternity), then finally is sensor ISO noise the lower it is at high iso numbers the better)

lobster im working with WW on a dedicated photo session but im willing to work with you on a camera purchase.

first answer me these questions

1. budget (And what you want to get with that money)
2.what do you want to shoot
3. biggest print you plan to make from the image
4. what is you photo skill level point and shoot modes or do you run on full manuel mode

let me know

Tooth

Buget in mind was $500-$700

What to shoot? Where as I am so new to underwater photography and 2 years into diving I would say both still (reefs, plant life, some macro) as well as action (fish, rays, and of course lobster).

Print size; maybe 4x8 or just a tad larger, for the most part download to disc. Unsure on this one

My tendancy at this point would be point & shoot I think, where as I use reanding glasses to read and have bonded mask for that, small little things aren't good :dltears:

I do truely appreciate your input on this as I feel you have way more knowledge than I, Thank You in advance

I'd recommend starting with a compact digital without external strobes. Cost should be comfortable within your range. Choose camera and housing together and ensure you'll be able to get both, probably from the same manufacturer. Battery life varies enormously - I have a Canon Powershot 5mp with Canon's own housing, and I can't get two whole dives out of one battery charge. I also have a Casio EX-Z55 5mp with its Casio housing which will comfortably do several days of shooting under water on one charge. Both cameras now come as 7mp, though anything from 4mp upwards will do well under water.

Regardless where you're actually going to buy, have a search on eBay to see what's available for how much and from whom. The best deals are mail order from NYC shops.

I'm an enthusiastic photographer on land and was tempted to go for an all-singing-all-dancing underwater setup, but I'm glad I didn't. Most people I know who did that before they really knew enough about it to know what to get ended up with very expensive systems that didn't do what they wanted. And as you'll find, there is a big difference between your buying price and your selling price.

I'd recommend starting with a compact digital without external strobes.  Cost should be comfortable within your range.  Choose camera and housing together and ensure you'll be able to get both, probably from the same manufacturer.

My LDS has mostly Sea & Sea from what i have seen, and I have heard of SealLife as another option, are these "low end" gear? I do believe they have other brands as well. I have been looking on line to Liesure Pro out of New York as well as the site listed here on SD, Scuba Toys, they both seem to "share" the same prices. Any other sugestions as to sites? I did visit the site Alikat posted, but it appears I really need to "know what I am looking for" on that site. :dltears:

I've looked at the Sea & Sea ones, and the cameras seemed much more basic than those where you buy a "standard" compact camera plus their housing. And the battery consumption was wicked - two lithium AAs for each dive. Both Canon and Casio seem not to change their camera layouts marginally every few months, as do Sony and some others, so there's a good chance that the housing you but will also be good for a later model of camera if you later want to upgrade. Making more of the same housing also means they get economies of scale, so the housings are better & cheaper. The housings I have cost around $160-$180. Minolta housings are a great deal more expensive - I've used them and don't think they're any better.

I'd recommend the Casio EX-Z55 or whatever has replaced it (EX-Z57?), for a combination of performance in and out of the water, considerable compactness, and extraordinary battery life. And it's a super camera to carry around in your pocket at all times, though you'll have to find a soft case that fits it as like so many camera manufacturers nowadays they don't provide one, and you'll damage it if you carry it around without.

Whatever you choose, do confirm before you buy that it does fit the housing they do, and that you can get the housing. It's quite likely you won't get the housing from the same dealer, as many dealers don't stock housings. By far the easiest way is to search on eBay even if you end up buying directly from the shop.

I'd recommend starting with a compact digital without external strobes.  Cost should be comfortable within your range.  Choose camera and housing together and ensure you'll be able to get both, probably from the same manufacturer.

My LDS has mostly Sea & Sea from what i have seen, and I have heard of SealLife as another option, are these "low end" gear? I do believe they have other brands as well. I have been looking on line to Liesure Pro out of New York as well as the site listed here on SD, Scuba Toys, they both seem to "share" the same prices. Any other sugestions as to sites? I did visit the site Alikat posted, but it appears I really need to "know what I am looking for" on that site. :dltears:

I started out with a SeaLife film camera. It was fine at the time for underwater, but it was a pretty cheap little camera...in fact to replace just the camera, it was only $99.

I looked at their digital, and even though they are improving, I would still consider them a pretty "low end" camera. And I don't think you would be paying that much less than for a nice point and shoot land camera and housing.

For DigiDeep, yes, I guess you do need to have an idea of what you want. But one thing you can do is look and see which point and shoot camera's having housings avialable and get an idea of price. Then you can start looking at those camera's. Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Olympus, I think have some of the best point and shoort camera's many with housings made by the same manufacturer.

Yeah, they're changing so fast...
Mosey on over to Scubaboard:
http://www.scubaboar...splay.php?f=198
Photo section and search for new or beginner or some thing like that..
There've been about 10 threads recently all recommending setups under $1000..

I would recommend a semi-prosumer, that way you will have something that will get you started easily and won't out grow in a few months...

The oly 5050/5060 and now the 7070 were/are the starting place.. Cannon, Fuji and Nikon are all in the same are as is sony...
Here's some names to search:

Quick Links

digideep

dpreview

Digital diver

Wetpixel

Scubaboard

Imaging Resource

Hope that helps...

$500-700 will only get you into the Point & Shoot range with a housing. An average P&S Canon, Casio, Oly, etc... will be around $250-300, then another around $200 for the housing, $80 for a memory card, $50 if you want an extra battery since most of these cameras use proprietary batteries and next thing you know, you're already past $500. My Casio EX-Z55, Housing, Extra Battery and 1GB SD card cost me $589 and that was a great deal. I have a bunch of pics from my camera if you want to look at them. What I do is set my White Balance under water, so when I take my pictures, they look pretty decent with basically the correct colors showing. Taking pics during the day and using a flash don't seem to come out well. Maybe if you were using a nice Digital SLR with a strobe setup, but you are looking at over $2000, close to $3000 for a very basic setup ($1000 for Canon Rebel Digital SLR, $1000 for Ikelite case, $500 for strobe and $500 for extra battery, memory cards/microdrive, rechargable batteries for strobe & small accessories).

To be honest...most digital cameras have the same quality of pictures. All will product decent 8x10" prints in good lighting conditions. Pick a camera with the features you like. I like the Casio because all of it's features are available while in the housing and superiour battery life. I get just about 220 pics on one battery charge. That's pics while diving, on top side, night time with flash and showing pics to people. That's 220 pics of REAL LIFE use. Casio says 400 pics per charge (using a new adopted standard to compare battery life between manufactures) and Canon is 1/2 that. That would mean that a Canon would get around 110 photos per charge, maybe less according to Peter (peterbj7). Plus, the Casio has a really large 2.5" LCD display, maybe it eaiser to see the subject you're taking a pic of.

I'm a techie person, loving the latest gear and actually looking to get a NEW digi camera (I've had my Casio for just 7 months) for topside use, but love the Casio for it's underwater pics.

I'm also new to diving like yourself, which means I, and probably yourself, still have a lot of refining of our diving skills to work on. Buying a P&S will give great photos and you'll find out that you'll get a lot of blurry pics, so you'll need to work on staying still, you'll see a shot you like but the current moves you and your framing is off, or the subject moves and you no longer have the pic you want. A $3000 setup won't make you a better photographer. A decent $600 P&S setup will give you what you need, fun photos to share with friends and as you improve your skills and decide that you really enjoy taking photos underwater, then upgrade to a Digital SLR.

Hope my long winded reply helps.

-Mike-