69 replies to this topic

[Latitude Adjustment]

Another option in your price range would be a used Olympus 5050 or 5060 with the PT housing. Tech wise not that much different than the 7070 or 8080.
Start with just the internal flash and if you get more serious add a strobe.
I get better results with my 5050 than I did with my old housed Nikon and it doesn't require both hands during the dive.

[madlobster]

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.

Hmmmm, thats two votes for the Casio set up Do any others have input on this area as well? Mike I'd love to see some of your pics, it would be great . Are they posted on this site? FBP your site information is a huge help and I have and will check out those sites as well. Peter and Ali information is great, the more I get the better buying decision I can make

[madlobster]

Another option in your price range would be a used Olympus 5050 or 5060 with the PT housing. Tech wise not that much different than the 7070 or 8080.
Start with just the internal flash and if you get more serious add a strobe.
I get better results with my 5050 than I did with my old housed Nikon and it doesn't require both hands during the dive.

How is the battery life through your experiences? Do you have any posted pics here as well? Is the 5050/5060 still on the market?

[madlobster]

Another question I have is, without the external/strobe, do the cameras have enough flash power to equate to decent pictures? Understand I do "most" of my dives here in New England where good vis is in the 20' range, can i get a decent shot? i am sure they all do well in Carribean sea

[casematic]

without the external/strobe, do the cameras have enough flash power to equate to decent pictures

I used to use a little fugi endeavor 10 (aps film) in an ikelite housing and it had an external strobe... If the strobe didn't go off, you might as well plan on throwing away the picture.... and that was in the caribean... I got quite a few decent pictures with it, but it was a battery pig... I'm looking to upgrade to digital... don't know if I can afford the type of setup that warren uses (check out the blackbeards pictures...those are really great), but I think digital definitely has better low-lux capability than film.

[konascubagirl]

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.

ALoha! I just bought the DC500 from Sealife. It comes with the housing, is easy to use, has built in flash, has a "shark" mode so you can bypass the digital lag-time thing and take pix quickly. It's easy to use, and cheap. Comes with everything you need to get started....$499 at scuba.com. I love it.

[madlobster]

[ALoha! I just bought the DC500 from Sealife. It comes with the housing, is easy to use, has built in flash, has a "shark" mode so you can bypass the digital lag-time thing and take pix quickly. It's easy to use, and cheap. Comes with everything you need to get started....$499 at scuba.com. I love it.

Did you, or do you plan on getting the strobe set up? Hawaii huh, so jealous. have you had much use with it so far? Is this considered an DSLR camera? how's the battery life with this camera as well?

[AirHead]

Hey ML,

I’ll throw in my 2 cents as well. I am just a beginner in this photo stuff but I’ll not let that stop me from flapping my gums a bit. I started with a SeaLife film camera and quickly decided that I needed to go digital. I bought a simple little Canon A80 with the Canon housing and started snapping away. I have gotten some keepers and also some shots that were just plain terrible. I am still using that set-up but just added an external strobe. I think starting with just the camera is a good way to go. Don’t sink a ton of money into a big system until you are sure that you really like taking underwater photos. I like my little Canon and it is serving me well and will continue to serve me well for the time being. A big fancy rig is not going to really help you take great pics….taking tons of pics will let you take great pics. The more that I do this, the better I have gotten. I also had a great opportunity to dive with brother fbp on a trip in Roatan and watching him work underwater also helped me a bunch.

Having said all of that, if you are going to mainly be diving in low vis and just using the internal flash I think you will have a hard time getting great results but I would still suggest just starting with the camera and housing. One final word of advice from a guy that is a bit visually challenged. If you come down to making a decision between two cameras and can’t really decide….take the one with the bigger LCD screen.

Good Luck

Buz

[fbp]

Heyya Bro...
What's happening.. heheh...
Long time no hear from...

Here's the Bro, hard at work.....

http://www.poolesdiv...gldvr03_03m.htm

LOL.. you make it looks so easy... Geez.. you need 2 strobes, bigger housing so you can haul around the beast...
Just joking of course as those little ones take great photos... are are good for figuring out where to begin...

Good to hear from you again..

[WillDiveForBeer]

without the external/strobe, do the cameras have enough flash power to equate to decent pictures

I used to use a little fugi endeavor 10 (aps film) in an ikelite housing and it had an external strobe... If the strobe didn't go off, you might as well plan on throwing away the picture.... and that was in the caribean... I got quite a few decent pictures with it, but it was a battery pig... I'm looking to upgrade to digital... don't know if I can afford the type of setup that warren uses (check out the blackbeards pictures...those are really great), but I think digital definitely has better low-lux capability than film.

Actually, film works better in low-light than digital, unless you purchase a Pro or Prosumer Digital SLR. In low-light conditions, there is a lot of digital noise where if I used a 1600ISO film for low-light, it's just a little grainy.

-Mike-

[WillDiveForBeer]

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.

Hmmmm, thats two votes for the Casio set up Do any others have input on this area as well? Mike I'd love to see some of your pics, it would be great . Are they posted on this site? FBP your site information is a huge help and I have and will check out those sites as well. Peter and Ali information is great, the more I get the better buying decision I can make

Here are pics from my vacation in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island this past September. There are a bunch of pics, mostly of diving but some of my topside activities. Hope you enjoy.

Pics of the Bahamas, September 2005

-Mike-

[Latitude Adjustment]

Madlobster, you asked about battery life on the Olympus 5050. The batteries that come with the camera will last two dives, I got replacement NiMH's with a higher ma rating from Thomas distributing that I've used for three dives however I usually download the camera to a laptop every other dive and change the batteries while I have it out of the housing.
The 5050 can only be found on the market used as people trade up but I'm very satisfied with the pictures I'm getting, here is one from Fiji.

[madlobster]

Here's the Bro, hard at work.....

these were taken with what type of camera again? and were all or most of these without external strobe?

[madlobster]

Here are pics from my vacation in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island this past September. There are a bunch of pics, mostly of diving but some of my topside activities. Hope you enjoy.

Some nice pictures! all or most of the without the use of external/strobe?

[AliKat]

The 5050 can only be found on the market used as people trade up but I'm very satisfied with the pictures I'm getting,

But, we have them brand new at our NEX...