Dual pupose camera. Good for family snaps but has a good underwater case

I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.

Any suggestions?

By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?

I know a totally luddite question

Optical Zoom uses lenses to zoom in (like a traditional camera). Digital
zoom uses computers and 'guesses' what the picture would be like if you
zoomed in (ie. its not good). Digital zoom is mostly useless in that you
would be better zooming in on the area you want when you get home and load
the pic into photoshop or whatever.

I bought a Olympus mju with a 40m housing and I am pretty happy. Its ideal
for the kids as even without the housing its water proof to 5m and can be
man handled roughly (its a tough baby). See my previous reports in the n/g
on this.

JJ



"dechucka" <dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46231e1e$0$25449$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
>( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
>get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?
>
> I know a totally luddite question
>

"JJ" <John@dontSpamMeAirspeed.co.uk> wrote in message
news:evv84h$hul$1$830fa7a5@news.demon.co.uk...
> Optical Zoom uses lenses to zoom in (like a traditional camera). Digital
> zoom uses computers and 'guesses' what the picture would be like if you
> zoomed in (ie. its not good). Digital zoom is mostly useless in that you
> would be better zooming in on the area you want when you get home and load
> the pic into photoshop or whatever.
>
> I bought a Olympus mju with a 40m housing and I am pretty happy. Its ideal
> for the kids as even without the housing its water proof to 5m and can be
> man handled roughly (its a tough baby). See my previous reports in the n/g
> on this.
>
> JJ
>
>
>
> "dechucka" <dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:46231e1e$0$25449$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>>I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday
>>snaps ( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I
>>can also get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?
>>
>> I know a totally luddite question
>>
>
>

"JJ" <John@dontSpamMeAirspeed.co.uk> wrote in message
news:evv84h$hul$1$830fa7a5@news.demon.co.uk...
> Optical Zoom uses lenses to zoom in (like a traditional camera). Digital
> zoom uses computers and 'guesses' what the picture would be like if you
> zoomed in (ie. its not good). Digital zoom is mostly useless in that you
> would be better zooming in on the area you want when you get home and load
> the pic into photoshop or whatever.
>
> I bought a Olympus mju with a 40m housing and I am pretty happy. Its ideal
> for the kids as even without the housing its water proof to 5m and can be
> man handled roughly (its a tough baby). See my previous reports in the n/g
> on this.

Thanks so if i want to look through the "eyepiece to get a zoom photo i am
relying on optical zoom ie you shoot what you see

is that correct?

"dechucka" <dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46231e1e$0$25449$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
>( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
>get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?

I've got a Canon Powershot A70 and Canon's own marine housing, the WP-DC700.
They call it a "waterproof case" but it's a bit moree than that as it's
rated to 40m. I've used it in warm and cold water down to 30m or so and
never experienced any problems with it.

The A70 isn't marketed any longer - 3.2mp is sooo yesteryear - but they do
produce cases for their current range of cameras.

HTH,
R.

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:56:39 +1000, "dechucka"
<dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote:

<crossposting-snipped>

> I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
> ( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
> get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>
> Any suggestions?

Although I recently bought a Pentax K10D, I'm not sure if there is an
underwater housing available for it yet... Therefore, I would suggest
the Nikon D200...

> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?

An optical zoom relies on the camera lens to enlarge the image... A
digital zoom is basically a resampling of the bits that were captured
from the optical lens and interpolating what they might be at the new
resolution... With some cameras, the digital zoom is basically just a
cropping of the photo to portion that you were trying to zoom into...
It's best to just capture the best you can get optically and then
input it into something like Adobe PhotoShop for whatever tweaks that
you might need to make to it...

"dechucka" <dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46231e1e$0$25449$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
>( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
>get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?
>
> I know a totally luddite question
>
Hi!
I would recommend the Canon 640:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona640/page16.asp
It has a great rating. It's not too expensive and Canon also has a
underwater housing for it (I think it's 30m, but it's sufficient).
The camera has an excellent zoom and is a 10 MP.
I have a Canon XT, but wanted to go back to UW photog. Ikelite housings for
the Xt as well as a strobe would have cost more than $2000 Cad.! No way! The
460 is a great solution and can be used as a spare camera as well.
Cheers!
Marcel

> I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday
snaps
> ( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
> get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
> Any suggestions?
> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?


Most popular cameras have an underwater casing these days (check the
manufacturers' websites).

For poster prints 6 or 7 megapixels is enough.

The Canon mentioned is a good camera, but have a look at the Canon A710IS,
which has a 6x optical zoom and image stabiliser. The A570IS is similar but
with 4x opical zoom and cheaper.
There's also the Panasonic TZ1, TZ2 or TZ3, which have 10x optical zoom
(TZ2/TZ3 are wide angle, so better for group shots and interiors) but are
still compact. Not sure if the underwater housing is available yet though.
The Fuji F31fd is smaller and has only 3x zoom, but is a great camera,
especially for photos indoors and in dark conditions.

Have a look at some reviews on www.dpreview.com

Optical zoom is when the lens physically moves in and out. This gives the
best quality.

Digital zoom just enlarges the pixels of the image, so if you use it, you
might start to see jagged edges and a blocky look, especially if you zoom in
a lot or print at a large size, so be careful with it if you're printing
poster size. It could ruin your photos.

Androo

"dechucka" <dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46231e1e$0$25449$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
>I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
>( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
>get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?
>
> I know a totally luddite question
Our local paper had a short article about digital cameras in yesterday's
paper. The article concerned reliability and was attributed to Consumer
Reports. They said there was not a clear winner as to which brands/models
were most reliable, but there were losers. For P&S cameras they said
Vivitar had the highest incidence of repair and Olympus held the same spot
for DSLRs.

Ron

"Grumman-581" <grumman581@DIE-SPAMMER-SCUM-gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1oi623d7ouak4p4o0fu4a69v9p849sfa47@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:56:39 +1000, "dechucka"
> <dechucka@vomithotmail.com> wrote:
>
> <crossposting-snipped>
>
>> I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday
>> snaps
>> ( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can
>> also
>> get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>
> Although I recently bought a Pentax K10D, I'm not sure if there is an
> underwater housing available for it yet... Therefore, I would suggest
> the Nikon D200...
>
If I'm not mistaken while the D200 is a great camera the underwater housing
will probably cost a lot more than the camera -- and the camera ain't cheap
(but it is pro quality).