Digital Cameras suggestions

J B wrote:
> I'm looking for something simple that comes with its own housing and which
> can also be used on land. Is the Sealife Reefmaster the way to go? Any
> other suggestions?

I just bought a Canon A610 with a Canon underwater housing. B&H Photo
is a good source of information because they carry lots of underwater
housings for comparison and I found that their prices were very
competitive as well, so I bought from them. (Note, the management is
orthodox Jewish, so you can't get hold of them from Friday sundown to
Saturday sundown EST, as well as on holidays, but they have popups on
their site that warn you about the schedule.)

Diving conditions have been poor since I bought the camera (last week),
so I haven't yet gotten it underwater, but I've taken lots of land
pictures and am very pleased with the results. Camera boot time (.6
seconds) and power consumption have been greatly reduced since the last
Canon I owned. I took 20 to 100 pictures a day for a week, uploading
daily using the USB connecter on the camera, before the juice ran out of
the 4 NiMH AA batteries (third party).

The auto-focus and auto-exposure modes work well, the lens is glass and
has a decent range (4X zoom, macro to 1cm). The LCD is big and bright
and it is on a swing arm so you can take pictures from difficult angles
very easily. The programmed modes work very well. I rarely have to
switch to manual control unless I'm doing something extreme like
focusing on a particular point deep in the middle of some foliage.

The A610 also has no limit on the length of video it can take, other
than disk space, of course. This was the deciding factor for me in
choosing this camera over the A520, which limits video clips to 3
minutes. Three minutes is a pretty long video clip to watch, but I
figured with my luck the whale shark would show up at 3:01.

The housing is rated to 130' and seems well made. I greased the o-ring,
dropped the camera in and took it out in the rain. I had no trouble
operating the camera, the controls all worked very naturally. I'll see
how it goes with 5mm gloves on as soon as the weather clears.

Bottom line, I'm still working on my photography skills and I've never
used a camera underwater, so I figured that buying a digital SLR with
housing was a bad idea. The A610 is helping me learn, I'm getting
quality photos, and if I flood the thing I'm only out about $250, not $1250.

J B wrote:
> I'm looking for something simple that comes with its own housing and which
> can also be used on land. Is the Sealife Reefmaster the way to go? Any
> other suggestions?

I just bought a Canon A610 with a Canon underwater housing. B&H Photo
is a good source of information because they carry lots of underwater
housings for comparison and I found that their prices were very
competitive as well, so I bought from them. (Note, the management is
orthodox Jewish, so you can't get hold of them from Friday sundown to
Saturday sundown EST, as well as on holidays, but they have popups on
their site that warn you about the schedule.)

Diving conditions have been poor since I bought the camera (last week),
so I haven't yet gotten it underwater, but I've taken lots of land
pictures and am very pleased with the results. Camera boot time (.6
seconds) and power consumption have been greatly reduced since the last
Canon I owned. I took 20 to 100 pictures a day for a week, uploading
daily using the USB connecter on the camera, before the juice ran out of
the 4 NiMH AA batteries (third party).

The auto-focus and auto-exposure modes work well, the lens is glass and
has a decent range (4X zoom, macro to 1cm). The LCD is big and bright
and it is on a swing arm so you can take pictures from difficult angles
very easily. The programmed modes work very well. I rarely have to
switch to manual control unless I'm doing something extreme like
focusing on a particular point deep in the middle of some foliage.

The A610 also has no limit on the length of video it can take, other
than disk space, of course. This was the deciding factor for me in
choosing this camera over the A520, which limits video clips to 3
minutes. Three minutes is a pretty long video clip to watch, but I
figured with my luck the whale shark would show up at 3:01.

The housing is rated to 130' and seems well made. I greased the o-ring,
dropped the camera in and took it out in the rain. I had no trouble
operating the camera, the controls all worked very naturally. I'll see
how it goes with 5mm gloves on as soon as the weather clears.

Bottom line, I'm still working on my photography skills and I've never
used a camera underwater, so I figured that buying a digital SLR with
housing was a bad idea. The A610 is helping me learn, I'm getting
quality photos, and if I flood the thing I'm only out about $250, not $1250.

J B wrote:

> I'm looking for something simple that comes with its own housing and which
> can also be used on land. Is the Sealife Reefmaster the way to go? Any
> other suggestions?
>
>

I use a Sealife Reefmaster DC310. Here are some pictures I took last
year. You can judge for yourself. Some pictures were night dives.
Some during the day.

http://www.divingenterprises.com/MAI...how=NEKTON2005

J B wrote:

> I'm looking for something simple that comes with its own housing and which
> can also be used on land. Is the Sealife Reefmaster the way to go? Any
> other suggestions?
>
>

I use a Sealife Reefmaster DC310. Here are some pictures I took last
year. You can judge for yourself. Some pictures were night dives.
Some during the day.

http://www.divingenterprises.com/MAI...how=NEKTON2005

nitespark <nitespark@cox.net> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:

:I use a Sealife Reefmaster DC310. Here are some pictures I took last
:year. You can judge for yourself. Some pictures were night dives.
:Some during the day.
:
:http://www.divingenterprises.com/MAI...how=NEKTON2005

Nice pix.
Dan Bracuk
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

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nitespark <nitespark@cox.net> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:

:I use a Sealife Reefmaster DC310. Here are some pictures I took last
:year. You can judge for yourself. Some pictures were night dives.
:Some during the day.
:
:http://www.divingenterprises.com/MAI...how=NEKTON2005

Nice pix.
Dan Bracuk
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

Dan Bracuk wrote:

> nitespark <nitespark@cox.net> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
> in:
>
> :I use a Sealife Reefmaster DC310. Here are some pictures I took last
> :year. You can judge for yourself. Some pictures were night dives.
> :Some during the day.
> :
> :http://www.divingenterprises.com/MAI...how=NEKTON2005
>
> Nice pix.
> Dan Bracuk

Thanks. I got quite a few more on CD. Those were just a few put on the
LDS website.

Dan Bracuk wrote:

> nitespark <nitespark@cox.net> pounded away at his keyboard resulting
> in:
>
> :I use a Sealife Reefmaster DC310. Here are some pictures I took last
> :year. You can judge for yourself. Some pictures were night dives.
> :Some during the day.
> :
> :http://www.divingenterprises.com/MAI...how=NEKTON2005
>
> Nice pix.
> Dan Bracuk

Thanks. I got quite a few more on CD. Those were just a few put on the
LDS website.

J B wrote:
> I'm looking for something simple that comes with its own housing and which
> can also be used on land. Is the Sealife Reefmaster the way to go? Any
> other suggestions?


I decided on the Sea & Sea DX750G after looking at several other
options. My goal was to keep the camera/housing cost at under 500 USD
since I don't always want to take photos when I dive. I actually got
the camera only days before our trip to Cozumel, so I left all the
settings on auto and didn't even bother hooking up the strobe for these
photos. I did adjust brightness and sometimes cropped a photo or
occasionally hit the "enhance" button using the simple photo software
that came on my computer. Photoshop would have no doubt been better,
but I'm just learning that and wanted some immmediate gratification.

I put up some of my first underwater digitals here. I will admit I
culled quite a few photos since it was a challenge to remain relatively
motionless in Coz currents - but it was great to immediately see if I
"got it" or not.
http://community.webshots.com/user/seabeads

Camera review with photos by a pro here
http://www.marine-cameras.com/galler...iew/index.html

There is an option to add the strobe, a fiber optic connection, and a
wide angle lens if you ever want to expand your system.

J B wrote:
> I'm looking for something simple that comes with its own housing and which
> can also be used on land. Is the Sealife Reefmaster the way to go? Any
> other suggestions?


I decided on the Sea & Sea DX750G after looking at several other
options. My goal was to keep the camera/housing cost at under 500 USD
since I don't always want to take photos when I dive. I actually got
the camera only days before our trip to Cozumel, so I left all the
settings on auto and didn't even bother hooking up the strobe for these
photos. I did adjust brightness and sometimes cropped a photo or
occasionally hit the "enhance" button using the simple photo software
that came on my computer. Photoshop would have no doubt been better,
but I'm just learning that and wanted some immmediate gratification.

I put up some of my first underwater digitals here. I will admit I
culled quite a few photos since it was a challenge to remain relatively
motionless in Coz currents - but it was great to immediately see if I
"got it" or not.
http://community.webshots.com/user/seabeads

Camera review with photos by a pro here
http://www.marine-cameras.com/galler...iew/index.html

There is an option to add the strobe, a fiber optic connection, and a
wide angle lens if you ever want to expand your system.