Camera recommendation

Any recommendations on what I should go for in the way of underwater camera.
Got to be digital. Want to use it out of the water as well as in.
Should I go for a dedicated u/w camera or a surface camera that just so
happens to have a u/w housing?
Got any idea of a budget of £300, but would spend more for the right one.

I'm a bit wary of dedicated u/w camera as a mate has just spent £800 on
a package and his first attempts wern't as good as the ones I took on my
£30 cheap and cheerful plastic box.

"Take a Walk" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:38pfahF5q5b3vU1@individual.net...
> Any recommendations on what I should go for in the way of underwater
> camera.
> Got to be digital. Want to use it out of the water as well as in.
> Should I go for a dedicated u/w camera or a surface camera that just so
> happens to have a u/w housing?
> Got any idea of a budget of £300, but would spend more for the right one.
>
> I'm a bit wary of dedicated u/w camera as a mate has just spent £800 on a
> package and his first attempts wern't as good as the ones I took on my £30
> cheap and cheerful plastic box.


Whatever you buy, it will be out of date before long - look for end of line
offers. Whatever you buy, even if new, the warranty on the case will not
cover the dedicated camera, and the camera warranty will be void if damage
occurred by a leaking case - be careful what you spend your money on!

Expensive cameras do not ensure good results. Nice pictures mostly depend on
something nice to have a picture of, and the water being clear.

When I bought my package (end of line - no longer available!) I chose an
Olympus 750uz with housing because it was well priced, and the camera took
AA batteries (which are available just about anywhere, if the charger breaks
down or if there is no electricity available). Also custom batteries for
cameras are 1 - expensive 2 - need expensive external chargers if you are to
charge more than one at a time 3 - tend to have limited charge capacity and
remember, most of your pics will require flash! A chum of mine can manage to
fire all of 15 shots with his camera before the batteries die. AA NiMH
rechargeables are up to 3Ah now.

Size of camera is not an issue when it goes into a relatively monster
housing. I chose Olympus rather than Canon because the Olympus camera
housings have a threaded port so fitting a wide-angle accessory such as the
Epoque lens is a doddle and much cheaper than a custom bracket.

Happy snapping!

Ken

"Take a Walk" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:38pfahF5q5b3vU1@individual.net...
> Any recommendations on what I should go for in the way of underwater
> camera.
> Got to be digital. Want to use it out of the water as well as in.
> Should I go for a dedicated u/w camera or a surface camera that just so
> happens to have a u/w housing?
> Got any idea of a budget of £300, but would spend more for the right one.
>
> I'm a bit wary of dedicated u/w camera as a mate has just spent £800 on a
> package and his first attempts wern't as good as the ones I took on my £30
> cheap and cheerful plastic box.

I've just had a look on Yuzo's website http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com and he
has a few Olympus discount offers going.

x-350 with PT-021 housing for Y32,800 (approx £164)
c-5060wz with PT-020 housing for Y78,800 (approx £392)
C-8080 with PT-023 housing for Y104,800 (approx £522)

plus shipping. The warranties are only for a year in Japan only.

Camerasunderwater are asking £149.99 for the PT-020 and PT-021 housings
alone.

Of the bunch I'd probably go for the 5060.

jon

I bought an inexpensive film camera (ReefMaster) and wish I'd gone
digital because I want to be able to control the printing more. Look at
the Olympus 5060 with a housing it might be a little more that 300, but
a lot less than 800. Of course you can spend thousands.

The cheap ones are good to about 10 meters and then lock up.

Take a Walk wrote:
> Any recommendations on what I should go for in the way of underwater
> camera.
> Got to be digital. Want to use it out of the water as well as in.
> Should I go for a dedicated u/w camera or a surface camera that just so
> happens to have a u/w housing?
> Got any idea of a budget of £300, but would spend more for the right one.
>
> I'm a bit wary of dedicated u/w camera as a mate has just spent £800 on
> a package and his first attempts wern't as good as the ones I took on my
> £30 cheap and cheerful plastic box.

> plus shipping. The warranties are only for a year in Japan only.
>
> Camerasunderwater are asking £149.99 for the PT-020 and PT-021 housings
> alone.
>
> Of the bunch I'd probably go for the 5060.
>
> jon
I agree, I've had my Olympus C5050 & PT015 for a couple of years now and
have some excellent results. The big difference came when I splashed out on
a external Strobe & arms (Sea&Sea YS90ttl Duo with fibre optic slave sync).
It took a little while to get the hang of manual exposure (varying ISO /
Shutter speed / Aperture & flash power) but now comes easily and the
difference is huge, especially with colour saturation.

The C5050 & 5060 (very similar) offer complete manual override on all
functions, which is often not the case for the smaller cameras. The C5080
is just too large & bulky and although 8mp does not really offer many
advantages over the 5060.

Im selling my current digtal package on ebay.

Startng above your budget but worth a look as I got very good results as a
complete amatur. I posted some photos I took with it on the aucton site, I
can email more (not so hot on web stuff it took me 4 hours to post the ones
on there at the moment!). I can email the orgonals if you have broadband as
the ones on the web have been poorly edited by me to make them smaller.

The camera itself is a smart silver desgn, small and fits easily in your
pocket (Zoom lens retracts into the camera body when not in use) takes just
as good shots above water.

I'm upgradng hence the sale.

It's the SEA & SEA DX3000 wth a wide angle and close up lens + a 256 SD card
and two rechargeable batteries included. The lens's are a bayonet mount so
they can be changed under water and theres a specal lens holder to take
under water so you can store them when not in use. The best things about ths
package are the superb shutter lag (or lack of it) so no more fshy tails
and the macro whch is great. I've printed some of the shots to A4 and they
are perfectly good and can be frammed.

take a look at
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...9811 729&rd=1
for a full low down.

You wont regret going digital, it's so easy and if you can download the card
whilst away you have endless shots.

YE

"Take a Walk" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:38pfahF5q5b3vU1@individual.net...
> Any recommendations on what I should go for in the way of underwater
> camera.
> Got to be digital. Want to use it out of the water as well as in.
> Should I go for a dedicated u/w camera or a surface camera that just so
> happens to have a u/w housing?
> Got any idea of a budget of £300, but would spend more for the right one.
>
> I'm a bit wary of dedicated u/w camera as a mate has just spent £800 on a
> package and his first attempts wern't as good as the ones I took on my £30
> cheap and cheerful plastic box.

Try www.camerasunderwater.co.uk


"Take a Walk" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:38pfahF5q5b3vU1@individual.net...
> Any recommendations on what I should go for in the way of underwater
> camera.
> Got to be digital. Want to use it out of the water as well as in.
> Should I go for a dedicated u/w camera or a surface camera that just so
> happens to have a u/w housing?
> Got any idea of a budget of £300, but would spend more for the right one.
>
> I'm a bit wary of dedicated u/w camera as a mate has just spent £800 on a
> package and his first attempts wern't as good as the ones I took on my £30
> cheap and cheerful plastic box.