Underwater Cameras

[Kay and Hal]

I think I want to purchase an underwater digital camera. We currently have two digitals, one being a SLR, with a second SLR on order. I will not consider buying a housing for the SLR, due to my fear of a leak and a camera getting ruined.

 

We will not be diving, strictly snorkeling. I would like to keep the cost around $500 or so. Is it possible to get a "decent" camera or do I need to plan on spending more? I am a firm believer in that you usually get what you pay for. Any specific recommendations? I am familiar with several photography websites, but it seems the ones geared to shooting underwater are heavily weighted towards scuba diving. Any helpful websites would be much appreciated as well.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Hal

[Tn Travelers]

Take a look at the SeaLife DC-500. It is not too bulky - you can use it both under the water and on land (it is a VERY compact 5 mp zoom). Has a special "shark mode" that color corrects for pictures taken in the water (signigicant reduction in the "blue" overtones.

 

It takes great pictures - I use mine for Scuba - both with and without the off comera strobe - and get great pictures. have used it for several dive trips - depths up to 100 ft - with no problems - so for snorkeling, it should be great.

 

It will cost you about $425-$500 - lots of them on ebay - new from authorized dealers

[jmps]

I use Canon cameras and I use one for both diving and snorkeling. Canon has underwater cases for most of their cameras. The cases are around $160 for most cameras. This way you can get a land camera exactly like you like and then just get the case.

 

B&H Photo has cases in stock and they know what they are doing. They also carry underwater strobes. A camera flash is good to less than three feet underwater so colors will not be true beyond that. Even with very powerful and expensive strobes true color beyond ten feet is tough. Some cameras have an underwater setting. This is OK. For best shots white balance before each shot using a piece of plastic. (I don't know how serious you are)

 

For snorkeling I would recommend a relitively inexpensive Canon A series with a case. The A620/610 is a great camera and it uses AA NiMH. Only go smaller if you really want something smaller for land. These newer cameras are fast and you need that otherwise you get a lot of pictures of fish butts. :-)

 

Clean the gasket on the case Every time you open it and dont' open it on the beach and you are set!

[cruzegirl]

I currently have the Olympus Stylus 600 6.0 megapixel... It has great selections for different photography and 3 underwater selections.... I got the camera and housing for $450...... I've used it snorkeling and diving.... I'll include a photo for you to see.... It also has a water resistent feature... Meaning you can't submerge it but if it were to get splashed, it has O-rings for protection.......It's a cool little camera....I also have a SLR and won't put it underwater either..... I also had the Sea Life DC310 and it was a piece of c***.... That thing has been back to Sea LIfe more times than not.... I don't know about the DC 500 but I would go compare.... Go to a scuba shop and look at that one then go to best buy or circuit city and compare the others mentioned.... I also bought from B & H photo.... They are great..... The photo below is a Spanish Shawl.. I took it while diving in 30 feet of water with no strobe...

[diverearl]

I currently have the Olympus Stylus 600 6.0 megapixel... It has great selections for different photography and 3 underwater selections.... I got the camera and housing for $450...... I've used it snorkeling and diving.... I'll include a photo for you to see.... It also has a water resistent feature... Meaning you can't submerge it but if it were to get splashed, it has O-rings for protection.......It's a cool little camera....I also have a SLR and won't put it underwater either..... I also had the Sea Life DC310 and it was a piece of c***.... That thing has been back to Sea LIfe more times than not.... I don't know about the DC 500 but I would go compare.... Go to a scuba shop and look at that one then go to best buy or circuit city and compare the others mentioned.... I also bought from B & H photo.... They are great..... The photo below is a Spanish Shawl.. I took it while diving in 30 feet of water with no strobe...

 

Cruzegirl you have a great webshots page, you might want to check out kodak.com and use the instant fix button. For deep photos without a really good flash it will do wonders. From this...........

 

 

to this

 

[scubaran]

I use Canon cameras and I use one for both diving and snorkeling. Canon has underwater cases for most of their cameras. The cases are around $160 for most cameras. This way you can get a land camera exactly like you like and then just get the case.

 

B&H Photo has cases in stock and they know what they are doing. They also carry underwater strobes. A camera flash is good to less than three feet underwater so colors will not be true beyond that. Even with very powerful and expensive strobes true color beyond ten feet is tough. Some cameras have an underwater setting. This is OK. For best shots white balance before each shot using a piece of plastic. (I don't know how serious you are)

 

For snorkeling I would recommend a relitively inexpensive Canon A series with a case. The A620/610 is a great camera and it uses AA NiMH. Only go smaller if you really want something smaller for land. These newer cameras are fast and you need that otherwise you get a lot of pictures of fish butts. :-)

 

Clean the gasket on the case Every time you open it and dont' open it on the beach and you are set!

 

Hi,

 

I agree with the Canon A620 camera with the Canon underwater enclosure. I shoot with the Canon A80 with the Canon underwater enclosure and I'm looking at upgrading to this camera as well when my A80 dies (which won't be too long in the future). The A620 is far more superior to my A80 and the canons are known for their battery life so there's no need to open the case while on the beach or between being in the water as long as you have a large enough SD card (I saw where 1 Gig cards are going for around $20 so there's no need to not have a lot of capacity). For pricing I use www.pricegrabber.com and look at both cost, shipping and reputation of the company I buy from. Looks like you can outfit the whole thing for less than $400. BTW, my underwater site is www.randallgamby.com. All the pictures were taken with my A80 and of course color corrected with photoshop.

 

Hope this helped,

Randall

[cruzegirl]

Hey Diverearl,

There's no photo's there??:confused: .... lol.... Can you repost them?? Would love to see them...... Thanks.....

[Hilary]

I have to agree with the recommendation to check out B&H, they really have a lot of stuff and at good prices. We dive with a 5.0 megapixel Pentax Optio (2 years old) that we have an underwater housing for. It takes great shots and we're so happy with it that we bought another one recently for $100 off e-bay for when (not if) our housing floods.

 

Frankly, after seeing a guy with an expensive digital have his housing flood the FIRST time he dove with it, I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a camera unless I were really serious about photography. The guy had spent a lot of time making sure his housing was watertight (dove with it twice prior to installing the camera), but even with all his precautions, there was a hair on the o-ring and his camera was ruined.

[Desertbelle]

I have owed a Canon Powershot S-45 for a few years now. I purchased the water-proof case and I love it. I don't think they even make the S series of cameras anymore, but when I replace this camera, which will probably be within a year, I will again purchase a Canon.

 

There are a few excellent spots for camera reviews, the one I like the best is Steve's Digicam . Everything you want to know about digital cameras is there.....before you purchase anything, research, research, research.

 

You can take a look at some of my underwater shots HERE. Probably the best snorkeling shots are my Hawaiian cruise and our Century cruise....though I think there are snorkeling photos on every cruise except the Med. cruise on the Millennium.

[bruce-r]

I think I want to purchase an underwater digital camera. We currently have two digitals, one being a SLR, with a second SLR on order. I will not consider buying a housing for the SLR, due to my fear of a leak and a camera getting ruined.

Well, I would probably skip the DSLR housing just for snorkeling as well, but not for the reason you chose. While flooding is a potential issue, that is why there is insurance. My reason is the cost of the housing. They are quite expensive and to use one just for snorkeling wouldn't justify the price. I'm not sure I really understand if you presently own 2 cameras, 1 of which is a DSLR and the other one isn't and you have ordered another DSLR, or own just one DSLR with another one on order.

 

We will not be diving, strictly snorkeling. I would like to keep the cost around $500 or so. Is it possible to get a "decent" camera or do I need to plan on spending more? I am a firm believer in that you usually get what you pay for. Any specific recommendations? I am familiar with several photography websites, but it seems the ones geared to shooting underwater are heavily weighted towards scuba diving. Any helpful websites would be much appreciated as well.

I think the reason that the UW photo sites are focused almost exclusively on scuba diving is because in order to take better photos, you have to get as close as possible to the subject and you just can't do that while snorkeling.

 

If you just want to take "snapshots" of what you see while snorkeling, then get a point and shoot digital camera from either Olympus or Canon and get the factory housing for it. Both companies make reasonably priced housings for some of their cameras. You might consider the Canon powershot A-620 and the WP-DC-90 housing. To find out if the a camera you are considering has a housing, check http://www.digideep.com

 

[bruce-r]

Hey Diverearl,

There's no photo's there??:confused: .... lol.... Can you repost them?? Would love to see them...... Thanks.....

I could see them if I opened the image in a new window, so I copied them, reduced the size slightly and attached them here.

[cruzegirl]

Thanks Bruce....

I guess that was diverearl's photo.... Didn't recognize it..... lol..... kind of interesting fix.....

[diverearl]

A Splended Toadfish moving to a new ambush spot, Cozumel

 

 

 

 

[bruce-r]

A Splended Toadfish moving to a new ambush spot, Cozumel

Neat photos, but they don't show up unless you open them in another window, and even then you have to reload them because the first time you get the message: "Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /photos1782/9/50/62/30/60/0/60306250908_0_ALB.jpg on this server."

 

I guess kodak doesn't want you to link directly to the images. It may be different from your computer if you are logged into your account.

[diverearl]

Thanks for the info, they do show up on my computer and yea I am logged on I'll try another route.

[KaC-Cruiser]

Except for the original fixed turtle photo, all photos showed up directly in the thread when I was reading it ..... but it always seems that some people can see pix, and some can't. Maybe it's how their individual settings are set up?

[diverearl]

Believe me first thing I will do on December 9th (after the meet and greet on the Grand) is get Kathy (K1) to show me how to post pictures and other stuff if by then I haven't figured it out. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or how to correct it so others can see them.

 

For those that can see the pics here is one of my favorites. While on Maui a couple of years ago on the reposition cruise of the Serenade of the Seas - May 04, we walked up to the edge of the 10,000 ft volcano Haleakala late in the afternoon and as the mist rose from the bottom of the crater this round rainbow appeared. I laid down on the ground and took this photo my wifes shadow in the middle of the rainbow. Within a about a munite it disapeared.

 

Sorry to those that can't see it maybe someone can crop and repost it another way (and I will try to find other ways to work this machine today).............

 

[KaC-Cruiser]

Cool pix Earl, and no problem seeing it. I wonder if some people don't have the 'show images' box checked under their thread display options ...... just a thought!!

[10X]

At this site you'll find a number of snorkeling and scuba diving photos, by selecting "Cruise 2006". All of the underwater shots are broken out separately so you don't have to wade through a bunch of stuff you might not want to see. All of the photos were taken in January/February of this year on a 14 day cruise to the southern Caribbean.

 

http://www.sunfield.smugmug.com/

 

I use an Olympus C5050 and my wife uses a Canon A95, both of which are 5MP cameras. Neither camera is currently in production. We both use underwater housings manufactured by the respective camera maker.

 

I scuba dive but my wife does not, so all of the scuba pictures are mine. If you see scuba pictures and snorkeling pictures at the same port, all of the snorkeling pictures were taken by my wife.

 

I love my C5050 so much that I bought a back up, as well as a backup housing. That way, if I should flood my camera, I'm not out of business.

 

I also own an Olympus Evolt E-500, an 8MP dSLR, which does not go underwater.

 

I shoot almost exclusively in RAW format, using Photoshop CS2 to adjust the photos. Since RAW is not available on my wife's camera, she shoots the highest quality JPEG available.

 

Since my C5050 can take 2 memory cards at the same time, I use a 512MB xD PictureCard and a 1GB compact flash card. I have been experimenting with the movie mode underwater, saving the clips to the xD card, while the CF card is for photos.

 

For my dSLR, I use a 4GB compact flash card.

 

The Canon A610/620 are in closeout pricing right now. The A620 (7MP) has been going for $299, maybe less. It is a succesor to the A95 and appears to be an excellent camera for snorkeling. I just bought one for my daughter.

 

I've only been involved in underwater photography for 3-4 years now and still feel like a beginner. So much to learn......

 

Denny