UW camera for a nube

[Suther2136]

I see a lot about cameras and housings in thee posts, what about the Sea Life or Sea and Sea or other dedicated UW camera lines...? Are these decent rigs or overpriced junk? I want to get into the hobby but not sure where to enter. My current digital is not really adaptable to a housing.

[FishFood]

Check out Amazon.com. I believe they have some reviews of both lines. I love my Reefmaster. The pictures are as good as my buddie's $3000 DSLR rig. However, that may be because he doesn't know how to use it

EDIT:

Also, It seems alot of people go with SeaLife or Sea&Sea mainly because of the camera+case combo. Dont do this. buy a camera setup because it's the one you want, not for the ease of purchase. Both companies make good products, but do your research...

[DevilDiver]

Both of these manufactures make some really nice products.
The way I have always looked at these companies is they sell complete systems or componets to bulid a system.

The Sealife DC600 is compact easy to use and packs well...
The Sea & Sea 860G is a great camera and Sea & Sea strobes are great as well. (The New 1gig camera looks like it will be the best in this type)

If you go with a traditional land based camera you will have to go to componets made from other manufatures. Now not to say these are not great products but it's about how you want to set up your system up.
Also the price comes into play. Is it more cost effective to purchase a package? I believe so but you might not agree.

**I have found that housings made by land cameras are not the best deal and I was never happy with the ones I purchased. I would look at Ikelite if you go with a Canon, Olympus or Fuji.

I have some pics posted in the gallery with a DC600 if you want to check..

Good Luck!

[BobArnold8265]

SeaLife and Sea & Sea both make some nice cameras that will give you good results. They are a little limited in their flexibility so you may "out grow" them if you decide to get into underwater photography more seriously. The good news is that if you decide in the future to get a fancier set-up, you can always sell your old gear on eBay (or even on this board). There is a pretty big market for used underwater equipment.

[bversteegh]

Beginner Camera things to look for (that will let you grow your skill and capability without having to start over):

Reasonable shutter lag
Available Housing
Provision for an external strobe
Available Wet Lens (these are external lens that let you shoot 1:1 macro or true wide angle 20mm equivalent)

Raw file format is nice, but not essential - this lets you correct bad lighting, color balance, other issues and salvage photos)

TTL strobe control is nice (TTL automatically quenches your strobe for correct exposure, very useful for macro), but not essential - (can be achieved via a controller - (Ikelite housings), or the strobe can try and emulate TTL (INON)

I haven't shot or seen used the Sea Life or Sea & Sea units, but others here seem to like them. I personnally think the Fuji 900 is a great starter camera with the Ikelite housing, also the Oly SP350 and Canon G7 are nice if you want TTL; but cost a little more.

[jugglematt]

hello
some good information has already been posted.

the things i would suggest you take in to account

- big hi res lcd screen
- low shutter lag
-good macro
-manual controll
-expandibility(extra lenses and strobes)

a recomendation i would give from personal experence is the sony T seris of cameras eg t3, t10, i have used this model camera in the sony housing combined with the inon d180(newer models available) strobe and got very pleasing results , also a fairly easy camera to just pick up and start shooting with.(this camera has awsome macro abilitys with its microscope mode)

alos look at the canon g9/g7 also a good camera which some users are getting exelent results with , it has automatic settings and when you get more confident it also had manual settings . canons own housing is quite compact and you can modify it to take extra lenses if you want to in the future or you couls select the ikelite housing which is more expensive but allows more room to expand.

what ever camera you get you should , buy the camera and lern how to operate all the settings and buttons on land then put it a housing and get it wet .

the next thing to buy is a strobe of some sort i use Inon and love them .

sea &sea has a new camera the dx1g it looks good but has an issue with the lcd screen going dim in manual mode

hope this helps a bit

regards
matt