dig camera and housing

[AquaGirl]

Looking for decent Digital Camera and housing for under $400. Don't know much about underwater digital deals so I need a little help!

[NitroWill]

Why not get something new?

For a good starter camera the reefmaster line would be a pretty good choice..

SeaLife ECOshot 6mp Digital Camera SL-321, Underwater Cameras, SeaLife, SeaLife ECOshot 6mp Digital Camera SL-321

Only $225 after discount, could even throw in a wide angel lens and be well within budget. Will give you room to grow too!

[AquaGirl]

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to going with this style as opposed to a Canon power shot with a housing? I guess I need experienced personal advice on this because everything on the internet sounds great to me and I can't tell if I'm getting played or not. What do you own or have shot with in the past?

[AquaGirl]

Also what are your thoughts on buying Used camera equipment? I worry that something will be leaking by now since someone else has elsed it for a while already. I'm so lost on all this and the deeper I dig the more confused I get (plus it's 3am my time so maybe I just need some sleep to clear my head!)

[Puffer Fish]

Originally Posted by AquaGirl

Also what are your thoughts on buying Used camera equipment? I worry that something will be leaking by now since someone else has elsed it for a while already. I'm so lost on all this and the deeper I dig the more confused I get (plus it's 3am my time so maybe I just need some sleep to clear my head!)

I'm a very big fan of the low cost uw housing made in Japan...they have a very easy to identify orange plastic on the case. Canon uses them, as does Fuji and several other.

You need a camera with manual settings... and the biggest sensor you can find... today, that is the Fuji F50, and it with their underwater housing are well under $400. There is a Canon that is close... so if one has to use Canon... that would be another option. The F50 is a 12 meg sensor, and given it's bigger size and image quality, there is no other compact camera that can produce images of that quality. But, it does not have the famous low light image quality that some of the older Fuji's have...

Without a strobe, you will be taking pictures at depth, that don't have much color, or use the built in strobe and get some back scatter.

Here is a non-stobe picture from around 70, with vis around 80 ft....




Shallow water, without the strobe and you get some color:



Add a cheap strobe... and you get this sort of image:



But a simple strobe takes some skill to use...

Just my thoughts on the issue.

[Puffer Fish]

Originally Posted by AquaGirl

Also what are your thoughts on buying Used camera equipment? I worry that something will be leaking by now since someone else has elsed it for a while already. I'm so lost on all this and the deeper I dig the more confused I get (plus it's 3am my time so maybe I just need some sleep to clear my head!)

Because technology is changing so fast, getting used digital, also means you are getting last years or several years old technology.. if the price is right... not bad... but in the $400 range, you can get really good stuff new.

[Puffer Fish]

I just noticed that the second picture does have the built in camera strobe fired..but it was not enough to actually get to them... it just caused some backscatter... sorry...

[AquaGirl]

Can I add a strobe to the F50? (Is that a dumb question?)
So far I have found a few sites and can get the package right under $400 like you said!! This is VERRRRRRY helpful - thank you!!!

[Puffer Fish]

Originally Posted by AquaGirl

Can I add a strobe to the F50? (Is that a dumb question?)
So far I have found a few sites and can get the package right under $400 like you said!! This is VERRRRRRY helpful - thank you!!!

There are two effective ways to go at this.. get the cheapest strobe that works....

This is an example of how well one will work:



You will reduce the number of pictures you take, because the camera strobe will be firing at maximum on ever shot.. makes the recycle time longer, but thank goodness the camera can take a lot of pictures on a charge.

The above used one of these:

Sealife Digital Strobe SL960D, Underwater Cameras, SeaLife, Sealife Digital Strobe SL960D

I found, in this case, you get a working strobe, with output adjustment, that will leak if you take it below 100 ft.... (I'm on my third).

Spend more money, and you can get an Inon strobe, which is very intelligent and works with the camera.. the strobe output is greatly reduced and it can actually take pictures in auto...but they cost a lot...one of my next big purchases.

[Byte Me]

There are a ton of options as you're finding out. One thing to try is search "underwater" on ebay in the digital camera section - a fair amount of new/used camera & housing combos for good prices.

F50 is a good option but image quality compared to F30 / F31 is reportedly much lower. There are some canon options SD900, A640 which come in under $400 when you include the canon housing.

That was pretty much my limit too, I was able to find an Olympus SP350 for that price with 2 1gb cards, batteries, housing, camera on ebay. Manual modes, hotshoe, can shoot RAW, big lcd, lots of good press about it.

Until I made that purchase I was driving myself nuts searching and reading.

The olympus set up is hard to find but proven, the only set up I had wanted to find more than that was the Fuji F31fd and housing. Almost impossible to find that camera though. Also in the top 3 was Fuji F30 and housing.