Beginners looking at Canon G6 7.1

We're interested in starting to do some underwater photography, now that we have about 100 dives under our belts. After a little research, it seems the Canon G6 is in our price range, there's an Ikelite housing available for it (I know they have a good reputation), and it seems to have some good features. Having browsed some of the related postings about what to look for in a beginner camera, I'm curious if anyone has some experience with this model or could recommend something similar. Are there other housings available? We both have experience with film SLR's, so would we be better off going straight to a DSLR or is that too much to worry about at first? We're not planning to be professionals, or enter any contests, but would love to have some great documentary photos of our dives.

Thanks for any time spent on our question!

Do you have any film SLR lenses? If so, which ones?

Cheers

James

Well, I have a Minolta 28-80mm with macro, my wife has a Ricoh with a standard 35 mm and a 70-210mm telephoto. Not sure that any of these would do us much good underwater. Thanks for your inquiry!

Oh, yeah, we also have a Nikon 28-70mm that doesn't have a camera to go with it...