Canon A series?

Hey all,

I've finally decided to take the plunge so to speak and enter the wonderful world of underwater photography.

I'm looking for a camera with a good mix of manual controls, good image quality and that would give me options in the future in terms of upgradeability (lenses mostly).

Anyway I've done a bit of research on this board and others and it seems that Canon A520 would be a good fit for me.

Note, i'm on a limited budget ~US$450 for camera and housing. I realise that that isn't much but I have a lot of other goodies (dive related) that i'll be purchasing this Christmas!

Opinions guys on the Canon or any other brands in that price range?

BTW I've been a big fan of the Oly 5050, i'd looove if I could get pictures like that out of the cam.

EDIT - Took another look at my budget, $450-500 is probably more accurate.

Perhaps I could step up to an A95 instead....

Any ideas on these models should I be limiting myself to just these?

From what i've seen and heard, the powershot series seems to have a good mix of manual controls with a good price.

I've heard about some fuji models also like the E500?

Thanks in advance.

I tried a A520 some time back, and found it suprisingly good given the size and price range. THe shutter lag was much shorter than on other (older) P&S cameras I'd played with, and colours were pretty good too.

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty good choice for a first camera, and given your budget. If you have spare cash after buying this setup, keep it safe, you'll need it sooner or later for an upgrade

Thanks mattdiver, but what do you think of the A520 in comparison to the A95?

I know in terms of differences, that the A520 is a megapixel down, but has 4x zoom as opposed to 3x optical zoom in the A95.

But it seems that the A95 has a better mix of manual controls or perhaps better optics?

I know that the A610/A620 are replacing the A95 but I can't quite step up to that right now.

I personaly would advice not to go for that A Series.

Why?

I think that the possibillity to shot RAW is very very useful when shooting UW since doing the right White Balance for each shot Under Water is nearly impossible and the posibillitys to correct a wrong whitebalance in a JPEG is rather limited.

You probaly want to have this possibility in a very short time, even if you think now you don't need it. So it is probaly better to get it right away.

If you want to have a Canon camera I would advice to have a look at the S70 (the S80 no longer supports RAW) maybe you can get it cheap since the S80 is out now.

For the S-Series Cameras there is a Cheap (and reasonable) Housing from Canon. The G-Series is even better but last time I looked they had no Housing for it and you would need a more expensive 3rd-Party-Housing (i.e. Ikelite)

Simon

Thanks for the advice Simon definetly took note of it.

It seems that RAW is the future..., however at this point an S80 or S70 for that matter is definitely out of my price range.

At this point in time i'm leaning towards the A95 or A610....?

While Simon's right in principle, using RAW on most P&S cameras is a painstakingly slow process often resulting in missed photo opportunities while the camera is recording the pictures (very small buffers)...

IMHO, the A610 looks like the best value for money amongst the cameras you mentioned, as it has the a better optical zoom range than the A95, better macro focusing capabilities than the A520 and A95, a larger LCD, etc. all for a reasonable price.

The only down-side I see is that it only takes SD cards, that tend to be a bit more expensive than CF cards...

While the S70 has RAW support, it however focuses much slower than the A610/620, which is also very important underwater. Unfortunately, there is no perfect camera.

Thanks all for your invaluable assistance and advice.

I've decided on the A610, will purchase and get it wet around the new year..

I can't wait !