Anyone used the Sony W5 underwater?

I'm considering the Sony W5 but I'd like to hear any feedback from people that have actually used the camera, particularly if they have taken it underwater.

Any comments are welcome.

In a recent issue of DIVER (perhaps Nov '05?), John Bantin tested a half dozen digicams, including the Sony DSC-W7.

The W-7 and W-5 are similar in most respects (7Mp, 5Mp, same lens), & use the same housing.

He concluded it was one of the best offerings.

He also liked the Olympus Stylus 500 (see also newer Stylus 600).

I've used an older Sony P-10 in housing, and it takes adequate snapshots.

IMHO, wish they offered a wider angle (i.e. 28mm equivalent) view.

With any of these small digicams with housings, your best shots will be in bright shallow water (no flash or fill flash) or taken rather close to subject (<2 feet) with flash.

I've used my W5 in the Sony housing on multiple dives at Sipadan; just carried it along with my DSLR setup. This compact setup has some limitations, but once you learn to work within its performance envelope, you can get pleasing photos. This shot taken at Sipadan won first place in the point-and-shoot category at last year's Underwater Photo Week at Sipadan Water Village. This was using the in-camera flash. I haven't tried the setup yet with any external light source. The in-camera flash works fine for close ups and macro in clear water.

I've used my W5 in the Sony housing on multiple dives at Sipadan; just carried it along with my DSLR setup. This compact setup has some limitations, but once you learn to work within its performance envelope, you can get pleasing photos. This shot taken at Sipadan won first place in the point-and-shoot category at last year's Underwater Photo Week at Sipadan Water Village. This was using the in-camera flash. I haven't tried the setup yet with any external light source. The in-camera flash works fine for close ups and macro in clear water.

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Nice photo! I just bought the W5 housing yestersday and tried inside my bathtub, however the flash seemed weak and it's hard to focus. Can you tell me what setting you used for underwater? (ISO, Focus mode, P/M-mode, Aperture, Shutter speed..etc) Thanks!

The turtle shot was pretty much full auto, the "P" mode, which resulted in an exposure of 1/200 @ f2.8, ISO 100. And actually, it was shot with the Sony DSC W1, which was the predecessor to the W5, but virtually identical. The W5 should be a little faster, due to a newer processor. Yes, the onboard flash is pretty weak. I'm going to try this setup with a single Inon Z220 over the holidays. The turtle was nice because it was in clear, shallow water and it didn't move, negating the adverse effect of any shutter lag. I've had good results shooting macro and small, slow-moving critters. Wide-angle is tough because the lens on this camera isn't very wide and the on-board strobe pretty weak. It's almost impossible to properly strobe subjects against a bright background, for example shooting upwards, since there just isn't enough ooomph. Again, you can get good results if you work within the capabilities of the camera.

I bought the Sony W5 this summer along with the Sony housing a couple of months ago. I also bought an external slave flash (Sunpak G-Flash) at the same time.

I was able to test it out the week after Thanksgiving on a live-aboard in Belize. I am *very* pleased with the camera. I got some fantastic shots, and a lot of really nice ones. I think the external flash is very important -- I am going to build a fiber optic sync cable since the camera's "masked"* built-in flash does not always trigger the slave strobe under all possible conditions (i.e., namely small subject and nothing nearby/behind to bounce the built-in's flash light back to sensor).

*by this I mean that the housing (mostly) blocks the flash output so that backscatter is minimized

I really like it because it has very little shutter lag, a pretty fast auto-focus, and quick start up. I also really like the 3x optical zoom, macro mode, and manual mode capabilities as well. The back panel LCD is large & bright.

If the conditions are good, I do my part, and the "subject" cooperates, the pictures themselves come out wonderfully. I had zero problems with the enclosure or the camera.

I also like the fact that it has very good battery consumption -- depending on one's photo madness, I could go 4 or 5 dives (all day) and fill up a 1 GB memory card (assuming reasonable use of the on-off switch ).

As an example, the live-aboard had a weekly photo contest -- two the five pics I submitted were good enough to get a first and second place finishes against 30 others that were also most excellent, and some of which were taken by some *much* more elaborate photo rigs.

FWIW - I think the Sony W5 is fantastic. I am still exploring and experimenting with all its capabilities.

I'm glad to have found this site and these postings. I have a Sony DSC W1 and have been looking at buying this housing, but had seen very little written. I will probably get it based upon what I've read.

Now to my question has anyone tried to video mode (in shallow water)? Also, if you set the ISO to 400 will this also improve the depth of field and/or perhaps the shutter speed.

Also, I was thinking it might be best to bump the exposure setting to compensate for too much blue and and not enough reds (after post processing)

Thanks,

tallpaul