What camera and housing

Hi all this is my first post on your site so not sure if its in the correct place.. if not please feel free to have a web bod shift it somewhere else.

Anyway here goes, im a freediver in the uk diving regularly in up to 30m of water.. usually slightly murky! I currently spearfish a lot but after trying a friends underwater camera i want to branch out into still photography.. for mine and my familys enjoyment not as a proffession.

What i really want to know is what camera and housing should i consider.. i have heard really good things about the olympus C5050 but an ikelite housing is out of my budget and the PT015 housing has been discontinued. So ideally im looking for a housing of similar price to the PT015 (they run at about £150 in the UK) and a camera that will be easy for a relative beginner but also allow me to grow and get some excellent quality shots without having to trade it in in a year. The option of having some larger than 4x6 prints made up appeals too.. should i ever get a shot worthy so i gather i'll need a camera with as high a number of effective pixels as possible.. in short what camera and housing do you suggest.. to give you a guide to my budget an olympus c5050 would have set me back £170-£200 and its housing £150 i can stretch this budget a little but not much. and dont mind second hand cameras but am wary of second hand housings as i'd rather have the peace of mind! Thanks Joe.

350 pounds is about $575 US?

Olympus SP-310

Olympus SP-350

Both are around $500 with Olympus Housing.

Canon A520

Canon A620

Canon S70/80 are well regarded here on Wet pixel and have a decent track record. They also have some Canon Housings that are inexpensive.

Fuji 810, 910. Fuji 810 has some followers here that have had excellent results from a point and shoot.

Sea Life 5 MP camera is around $450 on Ebay and comes with a housing.

My suggestion is to read through some of the threads here on the subject as this has come up a great deal. Also read some good questions from fellow freedivers on the same subject (lighting has some good freedive questions as well).

I second the choice of Canon A520 or A560 for this price range. The Olympus SP350 has been having battery gauge issues (see other threads for more on this) and the Fuji F810 has been discontinued quite a while back...

Thanks for that i'll check those out. Joe

I would try to get a second hand camera in good condition and then get a new housing. I have had two students use the Olympus C-50 with the Olympus housing and get excellent results in a very short time. These housings are available on e-bay new (re-packaged from Olympus) and the cameras quite common 2nd hand on e-bay also.

hi ickle,

You were told the Canon A520 or A510. It looks good but it suffers a 7s recycle time in flash mode. Way too slow I think. A610 is a better choice with 2.7s.

bye

Well, after some readings, it looks like the camera recycle time shortens when using an external strobe because the camera uses less energy for it's own flash, so maybe the A510 A520 are good opportunities finally.

Without external strobe: The mainflash duration is about 900us. As you can see the strobe is exhausted (slow down of light intensity at the end of the exposure).

Same picture with external strobe and the Digital-Adapter: since the pre- and mainflash was supported with an external strobe the mainflash duration was only about 200us. You can see a shaper falling edge (Note the smaller TIME/DIV-Setting) of the light intensity - the flash was quenched by the camera. Your camera will be recharged much faster (especially in Cold Water) either.

Bye

With the budget he set forth, a TTL external strobe might be out of the question forcing the use of a slave cable; therefore, he would make use of the internal strobe. Later,