Housed Casio Z600 vs. Nikon D200

Just returned from a week aboard The Caribbean Explorer II with my new Ikelite housed Nikon D200, dual Ikelite DS-120 strobes diving with this HUGE heavy expensive rig.

There was another guy on board with a Casio Z600 in the Casio housing. His pix were outstanding with 1/8 of the weight and expense.

Now Casio has a new 10 Megapixel Exslim with a Casio housing. I'm all over this!

My question:

What Ikelite strobe and slave to use? Thanks everyone!

Hello!

I'm considering getting a housing for my Casio EX-Z600 also. Did the guy who took the great pictures use any external lightning and/or other gear? I'm a total novice as far as U/W photography goes, so I'm not really ready to spend too much on equipment. Already the casing seems horribly expensive :-)

Have a nice day,

Mikael J.

Hey Ron......... I was considering the fuji E900, But I'm gonna' check out the casio now too. Thanks for the heads up

The Casio manufactured housings for the Casio cams are under $200. MSRP.

My buddy didn't us an external strobe and wished he had one. I'm buying the Casio housing for my Z1000 to give my to dear lovely wife. I'll put an Ikelite DS-125 with their manual controller on it.

This should be a hot set up as the Z1000 is a 10 Megapixel cam under $400!

Glad to hear how well it works.

I've been thinking of switching to a Z1000 for freediving.

I use a 5050 in a PT015 right now with an INON dome port attached. It's a nice system, but the whole thing is kind of bulky, and heavy, for what I do. I don't like to take it down much past 75' because it really causes some drag when I'm swimming back up. The little casio would be so slick that I could take it everywhere- plus theres less shutter lag from what I understand.

Any idea how it stacks up to a cannon S-80 or a Fuji E900? Those are the other two models being floated aorund on one of the freediving lists.

Jon

I haven't been diving with the Z-1000 but I HAVE shot it above land. WOW! The huge 10 Mp files are really nice. No RAW but can't have it all.

I did see the pics from the Z600 without a flash and they knocked me out!

I think you can assemble a smaller, lighter system with the Casio for a few hundred dollars less.

I'm planning to house the Z1000 with an Ikelite DS-125. I already use 2 with my D200 system and can use this one as a spare with my wifes system.

Ain't UW photography fun!

Dive cheerfully!

Ron

Perhaps adding an smaller strobe, an Ikelite 50 or 51 would make for a more compact & balanced rig ? You wouldn't need either the coverage (beam angle) or power shooting with the Casio.

Yeah, small is beautiful.

I'm also liking the looks of these Casio's. Isn't the lack of aperture priority something worth worrying about?

I would NOT house a camera that doesn't shoot in RAW

There is no wide angle or macro support for the Casio housing (none that I'm aware of). I wouldn't buy a houssing and strobe only to do head&shoulders portraits or moderate macro.