Which camera

Hi all, i am looking for my first u/w camera till now ive often grabbed one of those cheap disposable things when needed but missed so many great shots because its been too deep or no flash etc etc. My question is this, im on a strict budget, and definately still learning the art of U/W photography. From reading around ive decided something along the lines of a oly sp-350 and housing is a good starting point however add the cost of that and a strobe and things are out of my budget.. and as for a digital slr.. forget it just the housing costs more than my car! So what else is on the market?

Im a freediver so would ideally like something not too cumbersome, the photos will be for my own enjoyment and for friends and collegues i'd like the option of blowing one or two of my better ones up to a respectable size to be hung on the wall but im not trying to get them published or sell them.. but in the future who knows? Would anyone care to make me 3 suggestions of a complete set up.. one bargin basement.. one middle of the road and one for when im feeling flush!?

On a side line is film really dead.. i know its a pain and digital is so much easier to work with.. but ive been offered a motormarine II-EX and strobe for £50 is it too good a bargin to pass up and anyone got any opinions on it? Cheers Joe

I recommend the Canon SD500 for a good starting camera. Its been on the market for 14 months now so prices have dropped a lot. Its a very nice 7mpxl camera with a nice 2" LCD. The underwater housing is $160 on ebay.

You can probably buy the whole setup for used on Ebay for $300.

I can email you some of my underwater and topside pics if you like and you can see how nice it works

Film isn't dead but its not the bargain you think either. I'm pretty snap-happy underwater and would burn through 36 film exposures per dive. Throw in 10-12 dives and you have somewhere close to $250 just to purchase the film and get it developed. Just my thoughts. I've owned the SP-350 for about a year and really like the camera and oly housing. I've added things as the budget allowed.

Later,

Gary

I have been looking at the SP-350 also but have heard bad things about the battery life. Can someone that has used this camera tell me about how many pics I should be able to take before having to change or recharge batteries. Thanks

BDJ,

I use AA rechargeable NiCads. 2650mah. I can use one set of batteries for 4 dives and about 2 complete 1G cards filled with RAW images (172 pics) while using the internal strobe. I typically change the batteries once after every 2 dives (1 Gig worth of RAW files 86 photos) because as the batteries wear the camera takes longer to write to the card and to recycle the flash. If I change them after two dives, the batteries stay fresh and the camera remains quick and responsive.

Hope that helps,

Gary

Well thanks guys, thing is im a freediver and use the camera as a handy addition to my spearfishing, when things get slow i snap a few shots, what sort of size prints could i get from say the cannon or sp350? I mean useable ones that can be displayed at home etc? My main worry is the cost of a strobe etc for a digital setup what options do i have for each of the mentioned cameras? and could i use the one that would come with the motormarine film camera (cant remember the make but think it cames as standard with the motormarine EX-11 setup)

Joe

Any strobe made for your motomarine camera wouldn't work with any digital camera. Both the Canon and the Olympus should give you a nice blow up picture however, Since I'm not expert in this area I'll leave it for someone else to answer for sure. I just purchased a Sunpak G-flash to go with my SP-350 (will work with any digital or film camera) for about $185. I'm just now in Florida testing it out.

Later,

Gary