help w/ digital cam purchase

need help/advice deciding what model to buy. i want ultra compact and there are a lot of choices out there with u/w housings. narrowed it down to a few

olympus stylus 710 (7.1mp)

casio z600 (6mp)

casio z1000 (10mp)

canon elph sd550 (7.1 mp)

range for the list is about $500 - 600 with housing.

anyone out there happy or disappointed w/ any of these? any major advantages to any of these models? any other similar size models that i should consider instead? am i missing one that is better?

also, do any of the "underwater scene settings" offer any advantage? the olympus and canon models have them. do they produce better shots than the other auto settings? should this be a consideration in my buying decision?

really would appreciate some recommendations. thanks

julian

"also, do any of the "underwater scene settings" offer any advantage? the olympus and canon models have them. do they produce better shots than the other auto settings? should this be a consideration in my buying decision?"

Underwater scene does offer a great help to balance the color, other ways to do it includes manual white balance and/or filter. Some would use filter together with WB. So as long as you have WB for the adjustment, it should be good.

So much for now, I'll leave this to the others for their input...

I have the Canon SD550.

what a great little digicam.

i use it mainly for its video function, which it does remarkably well even for a lower res video. My video of a night dive with Mantas still gets wows from friends.

since getting the SD550, i have lent it to friends, and their pictures have all come out very good. 7.1 MP and small form factor are definite pluses. Canon has since come out with an upgrade to that camera, and you may want to check it out. If you decide to buy, make sure the housing is rated for 130 ft because Canon sells some housings that are only rated to 10 ft (snorkeling depth).

the underwater function is ok, i haven't had a chance to test it that much. I'm excited about Alex's magic filter for digicams that is coming out. that should work well with this camera.