Sony DSC-W1

Hi all,

I am off to the Maldives in a months time and hope to fit in two or three dives while I am down there. For "proper" photography I use my Nikon D50, but I still have my old P&S Sony DSC-W1. I am not particularly willing to trust my D50 to the deep (or lug around a huge casing), but Sony do make a marine pack for the W1. My questions:

1) Does anyone have any experience using this camera underwater? Am I likely to get decent results from it?

2) Can you buy a compatible strobe unit for the casing? Would the internal flash provide enough illumination for good shots?

Failing the above can anyone recommend a decent P&S digital camera that has compatible underwater housings and strobe units available, but is still smart, compact and sexy enough to carry around at parties and non-underwater excursions? If given the choice I would prefer one that takes SD cards, but its not a deal breaker.

Many thanks.

I've used a Sony DSC W-1 in the Marine Pack as a backup to my DSLR setup and for occasions where I need/prefer to travel very light. It will do fine with the internal flash for most macro shots, though there is flash dropoff (shadow) along the bottom of the frame when you get extremely close.

I've used the setup mostly in the Program mode and gotten excellent results as long as I remember the camera's limitations. The lens makes wide-angle shots almost problematic, so I don't waste much time with these. There's some shutter lag, not uncommon in P&S cams, but I take lots of shots and try to get lucky in situations where the lag is a problem. But these are the tradeoffs I accept to have a very small and light setup. Personally, these are trade-offs I accept for doing only a few dives on a trip halfway around the world. If I was doing a week on a liveaboard, I'd definitely haul the big-heavy DSLR setup with multiple lenses and ports and strobes and arms, etc. Your success rate will much lower with the Sony setup, but you should definitely get some keepers anyway.

I've used an external strobe with the DSC-W1 in the marine pack but didn't really see that I gained much.

Thanks ReefRoamer, thats exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

When you say that the lens makes wide-angle shots problematic does that mean that you tend to keep the lens a little bit zoomed in or merely that you don't get the wide-angle you need?

Also, did you use the filter pack that Sony sell for underwater use? I believe it takes off some of the blue-ish colour casts you can get underwater.

Finally did you find the battery life sufficient for a dive given that almost every shot is going to use flash? I assume that the Marine Pack allows you to turn the camera on and off.

Thanks again.

The reason we added the Customer's Photo section was to exhibit results with various cameras:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/0photos.html

The lens on the DSC-W1 just doesn't go very wide, I think about 38mm equivalent. And it's behind a flat port in the Sony Marine Pack housing. Also, the internal strobe is pretty useless for lighting anything beyond 8-12 inches underwater. So I stick pretty much to macro, although I've gotten some good full shots of turtles in shallow water with good light. I generally keep the lens at max wide-angle, since it seems to permit the closest focusing (which you need with the tiny internal flash). Again, you will be fairly limited with this setup but if you stick within those limitations you won't be disappointed, I think.

Thanks mate,

I will give the marine pack a try and see how I get along with it. I've only got 6 dives under my belt and I think I will more than enough to contend with without worrying about strobes etc.