Strobeless point-and-shoot

Hello! I'm new to underwater photography, and your basic run-of-the-mill amature photographer. I like taking photographs as a hobby and for collecting memories. Above water, my Canon SD600 (digital point-and-shoot) fulfills almost all of my needs... for now. I probably print 5% of the pictures I take, the rest stay on the hard drive.

I was wondering how the Canon SD600 performs underwater without a strobe and if getting the housing is really worth it, considering it costs as much as the camera itself. The housing would also be nice for hitting the ski slopes with, but for that type of protection a zip-lock bag will cut it just fine.

In most low-light situations my photos come out with a good amount of "noise," and if this is the case using the camera underwater with the "underwater" setting, I think it may just be better to rent. However, I do not want to limit myself to one of the low-quality point-any-shoot disposable cameras and that type of quality. If someone uses this camera for photos and could post a few shots, that would be a large help in my decision.

Thanks for any advise you can offer.

Don't know about your camera but have several thoughts. First you can get a slave strobe system to work with just about any camera with an on camera strobe. Second if you print 5% of your pictures you are probably printing a much higher percentage than most of the photographers on these forums.

I'd say go for it.

I don't know your camera, but if you are keen to be strobeless, maybe a magic filter would be a good addition for you. http://www.magic-filters.com/,

darren

strobes simply cost too much. I may end up renting instead.

Welcome aboard! And welcome to being continually broke as you have just bought the latest must-have accessory.

Its almost always the case that the housing costs as much as, if not more than, the camera. It goes with the territory sadly. This means that getting the equipment choice right is important if you are not to be continually buying new stuff - and losing money in upgrades.

There is loads of good advice on these pages and it would be worth doing a search (if you havn't done already) for the camera you use - and the housing that goes with it.

Renting might be a good option if you have a dive shop that carries rental gear close to what you might buy yourself. They don't all rent disposable cameras. So its worth a try and then you would see what can be produced.

As Dave wrote above, strobes are fairly important. A Magic Filter may well work well (they do!) but you wouldn't want to buy a camera that didn't alllow for a strobe to be added. That would be too limiting.

Best wishes - and good luck!

Of course a housing is worth it! (What did you think we would say?)

I haven't used that camera so don't know its particular strengths and weaknesses. I've found that one can take some pretty good shots without a strobe when you use a diffuser carefully; here are some examples. Closeups are easier than wide-angles or true macros. With a diffuser you can get good results.

I've been meaning to try out some of the cheaper strobe systems, like the one offered by Fantasea, Watershot and Pixtreme (see, e.g, this thread). I think these would work well for true macro (since your lens only closes to f8 anyway, you don't need much light).