howdy new guy here needs help

Howdy to all u out there.

Been taking underwater pics for some time now with my olympus u-400 digital.

Picture quality has been disapointing, blue hues dominant, shutter lag frustrating and all together uncrisp frames.

Is there a digital camera out there that will give me decent quality pics without busting my account.

Will apretiate pointers on cameras and casings.

Thanks.

A professional photographer brought a bunch of different digicams for newbees to try on our trip to Sipidan. the Sea and Sea 8000 was the big winner.

or try the Oly SP350, shutter lag etc will be much less.

The dominant blue hues can be eliminated somewhat by using the manual white balance function and/or getting much closer to your subjuct and using an external strobe. Any subject further than 4-5 feet from your camera will end up being blue even with big strobes, so you need to get within about 2 feet with your external strobe on your current camera and any other camera just using the internal flash. Use the manual WB and turn off the flash in shallow bright water for better colours.

Thanks for the advice.

Checked out both cameras, the sea and sea looks delicious but is quite a price up from the sp-350.

Does any one know if they accommodate external strobes and/or lens filters.

You can get an Ikelite housing with the 350 and you will enjoy real electronic strobe connection as opposed to slave. The ike housing can accomodate all external add on lenses and filters

Are you using a strobe? That can help, too!

The SP-350 sports a hotshoe so there are a variety of options you can go with if you want a hardwired strobe with TTL. Since I'm a newbie to both diving (70 or so dives) and underwater photography I went the extremely cheap/available route. The Oly housing was the only one available when I needed it and it was cheap as far as housings go. Oly housing, FL-20 flash with housing. The setup has worked fairly well considering my ineptness. With that said, I've coveted an Ike since its been available with Olympus TTL. I could then use a couple of their DS series strobes. I also know that Matthew Heinrichs makes an adapter that will fit into the housing to allow you to connect Sea&Sea strobes.

gary

Must have a strobe to get decent quality pics.

Must have a strobe to get decent quality pics.

In my opinion this is not true....

Good options for you:

-Oly SP 350

- Fuji F30 ( just bought one) , Canon A640

My 2 cent's