Powershot 620 vs. SP 350

Have a Powershot 620 in the original housing from Canon at the moment...

But as I shoot macro a lot (almost nothing else) it has a few drawbacks...the internal flash is more or less useless and I lack the possibilty to attach wetlenses (in my case macro lens)

I know that the whole problem would be sorted out by getting a Ikelite housing but to get those outside of the US is a fortune And importing one to Thailand might cost me a fortune in customs and taxes...

Has been looking a bit at the SP 350 in a olympus housing but most of the reviews I read about it says that it has very slow focus and that the shutterlag is terrible. Apparantly it has a min focus distance of 5 cm...

I am very happy with my 620, the shutterlag is ok for beeing a compact and the quick focusing is great. The min focus of just 1 cm is pretty good as well...

Will I be downgrading if I get a SP 350 instead? Does the wetlenses make a big diffrence?

Am stuck at making decisions at the moment...need all the help I can get!!

bursprak,

Everyone is in love with the Olympus SP350 due to RAW. A very, very, slow RAW. Plus the AF is agonizingly slow, but if you shoot sessile criters, etc. maybe you won't mind.

The Canon "A" series have faster AF in my opinion, and that's based on actually using many of these small cameras plus test reviews.....

IMHO, as debated ad nauseum, RAW on a teensy tiny sensor ain't much of an advantage if you can't get the dang camera to lock AF......

But I don't know anything, having sold a few covers with all my photos starting from Fine / Large JPEG files. One cover even from an "ancient" CoolPix 990 3.3 MP (!!!!)

RAW in a dSLR, yes, is likely worthwhile. And many of my amigos here will applaud the day I start shooting RAW exclusively on my dSLR cameras.

Keep your Canon and go diving more

dhaas

The wet lenses do make a difference.

My advice is to get the Ikelite housing. It is far better made than the Canon and Olympus housings.

I own the Olympus SP-310 and Olympus PT-030 housing. The camera's focusing is okay, nothing special. The A620 has faster focusing.

RAW on my camera takes about 5 seconds using a 1GB type H xD card. Since my camera is 7MP and the SP-350 has 8MP, the times should be similar. One very nice feature is the ability to do some in-camera RAW editing. You can change white balance and contrast in-camera. The result is saved as a JPG. I found it highly useful, particularly beause I was using Magic Filters.

Image quality has been very good.

Here is the biggest problem with the Olympus: my camera has terrible battery life. It uses 2 AA batteries. Even with the firmware upgrade, I don't get the desired battery life. NiMH batteries barely last 1 dive. Lithiums are a necessity.

DesertEagle is spot on, and I forgot the Olympus SP350 uses only two batteries compared to the Canon A620 / 630 / 640 series using 4 giving more shots before having to open the housing.

When I shot the Fuji E900 which only uses two batteries, it wasn't too bad, and I got at least two dives per set. But I also developed the habit using my first LCD monitor digicam of hitting the display OFF when swimming around or not shooting, conserving battery power.

YMMV!

dhaas

The wet lenses do make a difference.

 

My advice is to get the Ikelite housing. It is far better made than the Canon and Olympus housings.

 

My advice to myself is getting a Ikelite housing as well...too bad I don't have any friends in the US that could send me one free of customs

 

Would using a 2.0x macro lens with a camera with 5 cm focus distance be same as using one with 1cm and no wet lens?

The wet lenses do make a difference.

 

My advice is to get the Ikelite housing. It is far better made than the Canon and Olympus housings.

 

I own the Olympus SP-310 and Olympus PT-030 housing. The camera's focusing is okay, nothing special. The A620 has faster focusing.

 

RAW on my camera takes about 5 seconds using a 1GB type H xD card. Since my camera is 7MP and the SP-350 has 8MP, the times should be similar. One very nice feature is the ability to do some in-camera RAW editing. You can change white balance and contrast in-camera. The result is saved as a JPG. I found it highly useful, particularly beause I was using Magic Filters.

 

Image quality has been very good.

 

Here is the biggest problem with the Olympus: my camera has terrible battery life. It uses 2 AA batteries. Even with the firmware upgrade, I don't get the desired battery life. NiMH batteries barely last 1 dive. Lithiums are a necessity.

A solution to the battery life would be to use the CR-V3 battery as recommended.. I am using a Rechargeable CR-V3 and it solved all problems (at full charge...350 shots n counting..wif flash..)..

I've also had good success with lithium AA's. I've never used the Canon but I have used the SP350 since October 2005. Since I'm shooting TTL with the housed FL20, battery life has never been an issue because I turn off the internal strobe. This also aids in recycle time. Contrary to DHaas's opinion on RAW, I'm not nearly as good a photographer so I often count on RAW to help tweak these photos once I bring them back home. Since I only dive about 6 times a year (and only a couple of dives each trip) its usually a learning process for me all over again each trip. Therefore I find the RAW capablity indispensible. I use a cheap focus light when I'm taking macro shots (suprema 44led). I put a $40 sea&sea hotshoe mount which holds it directly on top of the camera. So far, I've not had any major focus issues, however I have grown more acustom to a little lag. With all of that said, I thought Inon came up with a base mount that allowed the Canon users with that funky port to use their wet lenses?

bursprak, I'm not sure about the macro. My guess is that a stackable lens (like the Inon) would be better, because you can limit the depth of field.

Spazm, I'll look into the CR-V3. Since I already had AA NiMH batteries, I used them.

A whole bunch of new cameras are about to be introduced at PMA. Let's see if Olympus comes out with a replacement.

Spazm, I'll look into the CR-V3. Since I already had AA NiMH batteries, I used them.

A whole bunch of new cameras are about to be introduced at PMA. Let's see if Olympus comes out with a replacement.

Do let me know the outcome if u ever decide to use the CR-V3..u can always buy it off the shelf to try it..if u like it..then go for the rechargeable version...

Olympus has launched the SP-550 UZ....very nice camera..