What to do???

Hi All

I know loads of people have mentioned the decision on whether to purchase a SLR or a PnS for their underwater photography, but wanted some thoughts on my situation.

I have done a bit of underwater videoing so have dived with an Ikelite housing and my camcorder on a number of occassions (Got the housing cheap on Ebay) got some good results and used Prem Pro to correct the colour loss.

I wanted to get into the photo side of things and have invested in a DLSR, Sony a350 and am learning the basics of that at the moment.

Now I dont know whether to invest in the casing for this or just buy a Pns and casing, but make sure that when I buy a stobe etc, it will be compatible with a housing for a DSLR when I get it.

I have looked for a PnS with Raw as I like the thought of this function, but the camera and the case is very close to the cost of a case for my DSLR.

I just dont know what to do really

Any advice would be lovely

Thanks

You might want to consider lower priced P/S with a 'hack' for shooting RAW images for price comparison.

This thread below talks about it quite a bit. Read on to the bottom of the thread as it starts in areas perhaps of less to you.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...562&hl=hack

You might do a search on the 'hack' used for Canon P/S for more info in that direction.

When considering the DSLR housing cost, do not forget to include the price of the port/domes you will want. Depending on the P/S housing you use, the dome/ports can each be more than the P/S OEM housing cost and not too far from the price of an Ikelite housing for a P/S if that is the route you are considering.

I find my P/S OEM housing nice for not-quite underwater events, like the upcoming family canoe trip.

It was really nice to have on an Alaskan White water trip with my 76 yr old mom. It was the trip of a lifetime for us and I was able to photo on board with the small housing, one handing the photos in the rough water. Do you have any events like that?

Since I am going to have a P/S in addition to my DSLR anyway, the price of an OEM housing is under $200 and not a bit deal.

You might make a price listing for all the items you want on the DSLR housing/domes/ports/lens and a similar one for the P/S you are considering. Once you see the entire price listing, your answer may be clearer on which way you want to move first.

If you are going to have underwater housed DSLR no matter what, it would seem the sooner you get started, the sooner you get there. How is that for stating the blatantly obvious?

Hope that is of some help

Dave

You might want to consider lower priced P/S with a 'hack' for shooting RAW images for price comparison.

This thread below talks about it quite a bit. Read on to the bottom of the thread as it starts in areas perhaps of less to you.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...562&hl=hack

 

You might do a search on the 'hack' used for Canon P/S for more info in that direction.

 

When considering the DSLR housing cost, do not forget to include the price of the port/domes you will want. Depending on the P/S housing you use, the dome/ports can each be more than the P/S OEM housing cost and not too far from the price of an Ikelite housing for a P/S if that is the route you are considering.

 

I find my P/S OEM housing nice for not-quite underwater events, like the upcoming family canoe trip.

It was really nice to have on an Alaskan White water trip with my 76 yr old mom. It was the trip of a lifetime for us and I was able to photo on board with the small housing, one handing the photos in the rough water. Do you have any events like that?

Since I am going to have a P/S in addition to my DSLR anyway, the price of an OEM housing is under $200 and not a bit deal.

 

You might make a price listing for all the items you want on the DSLR housing/domes/ports/lens and a similar one for the P/S you are considering. Once you see the entire price listing, your answer may be clearer on which way you want to move first.

 

If you are going to have underwater housed DSLR no matter what, it would seem the sooner you get started, the sooner you get there. How is that for stating the blatantly obvious?

Hope that is of some help

Dave

Now the Raw format really interests me, I will have a look into that, is there any specific cameras that do this??

I have been a land photo hobbyist for ~18yrs (so all the adult part of my 33yrs thus far). Total gadget guy and gear freak. I have been diving for ~4yrs. ~100 dives. I shot with a Canon S50 with OEM housing until the camera died last year. So I had your same debate. Get a P&S w/housing or get a housing for my D70. Used D70 housings are around. Long story short, I ended up getting a new Canon G9 with Ikelight housing. I got a pair of used (but perfect) Ike DS125 strobes with all the arms, cables, etc for less than 1/2 price from the classifieds here (they come by often enough). I have been on two trips - a week in Coz and a week on the Turks Aggressor. I have stepped up my dive trips to 2-3 a year... next year Okinawa, Indonesia, USVI, and who knows what else. So I want to dive a lot and take great pictures. I am reading books and I will probably take a course within a year or two if I feel I need more guidance. (Ok, story got longer)

Anyway, I wish I had gotten a housing for my DSLR. The G9 is a great camera for a P&S, but I dont need another P&S, and underwater I wish I had the F-Stop range and responsiveness of a good SLR setup. The setup with the Ike housing is about as big as a DSLR housing. Ok, I dont have this big 8" dome to worry about, but with housing, 2 strobes, etc its not that much more to add. But my regret is not very strong. I paid ~$1K for the G9 + housing. I could easily sell it in a year or so for a fair amount of that investment. It is a pretty good setup and def. cheaper than getting (even very used) housing + ports + etc for a DSLR.

So bottom line from me... either path is going to be able to take great shots. You will find limitations using even the best P&S. But you can easily work within these limitations and get great shots. A pro will take great shots with whatever gear they are given. Personnally I am now waiting for a D400 - or whatever Nikon comes out with prosumer grade with a FX sensor and 3" screen. Then maybe I will invest in a housing.

Good luck and happy shooting.

Jeremy

Jeremy

Thanks for the info, and it looks like you had the same dilemma that I have now.

I could just opt for the PnS for now, but like you say I will want to get my slr in the water soon!!!!

I have 2 holidays for this year, 1 red sea and 1 Thailand, and I would like to gte this sorted as soon as possible so that I can start practising.

still dont know what to do, and in the UK the ikelite housings are considerably more expensive than the US.

will have to see how many pennies I have at the time

cheers

I too have been wrestling with the same decision, however, I currently have a point and shoot sony in it's sony housing with two strobes, however, the housing I have does not allow me to adjust any setting underwater.

Today, I made the decision to buy the Canon G9 and the new Patima Housing, along with the Inon wet lenses to compliment it.

My decision to go with another p&s, instead of the slr, was primarily driven by cost, even though I went with a very expensive p&s setup, because the housing alone is $1K, but is rated to go into the 100 meter range, which was important to me. When I took a serious look at what it would cost me to get a decent quality slr camera, with a quality housing, with both macro and wide angle lenses and the respective ports for each lens, the cost was very high. Just to give you an idea, the dome port for the wide angle lens was going to cost me approximately $1,200.

Like Jeremy indicated, a good photographer can get good pictures with almost any setup. I got pretty decent pictures with my current setup, and I cannot even control the manual settings underwater.

I'm happy with my decision!

The most noticeable difference between a P&S and a dSLR is the shutter lag in the former. While I believe they are getting better, most P&S cameras have a significant lag between when you press the shutter and when the photograph gets taken. This makes taking photographs of non-static subjects, like fish, quite difficult.

Another limitation is the lenses. With a P&S you are limited to what the camera comes with and in most cases a flat port. With a dSLR you have a wide range of lenses and can use flat or dome ports.

I used a P&S underwater (Coolpix 4500) for 3 years and while I got some great shots, my shots with the D70 and now the D300 as just so much better.

I have to review P&S cameras from time to time and find they are much more difficult to use than the good old point & click DSLR.

I certainly will not dispute anything that has been said within this thread, because there is absolutely no doubt that an slr is superior to practically any p&s setup!

However, with that said, the question is, how much better and how much is it worth paying to achieve that difference?

Currently, the technology available in the higher quality p&s camera's is fast approaching the majority of the features available in an slr - Granted, it's not there yet, but it's getting close. Furthermore, with the availabity of add on wet lenses, you can also begin to approach slr results, for a fraction of the cost of the equivalent slr setup.

I have been using a p&s for approximately a year now, and I've even recently upgraded to using dual strobes with my setup; furthermore, I have a host of reasonably priced lenses that I can add on to my setup, which help me achieve pretty decent results, especially by p&s standards.

Here's an example of a few shots I've taken with my Sony p&s camera setup:

Had I been using an slr, these pictures would have most likely come out superior, but how much more would I have had to spend to achieve those superior results?

* Please bear in mind that I may have adjusted the brightness and contrast a bit on this pictures, but none of them were Photoshopped, because I do not own that type of software.

Now I find myself "upgrading" the arms to ULCS, and getting wet lenses for my G9 - so I am pouring more money - as I would with an SLR. Again the main issue is response time (big deal) and lenses (moderate deal - fstop max, quality, range, etc). But yes, they are much more expensive and more hastle to dive with and so forth.

Also I would stick with Canon or Nikon for an SLR - much more out there and better resale. Nikon seems to have a little more following underwater than it does topside, where Canon seems to win out - but 6 of one...

Jeremy