Canon S100 vs. S110? Or something entirely different?

Hi gang!

I have been trying to convince my girlfriend to get into photography for a while now and finally she seems to be getting interested. I already have fiber optically triggered strobes from my DSLR that she can borrow (hehe, and no, she cannot borrow my DSLR)

So, I need to get her a nice compact camera and housing, a few criteria:

1: Camera should not be too expensive (about price of the S100-S110, 280-3500us$)

2: The housing should have the option to use wet-lenses but not be too expensive, maybe ikelite?

3: It would be awesome to be able to use the INON UFL M150 (CWFA lens)

Any good ideas? I am guessing the S100 is gonna get a lot of praise?

Thanks a bunch, Morten!

The s100/110 is a good compact that women like fits in a small handbag

Underwater has plenty of add ins main draw back battery life

There is no much difference other than depth rating between the oem and ikelite

In fact the canon housing has also got a cold shoe very useful for macro video and takes all inon bayonet and not lenses

Hi Morten,

The S100 system is a great buy right now if you can still find it in stock. The S100 FIX housing is on sale at most of the shops because the 110 came out but no real difference photographically. The aluminum housing for the S100 is down in the price range of a plastic housing for the S110. I picked one up for my wife and I'm very impressed with the image quality and the housing. I paired it with a spare strobe and a Nauticam tray and handle. It comes with the 67mm thread adapter so a Subsee +5 or other wet lenses work well. This shows the setup with the handle. You could also put a strobe on the cold shoe mount and leave off the focus light for your bright shooting conditions. I do like the handle though, it feels much better in the water.

Cheers,

Steve

We have an S100 at home and it is the best compact camera I've owned. I even prefer it over my Fuji X10. The set up Steve shows looks great and was what I was recently considering before I decide to upgrade my SLR system.

Thank you all for your input, much appreciated!

As I expected the S100 would be the favorite, only one question to you Steve, you said that:

The aluminum housing for the S100 is down in the price range of a plastic housing for the S110.

I've been looking at the recsea and fix housings for the S100, but didn't find them anywhere close to the price of the S110 plastic housings (what i found so far were all 2x or more the price of the S110 Ikelite), if you remember where you saw those prices quoted that would be awesome?

Happy bubbles!

Morten

Hi Morten,

The Ike housing on B&H for the S110 is listed at $650 USD $350 on the B&H site, $650 includes the camera. The S110 Recsea and Nauticam Housings are at $900 or so. The S100 FIX was selling for $599 from both Backscatter and Reef Photo here in the US for the last few months. It's still listed on the Backscatter website but may be out of stock. I'll keep looking around.

If I see something interesting I'll send you a PM.

Cheers,

Steve

Edited to correct my inability to read

I’ve got a few FIX S100s in stock still

I saw a S100 in a Ikelite Housing bought December 2011; it is one of the new Ikelite compact housing and left me a nice impression
and it is so small to fit in a BCD pocket. Ikelite uses a 67mm tread to mount wetlenses and this will lead to vignetting.

Quote from Ikelite Website:
Moderate vignetting (shading in the corners) will be present in the widest setting when using an external accessory lens. This effect can be eliminated by zooming in to approximately 33mm equivalent.

The FIX housing is without doubt a more expensive solution but they are very sturdy and FIX offers a much broader

choice of add-on lenses.
The FIX housing for the S90 gave the user the option to use the bayonet mount Inon UFL-165AD to reach 165° FoV.
You may ask Alex_Tattersall if this is applies also for the S100/S110 housing.

Chris

Hi Steve, thank you for taking the time to look around, much appreciated!

600$ is a good price, but I think it still might be a bit over our budget for an entry level setup, furthermore I am worried that we will have to pay some sort of import tax when shipping to the EU.

I’ve got a few FIX S100s in stock still

Hi Alex, could you give me a quote on on of those?

Best regards,

Morten