Good Low End Digicam?

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Have a friend of a friend looking to buy her beloved a camera for his bday, just something for fun snaps.

They are looking at Sealife Reefmaster DC300 (3 MP) and Sealife DC100 (1.3 MP)... know nothing about these cameras.

Obviously, I would go at least 3 MP, but are there any other snappy type cameras people can recommend????

Chris

Canon A70 with Canon housing seems to be very popular and inexpensive. Ken Rockwell says it's his favorite camera...:-)

Cheers

James

...or a used Canon G2/G3 or Olympus 5050.

I'd go with either a canon A series or the olympus 5050. There are two important considerations.

1) Get one that you can buy a cheap housing for. The housing will cost about as much as the camera minimum. If you get one that requires a high end botique housing it will cost several times the cameras cost (but you will get a much better housing). For simple snapshots, the Canon or Olympus housings are great. And they fit in your BC pocket to pull out when you want it and go away when you just want to enjoy your dive.

2) Get one with manual control as an option. You may want to take pictures on full auto most of the time, but it is hard to get good exposures and do anything artistic exposure-wise (you can still work on composition) without having manual control. Consider this a critical element to grow beyond "hey this is my buddy diving".

My canon s300 doesn't have it and it is one of the biggest things that I miss. The Canon housing is great though.