dSLR or compact?

My apologies in advance for the long post. I'm very confused and could use some expert advice.

My background is in professional photography (but land based - mostly family portraits and weddings). I shoot with a Canon 1D-x camera. I also dabble in travel writing and would like to focus on this more in the coming years.

When I travel, the dSLR sometimes gets annoying. It's big and heavy. BUT the times that I decide not to bring it, I inevitably regret the decision and wish I had it with me. It takes gorgeous images.

In November this year, I will be travelling to Mexico for a 9 day sea kayaking trip through the islands of Baja California. It should be awesome, and I really want to be able to take some amazing photos while I'm there.

I'm trying to decide what camera equipment to take. I want in-water shots, and split shots, so some kind of housing will be required. I'm not a diver (but love the idea... opportunities are a little limited here in Nebraska, though).

Should I go for a housing for my current camera? Or get a smaller compact camera?

Considerations:

- must take high quality publishable images (minimal noise, good overall tone and exposure latitude)

- some impact protection would be great. Ideally, I'd love to be able to lash my equipment to the front of the kayak, ready for me to grab when I need and easy to put away again.

- my photos will be mostly on "the experience" rather than individual fish, etc. So lots of under/over water shots, photos of people snorkelling, etc. Stuff I can sell with a travel article basically.

- I don't want to break the bank (ha ha ha ha... yes, I hear you laughing)

Ideas?

That's a tough set of requirements. The part about attaching camera to the kayak tends to say 'not a DSLR" to me, more like a Gopro. The part that says under/over tends to say 'DSLR with a dome port' and not a compact.

Overall I think you'll be best off with a compact in a housing. With good light, even a point-n-shoot will do fine, though the under/over shots will be a bit tricky. Either get a Canon point-n-shoot with matching Canon housing (s120, gx-something), or better (from an image IQ standpoint) get a Sony RX100.

I think some sort of clamp that screws into a tripod mount would work for mounting to the kayak, unless you can engineer some sort of ball mount on the kayak itself.

Having lugged a DSLR with housing - especially a bit dome port - I can tell you with 100% certainty that it would be 'ready to grab when I need and easy to put away again'. The logistics of moving a DSLR rig around, especially full frame with wide angle (dome) can be very challenging. Trying to use one in a kayak would be tough. These rigs only shine once they are underwater.

Thanks!!

The lashing to the kayak for shooting isn't really a huge issue. I do have a GoPro already for that kind of thing (memo to self... get more batteries for it. They drain really quickly!)

I was more thinking in terms of the last rafting trip I went on in which I stored my dSLR inside a protective camera case, inside a dry bag. It was such a pain to get it out that I didn't use it much and missed a bunch of cool shots. If I could have it out and ready to go when needed, it would be far more usable.

That got me thinking that perhaps an Outex or Ewa Marine cover might work. But these soft covers would mean that I still need some kind of bag/case to keep it in whilst I'm paddling and not holding it. There's also the issue that the plastic degrades over time, meaning it would need to be replaced every few years.

Which brought me to thinking about an underwater housing, which would provide a little bit of impact protection. It would also not have the deterioration issues.

I think I'm over thinking this. :)

Hi Aussie Girl

Yeah, as phxacraig suggests, you need a box of systems for all you want to do. Given that you don't intend to do real u/w shooting I do wonder if a housing is a bit overkill - especially given their weight for travelling - not to mention cost!

Maybe the type of set-up that surf photographers use might work best? Although I don't really know what that is! Any of you guys out there reading this and can comment?

I too wondered about some sort of Canon GX and housing. Not too big for travelling. Not DSLR though and, as you suggest, is there a substitute for them when you are used to that level of flexibility and quality?

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm leaning back towards an Outex cover (www.outex.com) with a dome port for my trip and seeing how it goes...

Yeah, that looks a good option if you are really only dunking the camera rather than diving with it.

Good luck!