using an underwater housing on land

anyone have any advice or experience on using an underwater housing for waterproofing on land?

id like to be able to take a camera with me kayaking.

a friend told me that exposure to heat can warp the case when the air inside expands.

i bought an Olympus Stylus for its weatherproofing and compactness but it takes terrible pictures.

Pentax also has a water resistant model, but the reviews state the pictures are just ok.

a case seems to be the best waterproofing at the cost of compactness as long as it doesnt warp.

i think most cases are positively bouyant as well which is a plus.

I used to use a housed Oly 4040 on land all the time. We used it at Water Parks, Floating down the River, Jet Skiing, etc....

I also have an Oly Stylus 400 and I think it takes pretty decent pictures as well.

i picked up the Stylus 300. have problems with blurry photos etc.

are you able to take pictures above water ok? a friend told me he was getting glare from the plastic using his sony in the housing.

I just picked up a Canon S500 and the WP-DC800 housing just for use kayaking and boating with the family. The S500 is great ultra-compact camera and the housing is small enough to take around for fun shots in and around the water.

James

cool. have you tried it above water in the housing yet?

i figure a compact camera would also be good for doing fish id shots. more compact than the c5050 that im planning to use for more photographic endeavors. manual white balance is a plus too.

i was considering the Canon a70 as its only $200 which reduces the potential crying factor if the housing floods.

or maybe the s410.

its $300, more compact. doesnt have the manual exposure of the a70 but has manual white balance. either would be great for fish id

yea, not a problem. The housing is very light and easy to use. It has controls for all the camera functions. You can't use the viewfinder so you frame the picture using the LCD, but that is not a big deal. The flash works fine and the housing includes an optional diffuser.

Also when you take the housing out of the water to take a picture you need to make sure that there are no drops of water on port. But this can be said of any housing.

James