Hi all,
I'm a diver from California. I'm joining this forum to seek help what to get for my new underwater compact camera and rig that satisfy the requirements below.
1) 1 camera to shoot on land producing better results than iPhone and underwater during travel.
2) Compact/light weight, not too bulky and good for travel since I only scuba dive when I travel oversea or out of states.
3) Very good at super macro and macro and good for video underwater.
4) Ability to not have to switch port and lenses as much as possible to shoot macro, normal (not possible with wide?) angle and video on the same dive
5) Room to grow as I get better at underwater photography.
I have been reading a lot of articles and review videos but still have a really hard time to decide on what camera model and housing. The TG-6 was a really good choice that could satisfied most of the requirement about but it doesn’t have manual mode so it won’t meet 1 and 5.
I really like the Sony RX100 Vii but doesn’t meet 4 and may be 2 since the full rig with light strobes looks pretty bulky.
The Lumix 10 is also a good choice but I read review online said the lens can get dirt in after some use, it is also not very good at macro from review.
The Olympus EPL9/10 also seems like a good candidate but it is slightly bigger than compact camera and can’t shoot macro and wide on the same dive, also require more lenses and ports, and it has lower MP.
Any suggestion for a good camera and rig setup that could meet all the requirements above or at least close enough? I really hate having to set up the gear between dives. The goal is to travel with these gears, take good underwater macro and super macro photos and on the same dive occasionally capture some fish portraits, large creatures (manta, sting ray, turtle…) and take videos. Also take good photos on lands. I don’t mind paying more to meet all these requirements but prefer to not overspend on compact rig at the price of a DSL full frame rig :D
Thank you