Oly 8080 vs Sony V3 vs Canon G6

I am trying to decide on a digital camera to replace a Sea&Sea film camera and have been looking at the Oly 8080 the Canon G6 or the Sony v3. Macro and close critter shots would be the most common photos I would take usually in Hawaii or Caribbean die locations with good visibility. Could anyone with experience with any of these offer comments on what you felt were pros or cons with either of these and you opinion on the need for an external flash. If you have other cameras in this range I would welcome your recommendations.

The sony kicks total butt, when it comes to autofocus and final shutter lag. But you won't find an UW TTL strobe solution for it. And it has no buffering for raw shots, so it is 12 seconds per shot. But the autofocus is very near DSLR class. And final shutter lag (after pre-focus), is 11 msecs - much faster than ANY DSLR, which must get their mirrors up out of the way, before they can take a shot.

Everyone who tries it, says learning to use manual strobe power by eyeballing scene and distance, is pretty quick, with the instant feedback of digital. And after you do, you get a higher percentage of first shots exposed right...

The G6 has a much less capable AF system, so you will need more assist light, and will be more frustrated when it won't give you the shot, when you can see clearly that it should... But beautiful pictures, and 4 shot raw buffer, so you can shoot a bit faster, for a burst of shooting, though the overall throughput to the CF card is the same on all these - about 4-5 shots per minute. The final shutter lag is 70 msecs, which is VERY short too. Ike will have TTL for this soon.

The oly8080 reportedly has an even weaker AF system than the G6, but again, beautiful image quality. RAW mode as bad or worse than the V3 - 14 seconds, no buffering. Final shutter lag of 167 msecs, which is horribly slow! Enough to get changes in position and expression, before the shot goes off. Ike has TTL worked out for this camera.

The canon pro-1 has a new life, with a firmware upgrade that makes it work incredibly fast - good AF in low light - completely surpasses the G6, fast final shutter lag and raw cycle buffering. No UW TTL yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ike offers it right after they solve the G6...

They are very close to offering the perfect P&S for underwater. A bunch will be announced in Feb, at the annual PMA show.

Don

So Don, in your last post, you mention that we're close to the perfect UW camera. The show has come & gone, so what do you think? I'm still looking for my solution, and like many other newbies are almost to the point of tears. I really want to go DSLR, but because of the cost & size I am probably going to go digicam. If I turn out to be addicted, then I can always upgrade later.

So, what's the perfect UW camera? I normally wouldn't ask such a loaded question, but you asked for it.

Nah - nothing major came out at the show, other than the canon rebel xt.

The perfect digicam for underwater must have:

an autofocus system as good as or better than the V3

a large bright LCD with 30-60 fps update rate, to limit the lag

as short a final shutter lag as the sony V3 or f828

good raw mode, with buffering for 4+ quick shots

We are close, but it may still be a year away...