Total n00b looking for advice on camera

Hi all, I'm a total n00b to underwater photography, we're going on a vacation to hawai for a week and will be doing some soerkling and light diving, we hope to continue diving for "years to come" after this. We own standard film SLR's (nikon n80) as well as digital SLR cameras (nikin D70 to be exact) and portable digital camera (coolpix 2100). Anyhow the more I try to research the more confused I get, what would be best a cmoplete system from scratch, or housings for what we have, what about flashes do we need that stuf, etc, etc ...I'd like to keep whatever solution we come up with in thr $500-$1000 range. Any help would be appreciuated!!

Ah, this one's easy! There IS no best system - there is only what is best for your needs and fits your budget.

You could get started by getting a Fantasea housing for your Coolpix and a simple slave flash like the Inon D2000 or Sea and Sea YS25DX.

Or you could get an Ikelite housing for your D70 and a bigger Ikelite flash for iTTL control. But that will be outside your stated budget.

Just do some searches and read around here and you should get a good start.

Cheers

James

James summarized the best options you have very well.

One more point, its seems from your message that you are not very experienced diver and just started with that great hobby. if it so I wouldn’t recommended to go with the DSLR option, its really make the dives more complicates: more equipment, less free hands, need good buoyancy...

Actually I think that before anyone starts to use any camera u/w he have to be quit experienced diver.