What do people think of the Sony W5?

Hi, everyone. I was hoping someone can help me out. I am looking for a compact digital camera to use both on land and be good underwater. There are times where I don't want to carry around my slr so I'm looking for something a little more compact.

I tried out the canons and their focus at low light is a little too slow for me and I feel that they might frustrate me too much. I have heard good things about the Fuji 810 and that's on my top list BUT there are no stores around here that sell it and I'm hesistant to get something without trying it out first (and the low battery life makes me hesistant as well).

I saw the Sony W5 and I love the fast focus and fast shutter lag. There are three concerns that I have:

1. No manual white balance. 5 manual settings though.

2. No RAW format

3. Manual exposure is there but no a-priority or s-priority

Are any of the three things deal breakers for underwater work? I know it's not ideal but I noticed that the Fuji 810 doesn't have manual white balance either and their RAW conversion offers no control (according to dpreview) and people seem to love that camera anyway.

Thanks in advance.

Kevin

I don't know enough about the W5, but the no RAW format would be a deal breaker for me.

Regarding the F810, you can use Photoshop Elements 3 and ACR as a RAW converter and it works a treat. You don't need manual white balance if you shoot RAW as you can set it later on with no adverse effects.

Battery life ont he F810 is enough to fill the largest card available (1GB) for the camera...

Thanks, Anthony. The Fuji sounds like it might be the one for me and I'll just have to buy it blind.

Kevin

For Sonys, the V3 is the way to go. Likely the best AF out there in digicams, and does have RAW as well. Full metering modes. Hotshoes, for wired strobe attachment.

Ike makes housing.