Canon G1

Hi, I have an old Canon G1 and was considering buying the Ikelite housing for it. There are some bargains on the housing at the moment. But is it worthwhile using the G1, which despite being very good optically, is slow and lacks the quality of more modern CCDs?

Would I be better off starting from scratch with something like a Canon A95 or Sony DSC-W5 (which is fast and has a 2.5" LCD)? The battery life puts me off the Fuji F801.

Any advice/suggestions will be most welcome. I do intend buying an external strobe, too.

The autofocus on the G1 was even worse than my old G2! Very frustrating at times, though you can get good shots.

I guess, if it were me, it would depend on the money situation. If I could afford a sony V3, which is even faster than the W5, and has full exposure modes, including manual and aperture priority.

But if you could get a housing for the G1 cheap enough, why not?

Any strobe you get, such as an ikelite ds50 with the optical slave for the G1, would work, (possibly with different adapters), for future cams.

Thanks Don, The V3 is VERY appealing, but that puts me back into £400 Ikelite housings. After due consideration and a play with the W5, I decided to dump the G1 and go with the W5, with the Sony housing and YS25 auto. The speed and 2.5" LCD was too tempting, despite the limited use of manual settings - which only allows the aperture to be fully open and closed 1 stop. Yet the manual controls are quite easy to use. It will also double up as a rugged, lightweight camera to take into the moutains when I don't want to carry my D70.