Canon SD500's housing's defect

Today was the final straw using the WP-DC70 underwater case.

A beautiful shot of a sleeping turtle was completely out of focus due to the diffuser attachment blocking the focus assist lamp.

I tried to get up close and use the macro function. Of course I used the diffuser because of the closeness of the shot.

6 shots later and they are all out of focus.

Some of you may think this is funny but it's a dumb stupid mistake by Canon's engineers.

I really didn't realize what the trouble was until I got home and thought of why I could not take a good shot in macro yet the camera works great without the case.

Then I studied the diffuser assembly. I took some test shots both out of the case and in the case, shooting objects around my house.

Sure enough, the diffuser blocks the focus light and renders it completely useless.

I hope Canon can read this. Someone should be fired and a different diffuser design should be made where as all users that bought the housing should get a free updated diffuser using a worldwide recall.

ARE you listening Canon????????????????????

My previous comments are here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp...essage=13508831

The focus assist light should be turned off when the camera is used in the housing. An external strobe and external focus assist light works best for macro work with this setup. For macro work the internal strobe (even with the diffuser) and the lens aren't looking at the same subject, the light from the internal strobe will light only a portion of the image area. And as you discovered auto focus in macro mode without an assist light is very difficult. Adding an external strobe and an external focus assist light will solve your problems.

It's not just the diffuser light. In macro mode, the Canon will only focus closely when you are zoomed all the way out, which is different than the Olympus 5050 that so many people use, which has a "sweet spot" nearly zoomed all the way in.

I've taken a Canon S60 underwater, and found it nearly impossible to get suitable macro photos, even with an external strobe and focus assist light. And by "nearly impossible," I mean that it was below my threshold of tolerance, especially when compared to Olympus setups.

I don't think comparing the Oly 5050 to the Canon S60 is apples to apples. If you read the original posts in the link Rick posted you'll note that he's quite happy with his S60 system. I also have many, many happy customer's using the S50, S60 and S70 systems underwater.

I'm sure there are many people who are happy with Canon S series systems.

However, my personal opinion is that they are difficult to use (specifically, for achieving macro focus, even in good lighting) when compared to an Oly setup. I think it's a valid comparison -- same price range (but the 5050 is a bit dated -- I like the Canon S50/60/70 better, topside).

Again, this is only my personal opinion. I've taken both underwater, but only for a few dives each.

Thanks everyone for your insights on the SD500.

I bought the camera because I wanted a small digital camera that would fit better in my B.C. pocket (Scubapro Classic Sport *big pockets).

As a diving instructor working with tourists I can not haul around a regular top of the line camera.

Most of our customers are from Japan and Korea and if you don't carefully watch them there will be an incident.

Anyway, I've taken perhaps 1500 photos with the SD500 and compared them to the same average from my S60.

The S60 blows away the SD500 and makes me angry for jumping in and spending $800 plus on a camera that just does not shine.

Of course there is no way for us to test the underwater capability of a camera unless you take it diving. Shooting in the store, even in it's housing, tells you nothing.

Canon should have never produced the WP-DC70 housing for a camera that really does not fit into the underwater world with some bit of pride.

By producing the WP-DC70 they suckered us in to thinking the SD500 would be a great underwater camera.

Instead they should have made an AW-DC70 which would have been an ALL WEATHER housing but not rated for diving depth. This would have prevented many divers like myself from wasting our money on a camera that is not really suited to the underwater world.

It's all my fault for not catching the "no manual controls for shutter or arperture priority".

This in itself is key to taking great photos of fish and things that move and have colors that are hard to bring out.

The super short Depth of Field is another problem with so much out of focus photos.

Okay, I'm going to stop my complaining but I wish someone would have done this sooner in a forum posting for me to read and stay away from the SD500.

However on the bright side the SD500 is typically well suited for photos of corpses at a funeral home.

Rick................

http://www.fundiveguam.com/

By producing the WP-DC70 they suckered us in to thinking the SD500 would be a great underwater camera.http://www.fundiveguam.com/

Part of our responsibility as buyers is to research prospective purchases before making them! At $169, Canon's underwater housing is priced fairly. Most of the time, you get what you pay for.

I concur - you should know that when you buy a fully-automatic point and shoot camera it is going to give you these problems.

Hard to bring out colors? Yes - you need a strobe.

Narrow depth of field? That's because the camera is going to pick f2.8 every time.

Rick, it sounds like you realize this now and I apologize if I come across as "kicking you when you're down." I'm not actually directing the comments at you - I want folks to understand how important it is to check around (especially at Wetpixel) before making a camera purchase. The last thing we want to see here is "So, I have Camera X - where can I get an underwater housing for it?"

Sincerely,

James Wiseman

I agree - which is why I'm still undecided...

I almost bought the Canon A95, then there were comments that Fuji F810 wipes the sea floor with the opposition. Thanks folks for sharing pains and joys with us the undecided ones; we're learning from all you went through.

Robert

I am a beginner of the underwater photograph. I bought my SD500 and the WP-DC70 housing 6 weeks ago but unfortunately lost it during my last dive 10 days ago . During this short period, I went diving every holiday and took over 2000 underwater pictures. I like it and following are my some comments for this camera.

Pros.

1. Small size and easy to carry (compare to the high level Olympus 7070 or 8080)

2. Quick and accurate focus

3. Powerful internal flash in this small camera

4. Good picture quality

5. Acceptable micro mode (5cm)

Cons

1. Because the location of the mode dial, your thumb is easy to switch this dial accidentally under the water.

2. No manual control like the Aperture priority, Shutter priority or pure manual mode (the low cost A85 or A95 supports these features). These features might be interesting, if I want to be an advanced photographer in the future.

3. The battery life is not attractive. The maximum shots I ever tried were around 200 shots in one dive before I ran out of the battery power.

4. The housing is positive floating, so it’s better to add some weight. (This is one of the reasons that I lost my SD500 underwater in last dive)

I used the diffuser for every underwater shot and didn't use the external strobe but I didn't meet the big focus problem. However before I press down the shutter button, I always check if the LED indicator or AF frame had been locked already. Also, if it's possible, I always took three shots at least for every scene to make sure to get the proper focus. By the way, I didn't have the problem of the narrow depth of field for most pictures. I used the internal flash for the macro mode shot, the camera always pick the f7.1 for the aperture setting.

Following website has my some pictures that I took with SD500 at the Northeast Coast in Taiwan. All pictures were taken just with internal flash or nature surrounding light.

http://www.dcview.com.tw/my/showalbumpic.a...5&albumsn=48769

I like this camera very much and I am very sad to lose it during my last dive. No matter what camera we choose, hope everyone can love our choice and use it frequently.