I have been reading and searching like crazy trying to narrow down what I want for underwater pictures. Above water I use a Nikon D50 and am really getting into the photography “thing”. LOVE the D50!! However, $1k + for a housing is just not gonna happen. If I ever got really serious, maybe, but for now and the medium term future, uh, no.

So the questions I have are from the perspective of clearing things up for me rather than “what should I buy”.

1) I’m leaning away from anything under 5mp - if I do take a decent picture I’d hate to be limited to 5x7 ish for prints. Thoughts?

2) I’d prefer to shoot RAW but from what I hear (specifically about the Oly SP350) it’s so darn slow writing to the card it’s pointless. Photoshop allows for playing around enough w/ jpegs.  That should be enough to cover me or do I hold out for RAW?

3) WB - I’ve got an expodisc (which I also love and would use underwater) so setting WB manually would be ideal, however I see many Canons have underwater mode would should be substantially similar, yes? So either HAS to have manual WB or have underwater WB mode - any thoughts?

4) Image Stabilization, Vibration Reduction, whatever - is this necessary for underwater shots or a “nice to have but not a deal breaker”?  For those who have it, has it proven beneficial underwater?

5) Lastly, zoom range. For P&S;camera I’ve long been in the camp that zoom is like money and memory, you can never have enough. Is 3x optical (digital zoom is worthless IMO) enough or should I get more reach?

I’d like the ability to down the line potentially add a strobe.

I’m trying to keep initial investment low in case I want to get crazier down the road.  I also have to keep in mind that I’ve got a LOT of scuba gear to buy yet too and that money tree in the back yard is bare.  I’ve got a couple leads on set ups from various places that end up in the <$400 range which is perfect right now, just for reference. I’m probably NOT going to get everything I want at that level, but hey, one can hope right? That also is one of the reasons I’d like to know from folks who have been there which of the 5 above are the biggies. If I’ve forgotten anything please let me know.

Thanks!  Brian.

Last question - any direct input on Oly SP350, Nikon P4, Canon A640??

Byte Me - 31 October 2007 04:01 PM

1) I’m leaning away from anything under 5mp - if I do take a decent picture I’d hate to be limited to 5x7 ish for prints. Thoughts?

I would say that is a good call ... most cameras I would recommend are 7 or more megapix

Byte Me - 31 October 2007 04:01 PM

2) I’d prefer to shoot RAW but from what I hear (specifically about the Oly SP350) it’s so darn slow writing to the card it’s pointless. Photoshop allows for playing around enough w/ jpegs.  That should be enough to cover me or do I hold out for RAW?

I personally shot for 4 years and still have some of my best photos thanks to only shooting jpeg. RAW is a nice feature but not really necessary. If youfind a compact or prosumer camera that shoots raw at an ok speed .. then why not at least have that option. Remember you don’t need to be shootingmultiple frames per second underwater, it’s about timing.

Byte Me - 31 October 2007 04:01 PM

3) WB - I’ve got an expodisc (which I also love and would use underwater) so setting WB manually would be ideal, however I see many Canons have underwater mode would should be substantially similar, yes? So either HAS to have manual WB or have underwater WB mode - any thoughts?

Underwater mode is ok for glass bottom boats or snorkelling, but any deeper and if you want to play with WB manual settings are the best.

Byte Me - 31 October 2007 04:01 PM

4) Image Stabilization, Vibration Reduction, whatever - is this necessary for underwater shots or a “nice to have but not a deal breaker”?  For those who have it, has it proven beneficial underwater?

I would go nice to have not a deal breaker. I don’t know of anyone shooting IS underwater, it is very rare your shutter speed will be less than 1/100 so you should be fine !

Byte Me - 31 October 2007 04:01 PM

5) Lastly, zoom range. For P&S;camera I’ve long been in the camp that zoom is like money and memory, you can never have enough. Is 3x optical (digital zoom is worthless IMO) enough or should I get more reach?

I had an olympus 3040 for YEARS and i think that was only 3x optical zoom. Remember the only benefit of zoom underwater really is that you don’t have to get as close to a small macro subjct. It is useless for zooming in on a shark 50m away.

Byte Me - 31 October 2007 04:01 PM

Last question - any direct input on Oly SP350, Nikon P4, Canon A640??

All three are fine cameras. I know a lot of people recommended the Olympus a few months ago. The canon looks nice to me now
There are sample pictures from the POTW here on |Digideep of those cameras
http://www.digideep.com/english/digital/photo/camera/Canon/PowerShot-A640-/7/2674
Canon has only a few examples (so less popular) but they are nice photos (which is also down to user ability)
http://www.digideep.com/english/digital/photo/camera/Olympus/SP-350/27/2151
Has the most amount of examples so very popular, but not great images (again could just be user ability)
http://www.digideep.com/english/digital/photo/camera/Nikon/Coolpix-P4/25/2456
Has no examples .. which just means IF anyone uses it they haven’t entered the DD competition. (there is some length reviews though)

Out of the 3 you listed i would get the Canon Then the Olympus (thats without having used either)

Giles,

Thanks for the feedback.  Funny - I started with, and still have the Oly 3040!  Wish I could find that darn PT-010 housing for it someplace!

RAW for me underwater is only a nice to have, I shoot RAW exclusively with the D50 and if I ever get really serious I’d probably kit up that camera for underwater as well.

I’m very keen on the a640, however, have read that the Canon housing for it produces bad shadows in the lower right corner, especially when doing close up work.  If you try to compensate with more flash you get hot spots.  Anyone using the a640 and the canon housing have comment on that?  Or, what housing are people using with the a640?

Thanks!

That shadow is going to happen with any housing for a compact camera pretty much. The flash being top left and the lens just below it. So a shadow is cast if you are THAT close .. good news ..  you can fix it with a external strobe when you get to the need of being THAT close, secondly ... the canon obviously focuses closer than the others in order to create this problem !!

Thats why we have external strobes and different ports for wide and macro ... it’s all part of when you get used to one bit .. you can expand and get more and more stuff and get more creative !
It’s a fine camera and GREAT housing ... it may not have modern day megapixels but it is simple and sweet to use
http://www.digideep.com/english/digital/photo/camera/Olympus/C-3040Zoom/27/94 sample pictures there .. a lot taken by me with my housing !

Is it really the case that people don’t shoot multi-frames underwater? I’d think if the lighting were okay and you were in the midst of fast action, it woudl be great to shoot off 5 frames in a second.

Now, a year later, aren’t people shooting with IS lenses?

Most IS systems involve extra lens elements to achieve the stabilisation.  These extra lenses will reduce the light transmitting to the sensor to a (very) small extent, thus lowering (slightly) the low light performance of the camera.  Low light is a common issue underwater, so some u/w photographers avoid cameras with IS for this reason.

I think you’ll find that IS is mainly to reduce the effects of vibration - it can’t reduce the effects of slow large movements such as swinging around in surge underwater, so whether its really of much use underwater is up for debate.

Going back to your RAW question, I think the major benefit of using RAW underwater is the elimination of white balance issues - if you don’t like the white balance the camera used when shooting RAW, you can adjust it in post processing.  With JPEG you can’t do that (although if you are a photoshop jockey, you can mess about with channels, colour balance and the like to try to achieve a similar result).  Obviously, when you are at depth, and there’s no red channel information in the image, no amount of white balance is going to bring it back.  That’s when you need flash or better still, a strobe.