Ghostpipefish - 26 August 2008 09:04 AM
Hi everyone
I have been diving for a few years and would like to buy a compact (point and shoot) camera to keep me company under water 
. At the same time I would like to use it as a smallish travel camera, not really sure if those models fit into a pocket? While reading tons of reviews in underwater fotography and other forums, those one of those cameras and their respective underwater case seem like the best choice:
Canon Powershot G9
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Since they cost about the same, I can’t really make up my mind. Does anyone have any experience with one, or even better the two of them and can give me some advice? Or is there another camera I should consider?
Thanks!
I picked up a G9 a week ago for sometimes when I did not want to carry a dSLR and it was fairly nice to work with and having RAW was a big plus to me in a relatively small size, slipped it in a pocket. It is not quite pocket size as one normally thinks of a camera, like the Elphs, a tad bulky like having another wallet, but not bad at all. After a day I was able to get around the menus easily enough and started to get a feel for the camera. And it did a pretty nice job shooting movies also (the low setting supports 30 FPS, the higher frame size only 15 FPS). There were a couple of things I would have liked to see (a bit more aperture settings, it has 2.8/4.5 - 8.0, and if it just went a tiny bit more on WA, goes to 35mm WA), but the size and features overall was good. Focusing and shutter lag were not horrendous, decent cycle times for RAW shots fairly good set of controls and it was pretty easy to shoot manual - a quick button press toggled f/stop and shutter quickly.
That being said, the G9 was discontinued the day after I bought mine and the rumor mill has a successor coming very soon (possibly a couple of successors, one a bit more high end, possible wider angle and better sensor) Of course chasing technology is always a no win situation, when you buy something it is obsolete but in this case you may want to hold off. I would bet it will be announced by Photokina if not earlier....
