jamesdavies83

Thanks for the advice James. I'll be shooting in RAW so will probably set it in Photoshop. What advantages does a filter have over setting custom white balance (other than having to set the WB manually) - will it improve the quality of the picture?

Hopefully I'll soon be getting a new camera and housing (might wait for the Olympus C-7070 and housing), which I'll be using without a strobe to begin with, so i was thinking of getting a URPro green water filter (will mainly be using the camera in the UK) Is it worth getting a filter or should I just use manual white balance? I had thought that properly adjusted white balance would give the same result, but seeing some pictures taken with and without a filter this weekend the ones using a filter seemed clearer and picked out details better than those taken without a filter but with the white balance set manually. If I do get a filter should I still use manual white balance with the filter on, or let the camera set the white balance? And in what situations should I use the filter - I know they have a useful depth limit of around 20m, but should I use it only for wide angle shots using ambient light, or can I also use it for macro with the internal flash? Thanks, James

Ive seen the Sony V3 and Nikon 8400, as well as the Canon G6, and they seem like pretty good cameras. Are there housings available for them yet? Does anyone know how the G6 performs and would it be suitable for shooting UW? James

Thanks for the advice - its what I thought to be honest. Looks like I cant get the best of both worlds with a consumer camera. I have looked at the 300D and the D70 and am really tempted. The only problem would be the cost of the housing, the only ones I have seen are ikelite and others which cost £500+, an amount I just cant justify spending on the housing alone as this would be my first attempt at UW photography. Also the price of lenses that i'd need for shooting sports would be pretty high! I have also noticed that the ikelite housings block the internal flash, so unless I shoot with ambient light only would I need a a strobe? Because I dont want to spend more on a strobe until i am confident with the camera and am used to UW photography. So, looks like I should stick with the film SLR and just get a dedicated UW setup. What housing/camera would you recommend for this? My budget of £700 would be for both camera and housing so I would assume that this would rule out most ikelite housings. At the moment I'm looking at the Oly C-5060 and Pt-020 or the C-8080 with Pt-023. Would the 8080 package be worth the extra £150 over the 5060? Also the Canon G6 has just been released, is there a housing available for this? Thanks James

Hi Not posted here before, but recently been reading this forum and getting quite interested in UW photography - so want to get myself a camera + housing set up. I already have a film SLR that i've used for some motorsport photography, so i'm looking to replace this with a set up that I can use for sports as well as UW. Reading this and other forums I see the Olympus C-5060/PT-020 is an excellent UW set up, but i'm not sure how suitable it is for sports photography, so I started looking at the C-8080/PT-023 - Does anyone have any experience with this camera and housing, Ive heard different reviews of it - some excellent, and some not so good. In particular have heard its not so good at focusing in low light, and that it has a noisy CCD (although magazine and website reviews ive seen seem to say the opposite). Are these true, and how would they affect its use underwater - I would initially just be shooting using the internal flash only as I have a budget of about £700UKP for camera and housing (the 8080/PT-023 package comes in just under this), so a strobe would have to wait a year or so until I get used to the camera. I know its a bulky set up comared to the C-5060 but i'm not too bothered by that as I dont travel much Not really relevant to these forums and a bit of a long shot, but does anyone have experience of the C-8080 with sports photography? I've heard that its not the best, as it can be slow focusing on AF (which would be a major disadvantage for motorsport if true), and doesnt have the longest zooms, although I would get a teleconverter to increase this, and the 8MP instread of 5 would allow me to crop images slightly to further increase zoom. I've ruled out other cameras that would probably be better for sports photography such as the Konica-Minolta A2, Nikon Coolpix 8700 and Canon Pro1 as it seems only ikelite housings are available for them, and my budget doesnt stretch to £500+UKP for housing only! If anyone knows if I can get a housing for one of these, or similar camera, for closer to the price of the PT-023 then please let me know! Would consider second-hand. Also, I'm not in a rush to buy before christmas and would probably wait until around February so does anyone know of any new cameras rumoured to be released in the next few months that would be suitable and within my budget? Such as a new olympus as it seems its only them that make affordable housings for their prosumer type cameras. Thanks, James