JMauser

David, thanks for the help and the photos. I have decided to just get my fiance an A95 and myself the corresponding canon housing. This will have to suffice for the honeymoon as the wedding expenses have already drained us. Later on, I'll purchase an Oly 5060 or possibly a 7070 with wide angle lens, housing and strobe. All that together will still be much cheaper than trying to house my DSLR. And I won't feel nearly as bad if something ever happened to it. I use my DSLR topside way too much to risk it. John

Anthp, your advice really helped. I had no idea that the wide angle was hindered without the wide lens port. I just figured that the ports were only for the wide angle lens adapters. I will need to do some more research now. Just to get this straight...the only way to get wide angle on these compacts is to add a lens adapter and wide angle port, correct? Say I buy the A95 and shoot it without the port and adapter for a little while...will the lens still be a ~35mm equivalant or will it be cut down even more to say 50mm. There were a couple reasons I was going to go with the point and shoot over housing my 10D. 1) $$$ 2) Compactness...the first couple times we will use it will be on our honeymoon. Stingray City, Snorkeling Cozumel, etc. I didn't want to carry a DSLR with a big housing on those kind of trips. 3) My fiance wants a P&S digital anyway... so if I eventually upgrade to a DSLR housing, my only money loss will be a $200 canon P&S housing.

16x20's ... I'd consider myself semi pro topside. My main digital is a 10D...just not ready to pay to house it yet. Although the underwater photography would be a hobby thing for now, I still want to have the option to make really big prints if something comes out really nice. That's why I'd go for the S70 over S60 if I had to choose b/t the two. I have a feeling I'd be missing the wide angle under water. But if anyone disagrees, let me know. Anyone have a S70???

Hi all, I'm planning on buying a digital compact for my fiance and I will buy myself a housing to go along. I've narrowed it down to one of these four with a canon housing: A95, S5000, S60, and S70. All four have 5+ mp and aperature and shutter priority which I want. I would go for an A95 or S5000 because of the cheaper pricing but I would like a wider angle than the 36 or 38mm that they offer. The S60 and 70 have the 28mm on the wide angle but they're more expensive. B/t those two I may as well pay the extra 40 bucks for 7 mp. Anyone with experience with any of these cameras please give your opinions. Also, do you think it's worth the extra $100 for the wide angle underwater. If the S70 is the best choice, then just say "get the S70 you dummy." Thanks, John