Oly the best inexpensive digital uw rig?

[bmyates 5]

Two women I dive with are planning to each buy an uw digital point & shoot camera. One of them has never done any uw photography. The other is very experienced (and good) with a Nikonos IV. They want something small, simple and easy to use, probably with one external strobe.

 

I'm familiar with DSLRs, but don't really know what to recommend as a small, inexpensive point & shoot. I've seen some amazing photos taken with Oly's (5050 as I recall), and I understand that Oly makes surprisingly inexpensive housings for some of their p&s's.

 

Aside from the question of WHAT these ladies should buy, my other question is whether they should wait to buy cameras in Singapore, since they'll be travelling through there later this year. I don't know of any good uw photo shops here in Seattle, so the question is whether the prices in Singapore are likely to be better than ordering a package from someplace like B&H. I really don't know if Singapore has bargains on camera gear or not...

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[DesertEagle 2]

Bruce, your photos from Lembeh are beautiful. Congratulations on such fine work.

 

If your friends want to go Olympus, ask them to wait a few weeks and see what they announce at the PMA. Some of their past cameras were well-suited to underwater work. In its day the 5050 was a top choice. But today, Olympus doesn't have anything like that on the market. Their current models like the SP-350 are okay, but leave much to be desired. It only takes xD cards, has slow write times and makes you go into the menu to change basic controls.

 

Of the current crop, both of my recommendations are Canon. These newer models are much faster than the Olympus. They take cheaper SD cards. If you are a Canon SLR shooter, you would have a real easy time navigating the controls. Changing WB only takes a second.

 

Canon S80 in a Canon housing is a nice way to start. The S80 has a 28mm equivalent lens. There is no current way to add a wider lens to the Canon housing (Inon will probably make one). But you can also choose the $400 Ikelite housing. That housing allows the 67mm and Inon lenses. I would probably go for Inon AD mount and choose the newer wide angle made for 28mm lenses.

 

The Canon A620 is going to be a very popular choice. For now I would stay away from the Canon housing because of the port shape. Unless Inon announces an AD mount adapter, don't buy the Canon brand housing. Instead, look at the Ikelite ($400). It's go access to all controls and lets you choose AD mount or 67mm optics. As far as what I would do- house it in Ikelite and get the 67mm adapter. Also purchase a red Ikelite/UR pro filter and then the Inon 67mm wide lens. That way you could take wide angle photos without strobe, but also macro using the built-in flash.

[ce4jesus 1]

As an oly sp-350 owner, I've been happy with the camera's performance. Write time with a RAW photo can be slow (10 seconds) but that's to be expected with a point and shoot at 8 megapixel. The lens isn't as fast (2.8-8.0)as the earlier Oly 8080 and 7070WZ which is a true disappointment. Most everything else has been very managable including the imbedded menus which I found the most intuitive on the market. BTW, Oly doesn't always require the menu and you can program certain hot keys. People on here have gotten great results with the Canon 620s and S80s however, the s-80 does not have a RAW mode. I've also heard great things about the Fuji cameras, which after further review, seem to be better than both Canon or Oly in many departments. There are many articles on this thread dedicated to the ups and downs of all of these cameras. I suggest you do a search under each camera and read them. The largest problem I see with deciding on the newer cameras is they've not been field tested as of yet. However, if you're looking for sheer bang for your buck its hard to beat an 8 megapixel OLY with housing for under $500.

[MikeO 5]

Hi Bruce,

 

One thing to think about regardgin waiting until getting to Singapore to buy is that you then have no time at home to familiarize yourself with the gear -- that could be worth several dives of frustration right there. It used to be that you could only find some products overseas (INON, Oly housings, etc.) so it was necessary to purchase over there; but that is not really the case any more.

 

As for cameras -- for a while, the Olympus C5050z was the "gold standard" for point and shoots underwater. However that camera model is several years old now. Since then, my opinion is that Olympus made changes to their models that made them not quite as good for underwater use. If the new Sp series has broken that string then hooray for them. I'd look at the Fuji E900, the Canon A620, the Canon S70 or S80, and the Olympus SP-350. All meet the criteria of having manual control and being able to use an external strobe. The Fuji and the Olympus use xD cards exclusively. xD tops out at 1GB. Canons use SD, which is relatively inexpensive and goes up to 4GB. Fuji, Canon S70 and Oly do RAW, though write times may bew a little pokey. Also note the avilability of external lenses as mentioned above. the newer Canon housings have a non-circular port making external lens use iffy at best. Current favorite appears to be the Fuji E900 in an Ikelite housing (the Ikelite E900 housing is a good eal at less than $300). I'd recommend the INON D2000 to go along with that. You might try contacting one of the friendly neighborhood site sponsors (Reef Photo, Backscatter, MCD, etc.) as they may have more experience across the entire range of point and shoot cameras and will certainly know more about how the cameras react with external strobes and lenses than the guys at B&H.

 

Mike

[JackConnick 76]

I'd echo Mike on the Fuji E900/Ike housing setup. The Fuji has great imaging for macro and close up. The Ike housing with the macro AD lens gives great results. Note that there is a new series of xD cards coming out, the "H" series that should be 2x as fast.

 

Jack

[ce4jesus 1]

I finally "field tested" my Oly in some challenging viz.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?act=S...st=0#entry78123

[Drew 0]

The prices are probably cheaper online in the US. The packages they sell here may sometimes be a better deal but for the hassle of haggling with Singaporean sales people (it can get ugly!) and getting charged 3% for foreign currency plus getting to the shops. buy it online. Only if you cannot get the housing for the particular camera should you think of going to asia to buy, esp Canon which is very price controlled in Asia. Nikon and Fuji do better pricewise. You can get a D2X for around $4k cash around here.

I have the S70 and tried the S80. I'll have to respectfully disagree that the Canon 28mm PS is the way to go. The AF hunts a lot unless the modelling lights are on. The macro mode is not good at all and the images need to be sharpened alot in post (but they take to sharpening very well). Corner softness and chromatic aberration is common. Bleeding blues are also frequent in many of the shots. The S70 uses CF cards and does RAW, the S80 uses SD and no RAW. As for housings, the Canon housing is cheap and works. The Inon adaptor for the DC40 works quite well. The 165AD lens does help with the macro ability but it's pretty average. Seen some shots from the A620 and they are nice.

My suggestion is to go for the camera with the best AF and macro mode, which the Canon S series has neither.

[riccati 0]

Just a correction to Desert Eagle's post:

 

You cannot fit AD mount lenses to the Ikelite housing, only 67mm.

 

This is very annoying, since INON are also not making an adaptor for the canon housing. I already own a 105AD wide-angle lens, and like the look of the A-620, but it's impossible to combine them.

[Mark Rupert 0]

Around end of March we’ll have some new mount bases for following housings:

 

PT-029 AD Mount Base

PT-030 AD Mount Base

PT-031 AD Mount Base

WP-DC70/DC80 AD Mount Base

WP-DC1 28AD Mount Base

WP-FXF10 AD Mount Base

MPK-NA AD Mount Base

MPK-WA AD Mount Base

 

-Mark Rupert

Inon America, Inc.

[riccati 0]

But apparently not the WP-DC90, which houses the A-620.

[rodriguezfelix 0]

Inon have mount bases and Wet lenses for PT-023 ??

[MikeO 5]

Inon have mount bases and Wet lenses for PT-023 ??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No. Because the post opening on that housing is larger than the others, there are no wet-mount lenses that I know of. The Ikelite housing is the same way. However, both Olympus and Ikelite offer different port options so you can use Olympus's wideangle lenses on the camera inside the housing . . .