Good Little Digital Cameras

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Fondueset

Looks like the upgrade will probably be another casio - the exz600. I've been pretty happy with the ones I've used - particularly in low light.
...
I originally went with the casio because of the pentax lens and reputed good low-light.

Good point -- you already have some great shots in your gallery! BTW I saw an ad for, I think, Panasonic cameras yesterday which are using Leica lens now (the Queen uses a Leica compact).

[unirdna]

K, Folks. Here's a crude example of the video capabilities of the Canon S80. This video was compressed from its original 130mb size, so it lost a bit of detail and picked up a bit of crap. But, you get the idea. Note that Jon's snorkle shows the orange cap, despite being 50ft down in dark water. Cool. The camera should perform much better, with much less noise in the clear waters of Cayman .

Ted

https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/bier/Exa...mv?uniq=jql5tp

[Fondueset]

I've got an s80 on the way - here's three I took yesterday with my Casio - I have about 100 pictures of this school of trout fingerlings. I'm hoping the S80 will be a little quicker - and better in all other ways too These guys were in about 15 feet of water - I was a little light and had to work one-handed and grab rocks for some of the shots. Visibility was at least 80 feet.

The S80 for sure blow the casio away for video 320x240 is the best it does - 15fps.

[unirdna]

Great shots! Do you know if those trout derived from natural reproduction or were they stocked? Just wondering .

[Fondueset]

Don't know - I assumed they were 'natural' - but who knows! It is not a place where they would drop them in however. Particularly now - with steelhead and browns running.

[Jon]

Here's some stills from last weekends dive hat Ted and I did.

All my shots were taken with my 5050.

Jon

[Fondueset]

That olympus does a nice job! Got the S80 last week - housing this week. Haven't had it in the water yet (this weekend) but the housing is definitely a cut above what I'm used to. It has a shade for the lcd screen - a huge plus - all controls are useable - including the non-menu driven dial and zoom toggle and the little cluster of five buttons - which on the casio housing is problematic with heavy gloves - is staggered so the buttons have different heights. Big improvement - no more accidentally turning on the flash or menu when I want macro - etc. etc. I also like the button access for burst mode. At 8.0 mp with a larger sensor I'm looking forward to seeing the quality of the images.

Only advantages for the casio are - smaller size - you can easily hang it off your wrist while spearfishing - sometimes I even cram it into my omer weight vest - and possibly faster focus. And price of course. They are very good for the money.

[Fondueset]

Finally had a chance to try out the S80 - couple shots below - conclusion so far - Much better image quality - faster image capture - slower focus that the Casio exz57 I've been using. - crap - file uploads aren't working - the three at the bottom of my site are with the s80

[Murat]

how long can you record video with 4gb card at different resolution settings? which one runs out first, memory card or batteries?

do you advise this camera for underwater use? i read that there are some problems with canon s80. may be ixus 800 is a more reliable choice...

[tylerz]

Hey Unirdna/Ted,

I got the Canon S80 at christmas too. My Ikelite housing is arriving next week, and I intend to get the wide angle lens that Epoque makes.

Where did you get the 4GB high speed SD cards, and how much?

Cheers,

Tyler

[Fondueset]

I think it only goes to one gig at 640x480x30 - haven't heard of the problems - on second thought - I don't see a limit in the specs. SD700 looks nice though. I don't have enough experience yet to recommend it - but it does seem superior to my casio exz57 - other than being a bit slower to focus. The sd700 does have a slower continuous time - and a smaller ccd.

[unirdna]

Questions Answered:

4GB card holds:

1024 x 768 pixels (15 frames/sec.) - 37min
640 x 480 pixels (30 frames/sec.) - 37min
640 x 480 pixels (15 frames/sec.) - 72 min
320 x 240 pixels (30 frames/sec.) - 150 min
320 x 240 pixels (15 frames/sec.) - 300+ min
160 x 120 pixels (15 frames/sec.) - butt load of min

As fondu noted, the vids are limited to 1gb....so about 9 minute clips (in case you are going for the static record).

I got my 4gb cards off eBay for $150 each. Seller doesn't have any more. But, places like amazon and ecost frequently carry the card for about the same price. Amazon.com: Transcend High-Speed Secure Digital...
Battery lasts for hundreds of photos (depends on how much you use flash and the LCD). If I'm shooting video only, the card will be filled up long before the battery drains (no flash). Ballpark would be to say 2-5 hours of battery life. For extra batteries you HAVE GOT TO GO TO EBAY. 95% cheaper than retail. I have two extras. This applies to ALL digital cameras that take Lithium battery packs.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...2lh&category0=

There may be better suited cameras out there for different types of enthusiasts, but the S80 fits my needs perfectly. Underwater video cameras cost thousands and are bulky. The S80 has damn good video for a digital camera and the bill was well under $1000 even after adding all the bells and whistles.

[Fondueset]

My son has been wacking out the settings on my monitor - so I've had some image processing problems - but the last three on my site are with the s80 - I'm very happy with the quality. It was the poorest visibility I've seen since last summer - only 50 feet or so

[dwwestesq]

Looking at Pentax Optio WP or the Olympus Stylus 720 SW and their respective underwater housings. Would be purchasing a second memory? card (largest and fastest) and battery (largest).

Other candidates must be waterproof cameras plus available manufacturer (cheaper) waterproof housings for diving.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[Sergiu]

Great thread, i wish i bumped into it last year when i had to do my own research... I ended up with a Nikon Coolpix S1, very small and versatile, lots of presets for pictures and three types of video quality, unlimited time. Below is a video example by very low rez to allow easy download, the larger version (70Mb) is good for TV viewing. I would certainly recommend this camera due to its size and features, unless you made up your mind already.

Finally, i would like to add the importance of the memory format. I, for one, would definitely favour SD or CF formats as they are widely available at much more reasonable prices than brand specific formats such as the ones for Olympus or Sony.

and one more thing, you probably know that underwater to get the colours out below 3-5m (unless in the Dean's Blue Hole, with a viz of 50m+ on a sunnyt day!) there is not much colour - an external flash may help a lot. In the last Diver mag issue i saw a Fuji camera with housing and an esternal strobe, small size all for a price of about 600-700 bucks if i remember well. This way you may not need to sell nor morgage any of the kids

serge

http://www.aida-hungary.hu/eng/level...d=21&pr_id=110