underwater cameras ?

[luked]

hi guys,
i was just wondering if anyone out there can recommend a good quality still camera and housing ?
Im willing to pay around $1500- $1600 aus for both camera and housing.
at the moment i have an olympus c-5060 and housing, both are about 4 yrs old. its a 5 meg pixel cam and im looking to upgrade.
i want to use the camera for wide angle shots as well as some macro.
thanks in advance
luke d

[sciencemike]

May I ask why would you want to upgrade that camera?

That camera has full controls, Shoots in Raw format, and the case seems to accept both wide angle and macro lenses.

You might be better off buying 2 stackable macro lenses, a fish eye and an ikelite strobe/base + arm. Which should be about 1300 dollars. All of which should be able to be used on most point and shoot systems if you upgrade again.

Sorry for the external link.
Check around wetpixel.com for the most current updated info on good info in underwater photography.

And if you consider selling your current camera and case for cheap please pm me i might be interested.

[Jon]

I imagine the shutter lag is starting to get pretty annoying with that camera and the video features are pretty dated by now.

I was looking into the Nikon P5100 and the Canon G9. Need to sell off some more gear to finance it so haven't pulled the trigger on buying one of them yet.

Jon

[omega3]

Should get a good un for that price range!
I have a few years 7 mpixel Canon and housing good for 40m for half that price which does for me, so I am guessing you are serious?

[luked]

thx for the replys guys
yea the video and the lag are a big problem , plus the camera seems to have a mind of its own, sometimes turning off by itself
i will check out that site thx

[apnea queen]

may I suggest the new Olynpus 1030 it is waterproof to 33ft w/o a housing and 130 ft with the housing it also does video and has wide and macro lenses avail go to getolympus.com let me know what you think nice and compact camera $350 housing $200 -290 surfers are eating it upsee ya DeeDee

[luked]

thx dee dee i will check it out

[Jon]

I looked into the olympus after the post and there's a couple of bugs. First, you need the firmware up grade and a the newer XD cards to do more than 10seconds of video at 640x480 30fps. You're also limited to XD cards only.

The 33' limit isn't too bad if your just using it for spearo photos, which is why I looked into it, but I have heard that they had some leakage issues with earlier models.

On the plus side, they do have special under water photo and video modes. I think that the underwater video mode is the same as the topside mode without sound.

I just sold off enough surplus stuff that I'm ready to get my new camera. I was really looking at the Canon G9, but since you can't use an external wide angle lens on the OEM housing I decided against it. There are three other housing out there for it that will allow you use to an external lens, but I never liked the bulk of Ikelite housings and I'm unwilling to spend over a $1,000 for a Patima housing.

So, after looking at what's out there, and through more than a few photo websites, I think that I've decided on the Nikon Coolpix P5100 in a Fantasea housing with a wide angle lens. It doesn't have the RAw mode of the G9, which I don't really care about, and it does allow the use of extrernal lenses- which I care very much about.

Jon

[apnea queen]

There is a housing avail for the olympus which will take it to 131 ft so that's an option DeeDee

[Jon]

I just read that Nikon is coming out with a new one next month- the Coolpix P6000.

They designed it to compete with the G9 and it has 13.5 megapixels. Rumored to cost around $400 with RAW and expanded movie modes.

I might just hold off buying anything for a few more weeks to see what it looks like.

Jon

[Jon]

After going to, yet another, camera shop i decided to go in a different direction that the G9 or the P5100. I ended up ordering, and hope to get by next weekend, the Panasonic Luminx DMC- TZ5: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

The lens is made by Leica, but at half the cost of the Leica camera it was made for. IT has all of the video featuers of the G9- plus, an HD video featuer that I'm anxious to try out. It also has a 28mm lens, like the G9, which was really amazing once I tried it next ot the P5100. According to BH photo you can even add on a wet wide angle lens without jumping up to a super expensive housing- which was the major drawback of the G9.

It doesn't have RAW or 12 megapixels, but the senssor is larger to make more out of the 9.1 megapixels it does have.

Looking forward to using it next month when i get back up to some clear lakes along th Michigan border.

Jon

[luked]

that sounds like an awsum camera.
i might check it out.
ive been looking in some scuba mags and alot of the photos seem to be taken with the nikon g9. not sure of the pricing will have to check it out
i have a lumix 6megpix camera with the leica lense and it takes great shots on terrafirma i got it for free when i bought my motorbike , about 1 yr ago, i never thought to check to see if they made a housing for it , i might check

[belizesanpedro]

ok I will post thanks