"Cheap" digital cameras for underwater.

[ReefTroll]

Hi all, looking at buying a cheap digital camera, and had my eye on the mju 8000. Olympus Australia | Digital Cameras | Digital SLR | Digital Lenses | xD Cards - Mju Tough 8000 details

Is it decent value for money? It will mainly be used for girls swimming lessons and in the ocean for close in photos, ie - rocky reef work so no great long or large oceanic photos.

Have a tight budget so if there are any "Spend a little bit more $$ and get a far better camera" suggestions please keep them somewhat affordable too!! but ANY opinions welcome, and am in NO rush to buy.

I'm basically sick of seeing so many amazing fish and not having a camera to share them with.

 

[cdavis]

check out the go pro HERO camera with case good to 100 ft. Ricki on Db has put up a bunch of videos with this camera. Search his threads. Its not the most fabulous pic quality, but very small size and seems to be durable, 5 megapix I think.

Connor

 

[ReefTroll]

Brilliant, thanks for that!

 

[ChetRoi]

Hey Mate--

What depth do you expect to be working? How far from the targets will you be when you shoot?

There are a number of cameras in the US$200-300 range. Excellent optics can be had at US$400. What's the budget?

And are the Brisee cats still running?

 

[DivingDane]

Intova SP8!

8mp
2m shock proof
10m waterproof
3x optical zoom
underwater functions

and best of all! it comes with a 40m housing as well. for only au$500. that would be my choice.... actually it was.

DD

 

[ReefTroll]

Not at any great depth, looking more to capture small reef fish about 8m max and up (just the areas I mostly go to see fish aren't that deep) and the budget will be about $400aud or thereabouts. And yes, lol.

 

[ChetRoi]

Checkout this link (discussion, photos, clips):
Review of the Panasonic Lumix TS1 - ScubaBoard

("Primus" has used several different UW P&S over a number of years).


I bought a TS-1 (outside US aka FT-1) recently. Very happy with it. Since they introduced the TS-2, the TS-1 is beaucoup cheaper. But I'll be upgrading soon to shoot at 33 ft and beyond.

 

[ricki]

Thanks Connor! Most of the videos I have processed came out of the older GoPro WIDE cameras. They are less clear than the newer HD cameras but still pretty good for about a 100 Euro camera including housing. Most of the videos marked with green arrows at the following link were shot with GoPro:

Something Rich And Strange ... Diving Tales From The Water Underworld - Page 2 - FKA Kiteboarding Forums

I have to catch up on processing a lot of dropoff, wreck and some cave video using the HD that I have in the can currently. For now there is this short shark feed teaser shot with five cameras, four GoPros including two HD's.

[ame=http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=8756]Video - Diving With Dozens Of Feeding Sharks - FKA Kiteboarding Forums[/ame]

The camera is a fisheye at 170 degree field of view but pretty flat. The HD is 5 megapixel with max resolution of 1180 p. The HD has almost a 2 1/2 hour burn time with a 32 G SD card and the housing is rated for 175 ft. I normally use an 8 G card for rough 1 hour shoots total. It goes for about 150 Euros or so. The HD is sharper than the WIDE UW but still is slightly out of focus. It needs a corrective diopter for water use. Despite that it is a pretty amazing camera. I usually carry two when I free dive, one on a chest mount and one in my hand.

 

[ReefTroll]

Thanks for the help guys, and Ricki, cheers for the PM's etc.
Now all I need is to get more than 1 spare dollar in the bank account!!!

 

[primozp]

ReefTroll, go for Panasonic DMC-FT2 (TS2)! FT1 is best ever P&S UW camera, but FT2 is even better (faster, better IS). FT1 is designed for 3 meters, but my camera works perfect even 8 meters deep http://images52.fotki.com/v638/photos/9/946657/7051291/P1030192-vi.jpg. I am sure that new FT2, designed for 10 meters, will work up to 15 meters deep.

I just returned from Thailand where I have only 3 hours to take some UW pictures and my FT1 did a perfect job. Check here:UnderWater album | Primoz | Fotki.com

 

[dirkslim]

Awesome pictures! Wow!

 

[DivingDane]

doesnt matter what brand, Never use the cameras without housing long term! even if they are designed for underwater. in cairns the boats have tried them ALL, Panasonic, olympus etc without housing and after say 50 hours underwater they are shot (excuse the punn)

make sure you use in the correct housing and the camera then has a reduntant safety so IF you do flood the housing you wont kill your camera.

Reeftroll depending on where you are in Brisbane there are quite a few shops that stock the intova now (Adreno, Allways dive, Evolution OCean Scuba etc) o pick which ever is closer or you already do bussiness with and check them out.

DD

 

[primozp]

in cairns the boats have tried them ALL, Panasonic, olympus etc without housing and after say 50 hours underwater they are shot (excuse the punn)
DD

My former Pentax cameras W10, W20, W30 and W60 (My underwater cameras album | Primoz | Fotki.com) spent underwater without any problems about 100 hours (each) and my Panasonic FT1 (TS1) even 115 hours (according to my D4 dive computer). All these cameras are still water tight and works perfect.

In June I am going to Mexico, where I will freediving with WhaleSharks. I will take my new (naked!) Panasonic FT2 (TS2) with me. Because I am using this small UW cameras for last 5 years without any problems I just got confidence in them.

But to be honest I should admit, that I do not have confidence to Olympus UW cameras. I tested 720 and 1030 and with both I have some problems with sealings, image quality was bad and movie quality catastrophic.

 

[Jon]

I've been pretty happy with my Panasonic TS1, but I always use it with the housing- even in the pool. The water proof features of the camera itself are for things like skiing and the water park. They also give me a bit of confidence in case the housing ever floods, but I wouldn't rely on that alone.

The other reason I always use the housing is because I use an INON wide angle wet lens and it needs the housing to mate with the camera. You can get away with pushing cameras past their depth rating, but no one will cover it if it floods. Actually, they won't cover it if it even if it floods shallow. :head I used to take my film cameras, rated to 50 meters, down to 70 meters all the time without an issue. The film advance might have been a little slow, but I never had a flooding issue deep- they always flooded when diving shallow. :blackeye

Jon

 

[Mr. X]

Was thinking about getting an inexpensive waterproof digital camera but having dived this weekend, I was reminded just how little we can actually see most of the time here (S. coast of England). But if you like milky white water or yellow-green Spring-bloom, then its the place to be.

 

[ashly122]

Ive been looking into getting a go pro, any ideas which one is best for spearing as there is the motorsport, surf etc and most come with underwater casing. Also how is best to rig them onto the gun?
Any help would be great
cheers
ash