Nikon P5000 and Fantasea housing with any substrobe and you have as compact as it gets for 10.1MP cameras! I think they have it just about figured out.
P5000 literature:
Nikon Imaging | COOLPIX P5000
Underwater housing: (only one available so far)
Fantasea Line - New Products
I have been waiting for this, but may hold out for more funds to go DSLR underwater (D80 or D200, remember NIKONOS started UW photography commercially), depends on several factors, but this P5000 option would be the path of least resistance.
I currently use a Nikon Coolpix 5600 in a Nikonos W3-CP3 housing, and a Sea & Sea YS-25 Auto strobe with Fiber Optic Synch, which can stop a ceiling fan crisply when the focus is good.
Major problem with all Point and Shoot cams, even P5000, and Canon's G7 is the Auto Focus takes longer than 2-3 seconds, and fish/children/birds/dogs/cats/beautiful women in bathingsuits with poor breath hold-(Im not complaining, just sometimes a fact), often dont stick around that long.
But Macro should be excellent! and above surface wideangle scenery should also be good, but is not anywhere close to a Full DSLR when it comes to resolving Chromatic Aberation, and Barreling/pincushion. the P5000 appears slightly less noisy at low light than Cannon's G7 because Nikon went for overall picture softness vs, clarity at the cost of noise. if you arent severely cropping low light images without strobe assist, this should be a negligible issue.
The only reason I am considering the P5000 is 10.1 MP for 380.00 and an underwater housing from Fantasea with an advertised Price : US$245.00
. so for close to 625+/- and you are underwater with a 10mp camera that will work with my current strobe setup and take care of most of my underwater image needs. any DSLR with 10 MP is going to run 3000.00+ with an underwater housing to take sub surface imagery, and needs a dedicated wideangle lense separate from a macro lense, plus a separate port for the different lense size.
Major Bummer is no TTL outlet on the P5000 case as far as is available in the Fantasea literature, unless they have omitted it foolishley. I cant upgrade to a TTL strobe and take advantage of better lighting, unless Fantasea designes otherwise, but at least the YS-25 Auto self adjusts for exposure fairly well even with the 5600 coolpix. I am also considering a second ys-25 synched with a second optic cable, and the P5000 case from Fantasea appears to have room on the flash housing, but anyone with an itchy shutter finger and a penchant for clarity and exposure will demand TTL strobe capacity. If they made a Dual TTL option of this housing, then it gets alot more attractive!!
if you insist on wideangle long distance images of large sealife, you really have no business with a camera of this size and capacity unless you are near the surface on a bright sunny day, because you need a better lense with a much improved focus length, and preferably, two TTL strobes for respectable deep water imagery.
I freedive, and appreciate a small setup, especially when diving below 40 ft to capture Christmass tree worms in Macro. I typically get three shots with flash before heading back up after 1.5 minutes. My hope is that the recharge rate for the flash on the P5000 is shorter, allowing more images per freedive.
The deepest I have been with my current setup is 61 feet, but I have spearfished to 75, unfortunately I need a red UW filter for anything deeper than 40ft without good sunlight. Usually I take images fairly shallow to maintain even lighting, and use the strobe to fill shadows.
what is your setup?? and why do you like it.
My main reason is Size. Smaller is better for freediving, or at least streamlined, I wouldnt complain if the housings were made streamlined, like Hugyfot. but what about a hydrodynamic specific DSLR housing shaped like a torpedo that has little drag for freedivers!!! If you are going to dream, dream big! I understand that Divers dont think much about Streamlining, unless you are as obsessed as a freediver, but they also would benefit from a streamlined camera housing.
also, call me crazy or fanatical, but I am currently working on mounting my Strobe tray to the underside of my gun butt, so that the camera can be held reverse style above the gun facing foreward in its own tray by screwing the strobe arm to the gun, while making it able to be moved out of the way to load the gun. I am going for short vid clips of spearfishing with the same camera using the TV Vid mode. some would call that sick, but I want images of the ones that get away, or I choose not to kill, preferably the latter. I prefer not to shoot a species the first time I encounter them whatever they are. Additionally the first fish I see in the morning lives on thanks to me also, it is a Karma concept that I have worked out with myself.
anyway, good luck with your camera dilemmas, we have much in common here. I will throw up a few sample shots from the 5600 Coolpix that I have managed with the Sub strobe.
P5000 literature:
Nikon Imaging | COOLPIX P5000
Underwater housing: (only one available so far)
Fantasea Line - New Products
I have been waiting for this, but may hold out for more funds to go DSLR underwater (D80 or D200, remember NIKONOS started UW photography commercially), depends on several factors, but this P5000 option would be the path of least resistance.
I currently use a Nikon Coolpix 5600 in a Nikonos W3-CP3 housing, and a Sea & Sea YS-25 Auto strobe with Fiber Optic Synch, which can stop a ceiling fan crisply when the focus is good.
Major problem with all Point and Shoot cams, even P5000, and Canon's G7 is the Auto Focus takes longer than 2-3 seconds, and fish/children/birds/dogs/cats/beautiful women in bathingsuits with poor breath hold-(Im not complaining, just sometimes a fact), often dont stick around that long.
But Macro should be excellent! and above surface wideangle scenery should also be good, but is not anywhere close to a Full DSLR when it comes to resolving Chromatic Aberation, and Barreling/pincushion. the P5000 appears slightly less noisy at low light than Cannon's G7 because Nikon went for overall picture softness vs, clarity at the cost of noise. if you arent severely cropping low light images without strobe assist, this should be a negligible issue.
The only reason I am considering the P5000 is 10.1 MP for 380.00 and an underwater housing from Fantasea with an advertised Price : US$245.00
. so for close to 625+/- and you are underwater with a 10mp camera that will work with my current strobe setup and take care of most of my underwater image needs. any DSLR with 10 MP is going to run 3000.00+ with an underwater housing to take sub surface imagery, and needs a dedicated wideangle lense separate from a macro lense, plus a separate port for the different lense size.
Major Bummer is no TTL outlet on the P5000 case as far as is available in the Fantasea literature, unless they have omitted it foolishley. I cant upgrade to a TTL strobe and take advantage of better lighting, unless Fantasea designes otherwise, but at least the YS-25 Auto self adjusts for exposure fairly well even with the 5600 coolpix. I am also considering a second ys-25 synched with a second optic cable, and the P5000 case from Fantasea appears to have room on the flash housing, but anyone with an itchy shutter finger and a penchant for clarity and exposure will demand TTL strobe capacity. If they made a Dual TTL option of this housing, then it gets alot more attractive!!
if you insist on wideangle long distance images of large sealife, you really have no business with a camera of this size and capacity unless you are near the surface on a bright sunny day, because you need a better lense with a much improved focus length, and preferably, two TTL strobes for respectable deep water imagery.
I freedive, and appreciate a small setup, especially when diving below 40 ft to capture Christmass tree worms in Macro. I typically get three shots with flash before heading back up after 1.5 minutes. My hope is that the recharge rate for the flash on the P5000 is shorter, allowing more images per freedive.
The deepest I have been with my current setup is 61 feet, but I have spearfished to 75, unfortunately I need a red UW filter for anything deeper than 40ft without good sunlight. Usually I take images fairly shallow to maintain even lighting, and use the strobe to fill shadows.
what is your setup?? and why do you like it.
My main reason is Size. Smaller is better for freediving, or at least streamlined, I wouldnt complain if the housings were made streamlined, like Hugyfot. but what about a hydrodynamic specific DSLR housing shaped like a torpedo that has little drag for freedivers!!! If you are going to dream, dream big! I understand that Divers dont think much about Streamlining, unless you are as obsessed as a freediver, but they also would benefit from a streamlined camera housing.
also, call me crazy or fanatical, but I am currently working on mounting my Strobe tray to the underside of my gun butt, so that the camera can be held reverse style above the gun facing foreward in its own tray by screwing the strobe arm to the gun, while making it able to be moved out of the way to load the gun. I am going for short vid clips of spearfishing with the same camera using the TV Vid mode. some would call that sick, but I want images of the ones that get away, or I choose not to kill, preferably the latter. I prefer not to shoot a species the first time I encounter them whatever they are. Additionally the first fish I see in the morning lives on thanks to me also, it is a Karma concept that I have worked out with myself.
anyway, good luck with your camera dilemmas, we have much in common here. I will throw up a few sample shots from the 5600 Coolpix that I have managed with the Sub strobe.
I've thought of getting another compact for UW photography, but I'm saving for a housing for my DSLR and it's 7-14 mm wide angle lens. 
