I currently use a 5MP point and shoot for freedive only photography.
a Nikon 5600 point and shoot. I will post pics soon, you may be impressed that they came from such a tiny little point and shoot, or that there is actually detail!! check them out, sure someof the shots SUCK, but others are fairly nice. link:
MySpace.com - www.myspace.com/s_mclaren
some Caveats;
The coolpix 5600 takes a second and a half to focus, sometimes longer, but I now use a focus light with a diffuser, which is a UK-4 c cell flashlight with a diffuser on one sea and sea arm with a ys-25 auto strobe on the other arm.
It also takes 12 seconds to cycle the flash for another strobe shot.
However it takes great macro images that can easily be shared online, and printed in high resolution on 8x5 paper. sure it focuses slow as a slug, that is why we hold our breath and fanatically increase breath hold right, for an excuse to be down longer!! what better excuse than a slow camera!!! or slow fish in front of a speargun. I am always going for that third and fourth shot at a minute Twenty before heading up with the 5600, I am sure I will get an extra shot with a P5000!!
my needs: (may completely differ from yours, especially if you are a bubble blower with a coke dispenser on your back, and a BCD bladder slung over your shoulders! I say bring the kichen sink with you diving if it makes you feel safe and sound, you are just going to look like a gear head! and swim like a fish that is hydro dynamically challenged)
back to my needs:
I wish to be able to enjoy Cropping macro images with high detail preserved!!!!
I would like as small a camera as possible for freediving due to streamlining which is the purpose of Deeper blue I believe, for free divers.(please correct me if I am miss understood and if there are more bubble blowers in here than breath holders)
A DSLR is WAY too large and too bulky unless it is in a streamlined Hugyfot housing, and at least a D200 or similar Cannon with high ISO sensitivity and a wide angle lens and iTTL strobe setup! (not in my price option, although I wish it were.)
A wide angle lens accessory is nice but not necessary.
iTTl flash metering is a great plus, but manageable without it.
as for resolution, consider this. I am going from a camera that is like looking at the world through a frosted shower door trying to interpret shadows, to a camera that looks at the world with a freshly cleaned window and seeing stems on the leaves of the trees outside.
10mp is better than 5mp correct? regardless of the image sensor size, it is an order of magnitude better resolution. sure we can argue image sensor size and optics, but that is still better than the human eye which equates to roughly 3000 light nerves (rods and cones) per square inch in the center of the image that is projected through the Retina.
if I wanted better images in a reasonable form factor, I wouldn't get a DSLR, I would get a Nikonos V as religiously used by the freediving Oceanic Dreams website, and forget the digital revolution all together, as the sensitivity and size of a silver atom is far superior to any digital camera to date!!! But digital is far too convenient in the editing department.
so, from a freedive only perspective, you might realistically look into a point and shoot option that has a reasonable resolution for cropping without losing detail.
A cannon G7, or a Nikon P5000 would just about be the limit of technology currently for those freedive specific requirements of size and streamlining.
of course if you start talking Video, then you just open a whole new box of Pandora's bad mamma jamma that I am not prepared to speculate on!
keep fishing and freediving, and stay away from 20ft Tiger sharks.
SMC freediving and spearfishing in the CNMI Islands for two more years!!!
