digital underwater camera's

[Jay045]

hey does anyone have a underwater camera that is not disposable, uses film with flash or digital with flash as well?

I love to snorkel and take shots but about 99% of pic dont turn out super i find, which i think is mostly due to poor lighting, or no flash...

does anyone have a camera like i have mentioned, how good of shots does it take compared to a disposable?

about how much $$$ did u pay, would even the flash reusable work well, what about price for one of those?

thanks 4 the help everyone

 

[Viking]

I got a Canon Ixus 330, which is called Powershot 330 in the USA, and a waterproof housing for it, which is certified for depths down to 100ft. It's a 2 Megapixel-job with a 3x optical zoom and the pictures come out surprisingly well.
I bought the housing (Brand new) on Ebay for €70/$90, and the camera (Used, but in mint condition) with a bag and a couple of memorycards for €140/$180. In the shop a state-of the art Powershot with 4 megapixel costs you about $250 and the housing will be the same.
IMHO 2 Megapixels are sufficient underwater, and the quality of the lens is more important than the number of pixels anyway. I used the camera in Thailand at depths of down to 90 ft and shot some nice pics, but have to admit that about 50% were blurred. As it is digital - who cares I got a 128MB card in it and for an average divetime of 45 minutes this is more than sufficient. The battery also last easily through a dive thet length, but before a second dive it is advisable to charge or replace it. I didn't do this once, and during the last portion of the second dive the battery was empty - just minutes before I saw a beautiful seahorse
I also have a Minolta Weathermatic APS camera which is certified down to 33ft, which uses APS film and has a 1.8x zoom, but since I own that Canon I haven't used it much. Digital is so much more comfortable.
As far as I know there are a couple of digicams available now, which are certified for snorkeling down to 10ft without need for an additional housing, I think it was Olympus and Panasonic.

 

[derdejoh]

I don't have any personal experience with underwater digital cameras, but I have seen on Canon's website that almost all of their digital cameras have an underwater casing available. So, it may be more an issue of figuring out which camera you really want and then just getting the casing to match.

 

[CPM]

when I went cave tubing in Belize I wanted an underwater digital dispaosable camera. I looked wverywhere! Couldn't find one
I worry about losing it underwater as much as the water part on some excursions, so the housing wouldn't work.
There has to be a disposable out there somewhere!

 

[felixdacat]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...856&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

B&H Photo is one of the best camera stores in the country. They seem to have several dedicated digital underwater cameras. I usually use www.dpreview.com to research photography products, but there isn't much information there.
Apparently, these cameras do exist but I have no idea of their value.

 

[HLester3]

Hi. I just bought the Pentax Optio WP camera it is a 5 mega pixal digital camera. It is suppose to be waterproof for 1/2 hour up to 1.5 meters. I have not had a chance to use it yet, but it is very small, about an inch thick.
I still haven't had time to go through the book and learn to use it, but I have taken some simple pictures with it. I guess I will be learning how to use it on the plane.

I purchased mine through Amazon.com around $300, they were the cheapest by around $70.

We will be on the cruise with you so we will probably run into each other.

 

[RDS912]

I sent you a PM on this.