Perfect Timing. I actually am taking a cruise in June and was looking for a Underwater camera myself as a compliment to my DSLR. I did take a look at some UW cameras that I wanted to buy. I did a lot of research on these cameras before I actually purchased one. The one I settled on was a Panasonic DMC-TS3
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/752103-REG/Panasonic_DMC_TS3S_DMC_TS3_Digital_Camera_Silver.html
I have currently a Panasonic LX3 as my P&S of choice so I was pretty comfortable with getting another Panasonic. I got the camera in a couple of weeks ago and had a chance to play with it. The controls seem pretty intuitive and I think that the menus also seem easy to navigate. As far as the picture quality I think this camera will do just fine. They are not as sharp as my LX3 but I was not expecting that. The TS3 only takes in JPG (LX3 - Raw) so I new going in that the picture quality would not match. It is good though so don't worry about compromising on quality. It is slightly on the soft side but not noticeable enough to be annoying (and I annoy easy,
). There are a lot of preset modes that help in different lighting situations so I am happy about that. So far I have given it to my wife and she seems to like it has not said anything bad yet. I do like the fact that there is a dedicated button for movie recording. This will come in handy when taking it underwater. Low light is acceptable for this camera. I have taken a few and for the most part they turned out acceptable. Any grain that I do see I am able to edit out using Lightroom 3. (or Photoshop). So far I am pretty happy with it. I will be keeping it for our trip and what I have seen so far, I like. And I can be pretty picky on Quality when it comes to my shots.
Now I have not tested this underwater yet because we have not had the chance. I have seen many videos online (You tube has a lot under the TS2 version of this camera). I figured that since this was the next model up then it should be better. I am not worried about the quality going down though underwater.
Whatever you get I would suggest an extra battery and a large memory card. One thing you don't want to worry about is trying to swap a card on the beach when sand or water could get in the seals and cause issues.
Two more things this camera does come with a GPS feature that can be turned off if you want. I have tried it and it seems to work really well. Not sure on the battery life with the GPS but we will see. I thought this was a nice feature even though I think it added to the price of the camera. But for me I thought it is going to be kind of cool to see the locations on the cruise that we were. Especially when we are out to sea all day. I usually don't install the software that comes with cameras but wanted to try this one out. I kind of like this software. It allows for basic editing and does some nice editing for the videos as well. It also does the stitching for the built in camera panoramic mode. All done within the software. I use Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 but this does have its uses and I might experiment a little more with it.
Hope you have fun I know we are all looking forward to ours.
