what digital camera are you useing?

[JacobsonC2]

I am thinking of upgrading my digital camera. Right now i have a Sealife DC250, 2.5mp and no strobe. It takes okay pics in the shallows but, is pretty much worthless deeper than 40ft or so.

I want a camera that can be used on land and all so have a housing?strobes. So, what digital cameras does everyone use. I have seen some awsome pics posted on this board and wanna know what you guys are useing and what you would recommend. All my diving will be in fresh water and within rec limits ( for now  ), no chance of any salt water getaways anytime soon. 

[dfreeman]

Often the question comes up what kind of camera do you use.  Check out the "What Do You Carry " thread below for a number of good examples of rigs.



This is what I have been using.

I use a Sony DCS-F707 Digital Camera in an Amphibico Surveyor 707 housing  I use a warming filter in daylight.  I use a UK Light Cannon mounted on the housing with a Ultralight Control Systems arm for night  applications.  I got the camera and housing as a package from Armato's.  Check it out.









With Sony no longer making the DSC-707 or 717 this camera and housing rig is now obsolete.  Ikelite housings and the rigs listed in the thread are good examples.  I am not sure which way I would go on a high end aluminium housing.


Doug

[fishchaser]

I'm at the novice end of the underwater photo spectrum.  I have an old Canon A20, 2MP, 3x optical lens that I've been using for years.  I found out that Canon makes underwater housings for most of their digital cameras.  Even though my A20 has been long since discontinued, I found a new housing on eBay for $100.  Canon's new housings are a reasonable $160-ish.

I have yet to take any pictures locally, but you can see the results of my first underwater photos in this thread towards the bottom: 
I figured out that I needed the flash on for better color, and had to get really close.

The bottom line:  Not bad pictures for $100 more than I already had invested for surface photos.    How would this setup fare locally?  Probably not as good as in the clearer reef waters.  Also, unless you plan on selling or having your photos published in magazines, I'll strongly disagree with anyone that you need more than 2 megapixels.  I'm quite happy with my 8x10's, and 4x6's are awesome.

[FreediveWI]

Olympus 5050-Z with a PTO-1 housing and, the most important thing for any underwater camera, an Inon Wide angle lens with the Domeport attachment.

I can set the ASA to 400 and then custom set the White Balance at depth to get decent pics without a strobe. I used to use dual strobes with my film cameras, but those are too much of a pain to drag down to depth, and back, when freediving. This set up allows me to move through the water with much less effort.

No matter what camera you get make sure to get some kind of wide angle lens for it if your shooting shiopwrecks.

Jon

[divbum]

I use the Sony PC-330 video camera.  The mini DV format is a small package with good digtial capture results.  You can take stills and video on the fly, or grab stills off the video later ( at a lower res).  It is in a Gates housings, twin 24 watt Halcyon HID lights, and as Jon mentioned a good wide angle lense.  I use a filter for green water it is magenta..ish.
Good luck.  Also Reef master is putting out a new lower cost digtal soon which I have sen guys get really nice results with up to 250'.

[Carvendive]

Ike Twin DS-125's both with manual controllers, Oly C5050z, Oly PT-015 housing, Ike twin tray with twin arms, ULCS three-way with Light Cannon mount, Pelican case.

Love it just the way it is!  (Well, I might go with longer arms for the strobes once I move back to Wisc.)