I'm looking for current feedback from people who have used or are using underwater P&S cameras that shoot good video. I'm seriously looking at the Olympus line but hate the xD card format. The purpose will be for a Hawaii trip to video underwater encounters with Manta Rays and other aquatic life as well as capturing family water fun. No professional purposes for this trip, just family fun. I'm of course bringing SOME serious photo gear for general photography and HD video on dry land, but do not want to invest in marine housings for one-time use. Thanks for any feedback/examples that the FM community can provide.
the canon d10 seems to be the current state of the art. i have been perplexed by the lack of good underwater digital cameras. why hasn't nikon restarted the nikonos line for example....but for now the best reviews seem to be for the canon. you can always get a p&s from canon that has a dedicated underwater case as well. there are quite a few models where canon also offers the case.
Pentax Optio's current W-40 is a good one. I have gone though them since the W-20. Not their fault mine and upgrading.
None of the underwater P&S take 'good' video underwater. My best advice is to disable the microphone, the bubbles sound crazy.
I used mine for a trip to Belize last february and was very impressed with the photo's and video it took underwater. Adjust the color to suit the water color or you will spend hours in PP.
The one big advantage the Olympus has over the Pentax is in sports mode, the Pentax lacks a large buffer so you will get 3-4 rapid shots then a 3 second pause. the olympus is continuous.
Have fun in Hawaii
If you want an all in 1 option then the D10 looks the best bet as it goes pretty deep so you wont have any doubts about it unless doing 'proper' diving.
My Dad got a P&S a few years back along with a case for diving (holiday dives) and as long as you look after the case and keep the 'O' ring in good condition (and replaced if any doubts with it) then it really is the best option.
You can get a G11 or G10 and a dedicated underwater case which should give great results.
As for Nikon and the Nikonos line , yes that is a real surprise as I would have thought that with digital allowing extended almost limitless (battery/memory limits) that a dedicated undewater DSLR would be quite popular. but then maybe a dedicated waterproof DSLR would cost about the same as a Cam and housing and, and at least with a housing you have a uasable camera as well
I've used the Olympus waterproof P&S and was quite unhappy. The IQ is squarely in the "junk" category. I wasn't comparing it with DSLRs, but with Canon's small PowerShots.
Thank you kindly for the feedback. I was looking at the D10 because of its depth rating but the video is not close enough to HD and the image quality is, sadly, truly lacking for the price, IMHO. I may just end up getting a housing for my HF100 and forget about stills underwater altogether.
The more I think about it, the more I realize I'll need to have external strobes to do good stills underwater anyway and this will be a vacation rather than a photo-video-centric trip. The reason I want HD video (1080i/p or 720p) is because I'm already set up for HD editing (even editing awful AVCHD directly) and having original HD material helps with video quality headroom when I downsample for ubiquitous family-DVD playback devices.
Pentax waterproof cameras look really good but their depth ratings are slim; what I want to be able to do is do some video (and some stills) at the surface level and then dive down without having to go shipboard and stow the camera. More feedback is welcome. Thanks again!
I'm waiting for the second iteration of Canon's D10. Looking at Canon's product cycles, it should be at least announced this winter -- and I won't be doing much in-the-water stuff till the spring, anyway...
If this is for snorkeling I doubt that you'll need nor want stobes. The bigger the camera set up the more difficult it will be to control & operate while swimming below the surface. If you need 2 hands to control it you're going to burn up the air in your lungs rather quickly kicking so hard to get down & stay down.
If you're an experienced snorkeler & are serious about getting down to shoot properly (from the sides of the fish rather than from above) a weight belt can be a handy addition, but don't get yourself so heavy that you won't float still. I shoot a G9 with dual strobes which is not too bad to control until there's a strong current & I need both hands to control myself.
Thanks, Cicopo. A whole new world of photography to explore. I was just looking for a quick "fix" for a vacation situation and am now fascinated by the underwater scene. Very cool stuff on these sites with great alternative insights.
There is a huge difference between land based photography & underwater photography. The deeper you go the less light you have, plus by 80 feet all color is gone too. Add to that the bulk of your housing & strobes, and limited view of the viewfinder because you have a mask on (you can buy viewfinder aids but they add to the package cost) and finally the big difference, no way to plant your feet into the perfect stance to reduce camera shake. Underwater photography in general is a macro based game because of all the silt in the water which can ruin an otherwise good scene so close ups reduce the effect, and increase the lighting of the strobe(s) used because that light doesn't go very far in the underwater world.
The real challenge however is buoyancy, because you can't frame & focus while floating as easily as you can while standing or kneeling. Wave surge, currents, and any other thing that can move you will because you can't use your hands while using your camera. Trying to plant yourself on the bottom normally disturbs the silt & sand so that's a bad idea, and if it's coral it's a very bad idea since coral is a living thing. It takes a lot of practice plus a good understanding of the limitations one faces before jumping in with both feet because good underwater gear is very expensive vs land based gear.
Now I know that your particular use sounds like a snorkeling situation which reduces the need for strobes (the water in Hawaii is relatively clear in most areas) so you should have plenty of light, but you really need to swim down to get the best photos. Fish don't look very pretty from above when compared to a side view. This of course adds to the work load because without a tank of air you have limited time to get the shot, and need to kick most of that time.
One more consideration you may want to know about is that it's best to have your camera (and strobes) very close to a neutral buoyancy, which means that it just barely floats. You don't want it to sink, nor pull you back to the surface. This can be done with weights sold to match the housing used, or a home made system. The small waterproof cameras won't need this done but housings do. Also add a lanyard so that it's attached to you. You'd be surprised to hear just how many cameras are lost by divers.
These were shot while snorkeling in Cozumel, in about 15 feet of water under ideal conditions, and were my first use of my G9, which replaced an S1 IS used on previous trips. I've only been to Kauai but in general I'd rate the visibility in Cozumel as way better than what I had in Kauai.
If you look at the nice white areas of the ocean floor that's not sand it's silt & any fin kicking would have made the scene look like a snowstorm when photographed. Strobes amplify that problem big time, unless they are well away from the lens.
I don't really agree. Underwater, you have to get close, and those sample photos are apparently taken from much too far away.
For serious snorkeling, weights are essential to manage buoyancy. However, I would not necessarily recommend them, except to experienced snorkelers in good shape, because they make it much more dangerous.
For the manta rays, lights are essential. I would recommend buying or renting a pair of good lights (dive lights starting at ~$150 are good quality and useful even in daylight, good video lights I am sure are more expensive). This will attract the mantas to you (and away from everybody else ), ensuring close encounters. Stay away from the mantas, so many these days have been scraped by overzealous or incompetent snorkelers or divers. The scrapes get infected by bacteria, and as a result you see lots of red stripes along the manta's bottom sides. To me, this injury is reminiscent of the bent dorsal fins of captive orcas.
The first photo is from about 6 feet & the second one about 4 feet. The first one was one of a few shot when it unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere, and rather than spook it I kept a bit of distance plus alerted other snorkelers of it's presence. This was within the roped off swimming area at the resort & it was early on our first day day there. As I said conditions were near perfect because the ocean was just about flat all of that week so the bottom wasn't being disturbed. It is also part of a National Marine Park and I follow the rules about protecting / intimidating etc as I go there to dive on a regular basis.
Re wearing weights while snorkeling I also agree that only experienced snorkels should even consider doing it, because there is a danger of being too heavy. However for those who know what they are doing it's a big help when diving down to shoot since you don't need to work so hard to stay down.
louis fusco wrote:
if your not going to bring decent lighting then shooting anything below 3 meters it is really pointless to shoot HD.
Most consumer underwater P&S cameras are only rated to go under about 3 meters, so that shouldn't be a problem. When I was on Maui, i took a disposable underwater camera with me, and it took pretty good pictures. Lack of flash was not an issue, since the camera and I stayed pretty close to the surface.
), ensuring close encounters. Stay away from the mantas, so many these days have been scraped by overzealous or incompetent snorkelers or divers. The scrapes get infected by bacteria, and as a result you see lots of red stripes along the manta's bottom sides. To me, this injury is reminiscent of the bent dorsal fins of captive orcas.