Underwater camera + housing?
 

Another one for the scuba ppl that lurk in NSR. . .

I'm looking for a "cheap" (IE below £200) underwater camera + housing for some basic underwater photography.

I probabily won't go that deep with it - circa 10-15 meters.

Any suggestions?

No aversion to second hand kit.

There are many camera manufacturers selling waterproof housings for normal cameras. I tried this a couple of years ago, it was a disaster. It leaked and ruined a £250 camera.
Last year I bought a cheap (£80) underwater camera but the pictures were blurry.
For a camera within your budget, have a look at the Sealife Reefmaster mini SL320. (I'm looking at the DC800 for this year)
Its a very basic camera, but it looks much better than the one I had last year.
One tip I'll give you is, whatever camera you choose, make sure you get one with a decent flash or light, as you lose the colour red in only a few feet of water.

The sealife SL320 looks just good for the money.

Do you think that i'll need an external flash when not going too deep (5-10 meter)

Thanks

you start to lose red after a couple of metres. for anything other than macro you're likely to need an external strobe.

Look at Cameras Underwater: Digital Stills Camera Packages - they have quite a good range.

You start losing red below 12 feet I believe. At 5 to 10 metres, you'll definitely need and external flash/strobe. That would cover your budget in itself.

That's a good range of cameras on that site, but they're a bit expensive.
For example, the SL320 can be found up to £40 cheaper elsewhere.

I have a friend who is a pro underwater cameraman. He told me his camera kit is worth over £50K.

I've seen the DC800 for £270, I might stretch to that. The flash pods can wait another year :)

We used a canon ixus (950, i think) with the canon underwater housing down to 30m in egypt last year and it was fine, it even has a underwater mode for colour balancing.

I'll see if i can dig out some pics from somewhere

Here are some pics: http://www.bilar.co.uk/photos/diving/

Some of them are from the "canyon" at 30'ish meters, where-as others are more shallow.

The internal flash was used only. The scorpion fish and the red sea walk man are quite shallow (~3-4m from memory), and there's obviously more light there

thanks for those

When you get it, maybe you could help SS out on whether fish fart or not. Nothing like a bit of real evidence.

Les :D

they're definitely nonchalent about pooing 'on the fly'

Pretty sure they do :)

Otherwise they'd float if the can't fart - bit like dead fish.

So the swim bladder is just a gimmick then? :Suspiciou

shhhh