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View Full Version : replacing Oly4040, for mostly underwater use


rad
05-04-2005, 10:51 PM
Many thanks in advance to anyone who helps with this :)

Budget: up to $1000 (not including cost of underwater housing)

Size: Smaller ("compact") is good, due to additional mass of U/W housing.

Megapixels: Minimum 4. Prefer 6.

Optical zoom: 3x is enough

How important is “image quality” (using a scale of 1-10)

Maybe 5? Don't really understand how this can be judged independantly of other factors.

Manual controls: don't care

What will you generally use the camera for?

1) Action photos of the kids
2) Underwater on SCUBA vacations

Will you be making big prints: rarely

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos:

Yes, and underwater I never use flash

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?

Yes, fish and kids are very fast!

Are there particular brands you like or hate?

My Olympus 4040 was fine on land but the shutter delay was much too long underwater.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?

Nikon Coolpix 7900, 8800, and S1, Sea & Sea DX-3100, others...

Special features?

Yes, I like to shoot macro underwater - 5cm would be great, but I'd settle for 10cm.

Also I need the LCD to show me what I'm going to shoot - putting my face right up to the viewfinder is not possible in many underwater situations. That eliminates most DSLRs I guess.

Thanks again! :)

rad
05-07-2005, 01:27 AM
No replies here. I think that meant only that I asked the wrong audience. I didn't know there were other forums, full of underwater photographers! In case anyone else is looking for help deciding on a digital camera for scuba diving usage here are two sites/forums which look promising:

http://www.digitaldiver.net/yabbse/index.php

http://wetpixel.com/forums/