Suggestions on the best digital camera to buy without the use of an external strobe flash? I know most folks use an external setup, but I would prefer not to.. suggestions? TIA, Lydia

Lydia, that's a really tough question and very subjective. At the present time, I feel the Canon's and the Fuji's get you the most bang for the buck. Olympus's are nice but expensive. The Sony's do not work well UW and the Pentix's are to new UW. All the others do not have UW housings.

For the Canon's, looks like the A520 is a good choice with the WP-DC60 UW housing. Of course the the A95 is still a good bet. For the Fuji's the F10 Zoom looks nice with the F10 UW housing.

These cameras should run around $300 with the UW housing around $200. Good luck.

I have the sony DSC P1 and housing and am very impressed with its low lux performance. I have a lot of great pictures from that camera as long as you're close to the subject.(Then get closer). I also have the Oly 5050 and Ike 125. It's big and bulky and heavy and takes great pics. The trade off is simple. Go with the big camera outfit and take 600 pictures and hope they come out or do the point and shoot and take a few pic's. I remember having all of my travel gear in one bag and enjoying the reef. Now I need three bags to carry all of my toys. I'm tempted on every trip to leave all the toys at home and just enjoy diving. It's not like I get paid for any pic's! Good luck and happy diving!

Cecil and Bruce,

My reply post seems to have gotten lost, so I will try again. thanks for the suggestions/tips. Follow up questions are...

Cecil.. what camera did you use to shoot the pictures you recently posted? I assume you did NOT use an external strobe flash or did I get that incorrect?

Bruce... I looked for the Sony you mentioned both on the sony.com site and cnet and can not find it. Suggestions..

Also, I know what you mean about taking less, currently we can actually get ALL dive gear in one carry on per person. Of course, I have to bring another bag for clothes, toys, favorite munchies etc. But the bear essentials are packed in one 30 pound carry on board rolling case. Pretty nifty. Lydia

Lydia, I have the model that came out after Bruces, the DSC-P5 and internal flash. If you choose the Sony, you want a DSC-P150. It is the newest that has an UW case. The newer DSC-P200 does not have an UW case (with the exception of a $300 case from Ikelite).

The DSC-P150 is a 7 megapixel camera that is very small. It is not presently in production but there are plenty of places still selling it new. Same deal on the UW case (MPK-PHA or MPK-PHB).

These little cameras do not take up much space. I keep the camera in a pant's pocket most of the time. UW it fits in a BCD pocket or under a strap. The only other things you will need are the cables and some extra memory cards.

I have the Sony T-33 with underwater housing and a 2 gig memory stick. It fits 25 minutes of movie, 800 5 meg pictures, or a combination of both. I have been very impressed with the pictures, eventhough I do not use an external strobe. Pictures are better when closer to the subject.

The UW housing even have a flash scatterer so that the camera flashes around the subject of the picture rather than right at it. Prevents back-scatter.

Camera is extremely small and light. Will fit into a shirt pocket almost unnoticeably. With underwater housing, the camera will fit into a larger BC pocket.

Keith,

Thanks for the info, great that it can take both stills and movies. Also, that you are pleased with the quality without the exernal stobe flash.

Two follow up questions:
1. Where did you get it?
2. Did you also consider the Nikon Coolpix S1, which seems to this newbie v. similar in terms of size, price and features.

TIA, Lydia

Lydia:

I purchased the camera from Sony.com. I did not consider any other brands at the time because I had a previously Sony and have been generally pleased with Sony products.
Let me know if you need anything else.

Lydia, the T33 looks to be a better camera but is slightly more expensive. Here's a side-by-side comparasion. DPreview.

Where to buy is tough, on-line is the cheapest but you risk be hassled by salesman. My suggestion would be a large on-line seller such as B&H or Amazon.

Cecil, Keith and Bruce,

The joys of being home sick with a cold allows for maximum internet cruising between napping. I think I have it down to the sony dsc t33 or the nikon coolpix s1, both look like they similar in size and features and pricing. And found b and h and j and r etc.

The Sony uses a sandisk memory stick that is called a pro duo, that looks like it is smaller in size, physically than the regular memory chips/sticks. of which I also own several. Does anyone know for sure?

Cecil,

GREAT web link, thanks, big time. Lydia

Lydia:

The Sony memory disk for the T-33 is extremely small (about three quarters of an inch by half an inch). I highly recommend that you buy the 2 gig stick. You probably don't need the high speed 2 gig (which costs $300.00 more). The 2 gig might cost a lot ($199.00 or so), but you'll thank me later when you understand ow many photos and videos you can fit on the thing. I can go on week long dive trips using the one memory stick, without having to clear it once.

Keith,

I see what you are getting at. I am trying to make use of some of my existing toys and accesories and was thinking that as I have a 1 gig sandisk memory stick in a nikon coolpix 995, which seems like something I could use, taking only one camera and my laptop to upload mid vacation. (toys and more toys).

You could ask why I just don't get a housing for the nikon 995 and that is a reasonable question. One that I do not have a clear answer for. Back to more reading.

Of course, now having read Cecil's DP link, I am wondering about shutterspeed, and macro...so much to learn.

Hopefully this won't be considering butting into the conversation...

My husband and I recently got the Canon A610 and are VERY please with the shots it takes. The video feature is much better than in the previous Canons (we've had the A40 and the A80) due to some special chip that they used to only put in the higher end digitals. (Sorry about the sketchy details, my husband is the techy).

Anyway! Just wanted to put in my $.02, although it looks like you're pretty close to making a decision.

Enjoy whatever you decide on!