I'm looking at getting my first digital camera and housing. The canon a510 and olympus c765 both have good repair records, does anyone have any comments on either. Also I should say this will be used for snokeling.
Thanx.

PS. Sorry to hear about renee's ankle.

I own a c-750, which is in essence pretty much near the same thing. I'm not sure I would invest in the "c-7__" cameras of olympus any more. It looks to me like they are phasing them out. If you are looking for a point and shoot olympus I think the way to go would be the new SP models they came out with.

If you are deadset on between those 2 cameras though I'd go with the olympus myself, i'm partial though, I only buy olympus cameras. The only problem I ever had with an olympus was letting my ex fiance use it and she left it on the plane lol. But if you are going to break down the technical specs on those 2 cameras the olympus has a 10x optical zoom compared to the cannon's 4x, that alone would make me go with the olympus, and is why i bought the 750 2 years ago. Then the olympus is 4.0 MP to the canon's 3.2MP, although not a big difference, if you want that slightly higher resolution picture you're going to want that. Some will argue both ways about the picture being better than the other, but for point and shoot I like the olympus better. If it's an slr(which these aren't so don't worry about it), I don't think anyone is even close to cannon's market.
here's 2 links so you can see the picture quality of both...
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A510/A51A.HTM

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C765/C765A.HTM

Also on a side note I really think my olympus housing was built very well. I jumped in to the water from boats with the thing on me and didn't even pop open(not recommended lol).

For what it's worth, the biggest thing I don't like about my Oly C5050 is the zoom. I was use to a 300mm lens on my 35mm so the 3x (equivalent to a 105mm) on the C5050 leaves a lot to be desired for a land camera. I want my zoom back so I have seriously thought about adding a 770 to use on land.

Thanx Shawn. I'm not deadset between those two, any others you would reccomend. Right now I'm leaning towards the Oly, having 10x optical has the edge.( at least to me) Are you using the oly housing or the Ekilite. Also I don't know much about the new SP line, do you know any sights other than the Oly sight for info?

That imaging resource links i gave you is a good place. You may also want to check out
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
That's another one of my favorite resources.

I use the olympus PT housing. I think it was like 150 bucks when I bought it. That was without an external flash. I tried buying one of those "soft cases" for my camcorder which was basically an overglorified and way overpriced sandwhich bag. I definately recommend getting a hard case in comparison to the soft one if you are serious about underwater pictures. I think the ikelite hard case is more expensive than the olympus one anyways, at least for my camera it is.

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_archived_accessories.asp?id=959&ct=45

I would shop around, i'm betting you can find one for cheaper than that. Also if you notice my c-750 housing is listed at over 100 dollars cheaper(250 on their site) than the one you are going to need for yours(almost 400). My case is discontinued now though lol.

I don't know what your spending range is really on this whole little adventure. The case is going to cost you more than either of those 2 cameras I can tell you that much. Also olympus uses xd picture cards which are a bit more expensive than the other memory cards out there.