Has anyone had any experience with either the Sea & Sea digital or the Sealife Reefmaster digital? I am a bit too cheap for the Nikon or the Olympus, considering I have a Kodak digital that I bought right before becoming bitten by the diving bug- unable to get housing for it : ( Anyway, coming to Bonaire in 3 weeks (3rd trip in a year!) so time's a bit short... and any help would be appreciated. Thanks. ( Finally hit 50 degrees today in northern NY- yeah!)

What Kodak do you have? I have an older (by electronics standards) DC290 with an Ikelite housing that seems to work out great. "Only" 2.1MP but I have carried it around the world and pulled in a mess of shots. However, I did leave it at the car rental shack when I got to Bonaire and had a call waiting for me even before I got to Cap'n Don's. :-) Was a great way to start a 2 week dive trip to know that the local folks are so honest.

Marty I would stay away from the Sealife cameras they really are sub-standard. I just did some quick research the DC-200 camera from Sealife is a 1.3 megapixel camera, no zoom and I could not find what it's minimum focus distance. Knowing Sealife it's 2'. It sells for $378 from Discount Divers.

For basically the same money (around $400) you can have either a Cannon S20 or a Sony DSC-P9. Both of these are 4 megapixel cameras with a 3X optical zoom and focus down to 4". The underwater case will cost you another $200. Get the camera first to learn how to use it and then get the UW case. Much, much better cameras and you will get alot more use out of it. The pictures will be orders of magnitude better.

Cecil & Larry- Thanks for the input. I have a Kodak DC4800 and while Ikelite makes many housings for Kodak, not for that model. I'll investigate the Cannon and Sony options.

Joe votes for the Sony DSC P-9. I had the P-3 (someone in Jamaica airport got that one) which I replaced with the P-5 and it's a great little camera...above and below the water. The P-9 has replaced the P-5 and you ought to be able to get the camera and housing (good to 130 ft I believe) for under $600 from just about any of the online camera place. Small, portable, takes great 4 megapixel pics (and i'm not all that good) and I've never had any probs with mine. My two cents

joe

Good to get those 2 cents Joe!

Hi Marty,

I cast a willing vote for the Sony product as weel. I shoot the DSC-P3 in the inexpensive and very reliable Sony MPK-P5 housing. Picked it up real cheap from a guy in the Jamaica airport -(just kiddin' Joe, put that shotgun down- lol)

The camera is very compact, clips to my BC in a small neoprene case I got at the local Walmart for under $20 (it's really a CD case but fits the MPK) and works quite well. Will it match the 5 megapixel Tetra housed units with three strobes on long arms, heck no. But the price tag doesn;t equal the cost of a 1-2 week vacation to Bonaire either. I think it works very well on land too. And since it is so small, you tend to bring it along wherever you go.

Just my 1.5 cents worth.

Where did you purchase the underwater housing? I have the Sony DSC-P5 but hadn't even thought about using it underwater for digital!

I am still using the Sea & Sea MotorMarine II EX

I bought mine over the internet, just search under MPK-P5 - OR there's one on e-bay right now if you want to start the bidding. They usually sell for under $180.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2918433127&category=15215

Good Luck- Oh and NO I'm not the one selling the housing, nor do I vouch for the seller or have the ability to levitate. lol

Carolyn, wow, you don't know what your missing. I have the P5 and Sony UW case. I've posted plenty of examples. Get the case, you'll love it.

Do you just have the case or other accessories? I was on e-bay earlier looking at the case Randy referenced. Seems like a good deal!

Hi Carolyn,

Also check out this link for internet sales sources for the MPK-P5 if you would rather avoid the e-bay deals.

http://www.nextag.com/serv/main/buyer/outpdir.jsp?doSearch=y&search=mpk+p5

Personally I shoot mine with just ambient light or the occasional internal flash. I KNOW the color quality would improve if I popped for a strobe, but I actually prefer to record the moments the way they actually looked to ME at the time. I claim to be an Underwater Photo Purist -which of course translates to "can't afford a darn strobe anyway so why drive myself crazy about it".

And to repeat my constant lament - "Why oh why wasn't I born rich instead of just good-lookin'" lol

Just the case, like Randy I'm not much of a believer in the external strobes. I've heard the red filter is bogus. One really nice thing about just the camera, when your diving you can slip it under a BC strap and just be a diver. That's something you can never do with a big camera and strobe. And don't underrate the pictures with just the camera, I'd like to think I do pretty well with just the camera. Download my slideshow on my homepage for a slew of pictures with just the camera under very difficult conditions (NE diving).

And I just took delivery of a new "accessory". a 4.5 gig Digital Wallet to download the Memory sticks to while on vacation. If my math is right, it will hold 35 full 128 meg sticks.

Got it on e-bay for $100, works great and is the size of a paperback book. A lot cheaper and decidedly smaller than a laptop to do the same job. Connects to your home PC via a USB cable.

Sounds great Randy, keep us poste4d on how it works. A LOT lighter than a laptop.

Sounds great Randy, keep us posted on how it works. A LOT lighter than a laptop.

hey randy,

the digital wallet does sound nice, could you supply a little product info (model name/number)?

i spent $200 for a 30GB laptop hard drive (my solution), mostly because i like my 15.4" display for viewing the pics, but the hassle of a laptop and the time one wastes fooling with it...hmmmm...

i guess you can drop off sticks (like shirts at a laundry) in bonaire these days - pick up a nice pressed CD a little later;)

i am bringing my laptop this trip...

This is the type I picked up. I think the company Minds @ Work may have been bought out by MindStor or may be out of business, but this would give you some generic info on the concept anyway. For what I only paid it was worth the chance. Also a search on e-bay or the net under Digital Wallet should produce gobs of hits. My unit is about the size of a paperback book or a cassete type recorder. Tons smaller and lighter than a laptop. No viewing capability, but there are higher end units that also feature a LCD screen.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2918005931&category=18871

The answer to this question is probably somewhere on the board, but what does everyone doing digital do with the pictures to transfer from the camera (card) to free up space while on vacation? Do you just delete the ones you don't want and keep taking pics?

I have been reluctant to ask questions on this thread because I am such the novice underwater photographer. I keep seeing people quoting housings for around $200 US. I have a Kodak DC290 3.3mp digital, that takes pretty good landside digital images. It is getting older and I am getting ready to buy a new digital with more horsies (read mega-pixels) at some point.
That said, I would love to find a housing for this one and start experimenting underwater, only my budget won't allow for a $900 housing. Any suggestions from all you u/w digital pros? I would love to better my skills at u/w photography, and really enjoy the digital format, just not sure how all of this can be afforded. The cameras I see many of you quoting are well out of my league, yet the enthusiasm burns on.

Regards,

john

John, I have the Ikelite housing for my DC290 and it has been a real workhorse. The list price, and price I paid, is $750; this was at least 2 years ago so I am quite surprised that the price has not come down quite a bit.
My DC290 and Ikelite housing has been all around the world at depths up to 130+ with no problems. You'll likely find lots of folks that look down on Ikelite housings in favor of non poly solutions, but the price, simplicity and end results really makes it a fun buy.
Check out http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/kodak_dc260.html for the product specs and please drop me a line in email and let's chat about using your DC290 underwater.
--Larry

John there's the problem. You have a good camera that you like but the UW housing is megabucks. When I started researching digital, I started with the UW case and worked backwards to the best camera. Further up in this thread I quoted two cameras that can be had with UW case for $600. Cannon, Sony and Olympus all make UW cases for their cameras which is significantly cheaper than an Ikelite. None of this is a knock on Ikelite housings they are the best and you pay for it and if you can afford it are the best choice.

Hey Cecil - off topic - is that your photo of the urchins at Folley Cove on the D2D board today?

I have an Olympus 3040 and have just purchased a Olympus PT-010 housing for it priced at $250. John I'm not familiar with your camera but have you checked out e-bay for availability there. Perhaps someone is selling to update their gear. Also www.digitaldiver.com has a page of items for sale. Good luck. You will love doing u/w photography, I've been doing it for years using the Nik V set-up and am just changing to digital.

Ginny, yes. One and the same.

For what it is worth I have a Canon S40 bought in the UK with underwater case $170 bought in NYC. It takes great 4mp pictures. I have 2 340Mb microdrives and can get 170 shots per microdrive at maximum resolution. It needs a battery change half way so I have two batteries. See the results at http://www.pbase.com/scubadiver/mexico_v2&page=all

ADVICE: Make sure your travel insurance covers your camera and there are no exclusions for water or moisture damage.

Finally, take a copy of the Canon Utilities and the download cable so you can go to an INternet cafe and download the pictures, burn a CD and then delete the files off the microdive to carry on....

Hi, Richard. Nice site, thanks for posting it here for us to enjoy. I, too, have a Canon S40 with the U/W housing...I have only been able to use it underwater once since purchasing it last year. What settings are you using under water?? I have to practice some more before we leave again in May. I used my ACDSee photo editing software to heighten and enhance the colors in my shots and it worked nicely. I tried to locate some information as to settings for underwater (we snorkel only) at the Canon sites, etc, but have not been able to come up with anything at all. Neither the camera manual/disc nor the housing book mention anything about suggested settings while under water. I really thought the housing instruction would have something, but nada. I have great results with the camera on land, but I want to hone up the underwater exposures. Thanks! Carole