Cameras on Board - Advice?

[hellosailor]

You will find there are dirty little secrets are water resistance ratings. First, nothing is waterPROOF it is only water resistant and then only to a particular spec. Most of those specs cover "immersion" to a set depth and time. But if the water is moving, or gasketed parts are operated--the ratings may change.

Sometimes they are also rated for a g-shock, because a sudden movement, bump, or operation of the o-ring sealed part causes water to be forced onto the seal under pressure now--and that exceeds the resistance rating. I had a brief discussion with Timex about that quite some time ago, when my waterproof-to-100-feet Timex LED watch leaked in under 50'. Oh, they said, you shouldn't have pushed the BUTTON, that would exceed the g-rating. (But they did replace it anyway.) Then as some other watch companies will tell you, don't wear their diving watches in the shower. The force of the water form the showerhead my cause it to bypass the o-ring seal on the stem!

Waterproof? Yeah, I've got some beach glass that's waterproof.

[Talbot]

I recommend the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7

A pocket size camera (large pocket) that has 10:1 optical zoom!

It also has decent hi-Quality video in fact the biggest problem with using it as a video camera, is not the video, but the audio as it does not have a focussed microphone.

Panasonic also make a proper underwater case for it. Not as good as the Ikelite, but cheaper. I had an Ikelite with an earlier digital camera, with an external strobe and got very decent pictures. I have yet to get the new kit wet. The strobe certainly works with the camera, as I have tested that.

Its only real drawback is lack of a viewfinder, but if you want a small camera, there is only so much space so there has to be a compromise somewhere. I use a Delkin shade over the display, and that works OK even in bright sun.

I have the earlier model the DMC-TZ5 which is an earlier model with a slightly lower spec but am very happy with it.

[Canibul]

I am on my second Olympus Stylus SW series in two years. The first one, a SW770, leaked after about six months of use. I didn't much like the camera. No viewfinder, lousy menu structure, too many bells and whistles, but most important, in thousands of shots I was never able to get a decent image though the max zoom. Optical zoom, I mean. I turn digital zoom off. Well, when it leaked, I started Looking around for a replacement, I found out they had another one, the SW1030. I figured they MUST have made some improvements, and besides, there really wasn't much else out there that would fit in my pocket, was splash and dust proof, and could work underwater for shallow dives. So I bought the Stylus SW1030 about six months ago.
It sucks,too. Same issues as the other one. Menu is terrible, can't get a decent photo with the full optic zoom, and although this one hasn't started leaking yet, it no longer will let me upload photos from the USB port. I have to take the memory chip out and plug it directly into the laptop.

I can't wait til it craps out enough to justify me trying the new Canon. I have always had good luck with Canon and Sony. And although I have now owned four Olympus cameras, I really didn't like any of them very much.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Canibul

. So I bought the Stylus SW1030 about six months ago.
It sucks,too. Same issues as the other one. Menu is terrible, can't get a decent photo with the full optic zoom, and although this one hasn't started leaking yet, .

Nic and I bought cameras on the same day at the beginning of the year (that was a BIG day!) Shy bought the Stylus 1030 and I bought the Cannon 40D

The Stylus 1030 clagged out after 4 snorkeling trips and though 'fixed' wont work properly. It really needs the underwater housing with it.

My Cannon 40D has been by far the best buy. The photos it has taken at 9.5 frames per second are quite amazing.





The Dolpin photo is from about 300 meters. The photo is a crop of the one attached taken at full zoom.

If I had an underwater housing for that camera I would be in paradise! LOL

It really is worth it to take good cameras on a cruise A good SLR camera and a good batter proof, drop proof, small camera

[barnakiel]

We used SLRs upper end before the trip, then sold them out and took an upper end compact (upper end back then - Canon G3). We were afraid with the amount of shakin' around our little ship gets the lenses would go out of line.

6 years and 10.000 pictures later the G3 camera is still with us. In retrospective though, there was more than one moment when I missed the lens set we had with the SLR kit - a 20mm, a 50mm, an 85mm, a 180mm and a 300mm and sure thing the Macro. Nothing beats a true Macro and a prime wide-angler for some shots. The tele end is pretty much matched now even in chapo compacts.

Camera theft was never an issue with us - I think cameras are stolen mostly in 'bad' spots where anything else gets stolen if one is careless to go there. But these were single spots, in general we took pictures everywhere and of everything without any issues. Sure thing, in places with poor reputation we never left our boat open when going ashore. But we left the boat open elsewhere and never lost anything.

If you are already with some DSLRs and good lenses just stick with what you have. And get one of the waterproof compacts to shoot when the weather is real bad and you still want a shot.

b.

[Boracay]

Mark,
What lenses did you get/use with your Canon 40D?

[redcobra]

A great water resistant lens for the 40D is a EF 24-105 F4.0L IS. On the 40D which is an APS-C sensor the equivalent full frame (35mm) focal length is 38-165mm. The IS is great to have on the water. To make it totally water resistant you need to have a filter screwed on the front according to Canon. I use that and the 16-35 f2.8L on a 5D for the boat.
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...&modelid=11924

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Boracay

Mark,
What lenses did you get/use with your Canon 40D?

Just one lens. It came with EFS 17-85mm Image Stabalizer.
http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras_lenses_accessories/standard_zoom_lenses/efs17-85mm.aspx

Using the highest quality setting image file size is about 5MBs and image size is 3888x2592. Full screen size on the computer is 28% so we can crop an amazing amount out. We reduce dimensions in Irfanview and file size in Photoshop

The camera also does RAW wich is about 10mb per photo and is a professional setting.

The 8gb memord card does 2,000 photos on the top quality (not RAW) and 1 recharged battery lasted me 1,300 photos without flash when I was doing the Orangutans.

All up about $2,000 in Australia