Underwater camera

[Ukwildlifeo]

Ive been looking at getting an underwater camera for pond dipping and hopefully a bit of snorkelling and rockpooling. I've been looking at the compacts by Panasonic, Pentax and Olympus but Im not sure what camera would be best. Does anyone have an experience with underwater compacts?

[posie]

Thanks for asking the question, I was thinking of doing the same,(pond only) but no idea what's available. also prices(approximate) would be useful.

[Naturenutz]

look up olympus tough or olympus mju.They are a large range of olympus compact cameras.They do a few models that are waterproof to 1metre (i think) and shockproof .They were a favourite with fisherman for underwater shallow water shots and a friend of mine thought his mju was exellent for shallow underwater video.I think they were 2-300 bracket new .i think the latest versions are called olympus tough.but check the spec because some models arnt waterproof.Hope this helps

[posie]

Thanks Naturenutz, that really helps me, hope it helps OP too. Posie..

[zan]

These days most camera manufacturers offer underwater housings for their cameras adn you can usually pick them up for about the same price as the camera, so depending on what you went for, you would be looking probably at between £200-400 (or as high as you like). THe advantage there would be that you would have a much more robust housing, and it would be waterproof to deeper depths (if you needed them for e.g. snorkelling etc).

For underwater stuff with a compact, macro is your friend, and you can expect to use the flash a lot too while snorkelling or rockpooling in teh shade for example. A flash diffuser will help you here to spread the light and avoid harsh lighting and 'backscatter' so that's maybe something to look for in a housing. A diffuser is basically a piece of matt white plastic that the flash fires through and which scatters the light.

I wouldn't go so far as to recommend you a specific model or make as there are thousands of really good ones available these days and its' been a long time since I've really looked at compacts for UW use. You'd be hard pressed to go too far wrong though

[davecatt]

Hi
I had considered getting a camera for shallow underwater use and rough conditions but decided the cost would be too great for the minimal use I'd have for it, until I came across this:
Pentacon Praktica Aquapix 5 megapixel underwater camera

At £55 including postage its worth getting as a back up that I can keep in my rucksack. I'll let you know how it works out.
Dave

[Ukwildlifeo]

How did the pentacon work out dave?

[tom00_uk]

i have a olympus tough and the user interface is dire. its ok as far as tough cameras go. was £300 in shops but from a well known on line auction site it was under £100 new

been used, in the pool, the sea and skiin. only time its died for a bit was in after being in warm water for to long. but when it cooled it was fine

Argos sell cheap and ok ones and have some on their clearance site for under £50 HITACHI HDC-99 9MP WATERPROOF CAMERA BLACK REFURB on eBay (end time 18-Oct-10 16:03:23 BST)