S3 IS for Underwater Photography?

Cool, nice userfriendly analysis! Thanks for thinking this through with me. Of course I want it all, but thinking realistically about how I will use the camera is the best way to whittle down to what's really needed, to keep the cost down.

We live in Jackson Hole, Wy, but are in Casper (big wildfire here the last two days on Casper Mtn) and going on to Rock Springs for work. Would much rather be testing out cameras in the Firehole River up in Yellowstone, but have to get the camera choice figured out first. Really appreciate your help. arcl

Hi Jamdiver,

completely agree about the manual white balance being the most important thing in the end; I have a white card attached to my BC, and reset the white balance a lot. arcl

Scrumptious. Thanks for the virtual dive. arcl

You're welcome. I would say you really can't go wrong with one of those cameras. There are Canon fans, Fuji fans, and Panasonic fans that may prefer one over the other for specific or personal reasons, but each will take good photos when used properly.

I'm still waiting for the ultra compact that has only two buttons (on/off + shutter release), telepathic manual controls (think "Change white balance" and the camera does so), 3" LCD w/ 650k pixels, low noise up to ISO 1600, and a 14mm - 400mm lens. Something tells me I set my standards a bit too high.

Thanks, Alexis. I've been stuck on the-higher-the-better-megapixels, and just had someone in a camera store say "you know, megapixels isn't everything" and whipped out some enlarged photos to prove his point. Thanks for the reminder. arcl

Amen, I'm with you. Fun to dream. arcl

Now that you have a nice list of cameras to go look at and play with it is time for the more important question - where will you be diving??

My wife and I certified in the states and got our AOW in Roatan, Honduras. We're heading to Belize early next year to work on Rescue.

Cool; we were in Roatan in April and loved it. Had one week on the leeward side at CoCoView, and one week on the windward side at Turquoise Bay Resort, which had just opened. Really preferred the CoCoView side because the other had been hit hard by so many storms. The reef was a monotone grey-brown in a lot of places, but we did see big stuff... nurse shark sleeping with its head under a coral head, spotted eagle rays in formation etc. For color, diversity, and photography the CoCoView side took the cake. Our best day was a private charter with friends to Pigeon Cay, which was really worth it. The shark dive was pretty exciting, too.

Next trips: back to Bonaire in January (loved the combination of shore diving and boat diving, staying at Captain Don's) and Belize (!) in April for Whale Shark Week at Manta Ray Resort. Maybe we'll get a little saltwater fly-fishing in since Belize is so well regarded by fishing friends.

Any suggestions for diving in the Rocky Mountains? arcl

Our French friend gave me the equivalents between the SD series v.s. Ixus series:

"Not easy to understand all name from Canon every where depending also of the area of sale.
In fact I understood the following equivalent names:

Canon powershot SD 500 ( US name) = Digital Ixus 700 ( mine)LCD of 2" which is no more saled
Canon powershot SD 550 ( US name) = Digital Ixus 750 with a LCD of 2,5"
Canon powershot SD 700 IS ( US name) = Digital Ixus 800 IS with a LCD of 2,5"

Difference beetween SD 550 and SD 700 IS:

The SD 700 IS is a 6 Millions pixels against 7 for SD 550, the other difference is
the objectiv, equivalent 35-140 for SD700IS ( better zoom) and 37-111 for SD550.

For me the main difference is coming from the captor and quality of the LCD .

The SD 700IS has a better zoom with stabilisator than SD 550, but it is 6 millions of pixels
instead 7 for the SD 550D.

It seems to be more interessant even with 6 millions pixels to choice the last one : SD 700IS, because of equivalent 35-140 objectiv
more interessant than 37-111 (SD550) and more polyvalent."

We're planning a trip to Belize in april! My wife and I are trying to get some diving friends together for a week sometime in April (not sure when).

We stayed on West Bay in a house this May / June. We dive with Coconut Tree Divers out of West End - I highly recommend them!! Great people, good prices - Roatan has it all. We'll probably go back next year for diving and a little real estate scouting on Utila.

How close and how deep wer you for those shots?

I thought about an manual white balance for my A80 but we were already at sea at that point, so it was too late. A laminated cardboard or plastic attached to the case seems like a good idea.

This was my second and only underwater escapade. A $10K trip, it seemed like a good idea to buy a $200 waterproof case. The year before we had bought an underwater disposable with flash at the last minute. We were in Cairns (tourist costs for everything) but at least the developing included a CD of the digitized pictures.

The only place we've been is the reefs of Cairns, available as either a day trip or overnighting. ( http://www.reefmagic.com.au/ as an example); you can snorkel or dive. The diving was great, but you're paired up with someone else. they may not have any interest in lingering to get those shots, so there's a bit of pressure there. It was worth paying extra to dive with one of the instructors, who's there to make you happy.

We didn't go below about 60 or 80 feet, and had no problems with the case at all. However, below about 30 feet even in direct sunlight, it seems the ambient light requires a flash.

Wheich brings me back to the first question - how close did you get to some of those fish? Anytime I tried, the fish were very skittish and scooted while I was waiting for the shutter lag. (And by law, you can't feed them to bribe them into a photo op.)

The other thing was setup. switching between modes, flash options, etc. is just one more thing that takes up time.

When I was first thinking about digital cameras, A co-worker showed me some pictures from his Kodak 1-Mp camera (state of the art back then!) An 8x10 of his wife looked just great.

Most of my older pictures are taken with a Fuji 4900Z which is only 2.4Mp, although the weird Fuji CCD upscales that to 4Mp. I have printed as high as 11x14 without enhancements and gotten very good pictures.