DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Underwater camera for holidays

Started Feb 6, 2020 | Discussions
G Pik
G Pik Contributing Member • Posts: 612
Underwater camera for holidays

Hi all, bit of advice needed.

Just booked a holiday to the Seychelles in June and thought it might be fun to have a little camera to take snorkelling. A quick 'google' shows a number of waterproof cameras which are waterproof to 15m which would be plenty like the the Olympus TG‑6 which looks good but any advice on other makes that anyone has used? For video 4K possibly and decent res stills.

Would probably have to be an auto everything unless I get some prescription goggles!!

Is the image quality good on these?

Do they have any image stabilisation? What other useful features should I look for?

Thanks

-- hide signature --
 G Pik's gear list:G Pik's gear list
Sony a1 Sony a7R V Sony 2.0x Teleconverter Sony 1.4x Teleconverter Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G SSM II +8 more
RussellP Senior Member • Posts: 2,486
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

I use a sea life dc2000 myself but the TG6 is also a great option. Check out Thomas Stirs small sensor photography site, he has a TG6 and gets great shots with it. Mt google will find it for you.

cheers

-- hide signature --
 RussellP's gear list:RussellP's gear list
SeaLife DC2000 Sony RX100 VI Nikon 1 V1 Leica CL Nikon 1 Nikkor VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 +4 more
Dann-Oh Contributing Member • Posts: 894
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

I'm located in southern California and I was just at Costco this evening they had a FujiFilm FinePix XP140 for sale at $180. This camera is advertised to have 4k video, it's waterproof to 25M (82ft), 16MP sensor, 28-140mm equivalent lens.

 Dann-Oh's gear list:Dann-Oh's gear list
Olympus E-M5 III Olympus E-PL10 Olympus E-M1 III Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 Panasonic Lumix G Fisheye 8mm F3.5 +20 more
Yar1971 Regular Member • Posts: 409
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

I use underwater compact camera mostly above water (kayaking, You know ) so I'm not an expert here, saying delicately.

But, but: according to lenstip.com aka optyczne.pl Fuji XP series is not the best in this class of camera in terms of image quality. They are much cheaper than their rivals like Oly TG's, Pana FT's, Nikon W's, but those give much better photo. Some Ricoh WG's too.

Every 1-2 years optyczne.pl makes a comparable test of most popular current underwater camera models. I'm not sure if they translate them into their English webpage (lenstip), but their opinion about Fuji in underwater camera class repeats everytime. They classify separately most impotrant features of tested models, like photo quality under/above water, video under/above water, built quality, ergonomy etc.

Note, it doesn't mean that Fujii's are useless or so. Simply in this case their lower price reflects their lower exellence in image quality, too.  Just one factor to concern before the choice, nothing more.

Regards

-J.

Dann-Oh Contributing Member • Posts: 894
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

That's a very fair observation. But at the price point I would not expect it to compete with many other compact cameras that are then put inside a housing.

But it all about what the camera owner is after.

 Dann-Oh's gear list:Dann-Oh's gear list
Olympus E-M5 III Olympus E-PL10 Olympus E-M1 III Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 Panasonic Lumix G Fisheye 8mm F3.5 +20 more
primozp
primozp Contributing Member • Posts: 818
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

G Pik wrote:

Hi all, bit of advice needed.

Just booked a holiday to the Seychelles in June and thought it might be fun to have a little camera to take snorkelling. A quick 'google' shows a number of waterproof cameras which are waterproof to 15m which would be plenty like the the Olympus TG‑6 which looks good but any advice on other makes that anyone has used? For video 4K possibly and decent res stills.

The TG-6 is a great underwater camera for snorkeling and freediving. Check out my (mostly) underwater photos and videos taken during snorkeling/freediving (up to 18 meters deep), using only fins, mask & snorkel (no weights and no additional light source).

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63414265

And yes, camera was in automatic mode all the time!

Depending on the depth of the dive, I manually set only the appropriate WB program from the camera quick menu.

-- hide signature --

My (mostly underwater) photos and videos taken during snorkeling/freediving (up to 18 meters deep):
photos @ https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ao1ZgdCRr0q7cYCaSWWElSWyw_A
video footage @ http://www.youtube.com/user/PrimozP/playlists?sort=dd&flow=grid&view=1

 primozp's gear list:primozp's gear list
Olympus TG-6 Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS20 Nikon Coolpix AW130
G Pik
OP G Pik Contributing Member • Posts: 612
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

How do you find the TG-6 for happy snaps?  I've just bought one but find it really fuzzy in the corners.

-- hide signature --
 G Pik's gear list:G Pik's gear list
Sony a1 Sony a7R V Sony 2.0x Teleconverter Sony 1.4x Teleconverter Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G SSM II +8 more
G Pik
OP G Pik Contributing Member • Posts: 612
Re: Underwater camera for holidays

I bought a TG-6 and found the images very distorted and fuzzy in the corners. I sent sample images to Olympus who said they were fine as this is normal for compact cameras. Not impressed so sent it back and bought a Pansonic FT7 which was more than £100 cheaper and the images are far better at the edges - and it has a viewfinder.  I also repeated the test photos with my iPhone and they were much better than the TG-6!!

-- hide signature --
 G Pik's gear list:G Pik's gear list
Sony a1 Sony a7R V Sony 2.0x Teleconverter Sony 1.4x Teleconverter Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G SSM II +8 more
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum MMy threads