Driving myself crazy researching cameras...

PaminMaine · Post by **PaminMaine** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:41 pm

My husband is buying me a camera for my birthday. I have been reading reviews like a crazy woman.. the forums here, as well as on the internet. I have a Nikon D300 for home, a Fuji and several point and shoots. I want a decent camera for snorkeling but I don't think I would want to spend 400-500 for camera and housing since we live in Maine and will only be using on vacations in the warm waters.

I have narrowed down to the Panasonic Lumix ts4, Pentax Optio , Olympus Stylus tough, Nikon Coolpix ... Does anyone have experience with any of these??

Last years CanonD10 failed on the first day.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

Florida Girl · Post by **Florida Girl** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:08 pm

I recently got a Nikon Coolpix P510 that I LOVE, but it's not an underwater camera. I kept my Canon Powershot 880 IS with the underwater case for the occasional underwater moments. If you're looking for a "regular" camera (not underwater) I cannot say enough about the Coolpix P510!

Coconuts · Post by **Coconuts** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 7:46 pm

I have and like the Panasonic TS4; it takes great underwater stills and videos, and is a great general purpose point and shoot as well. It's small enough that I take it places where I wouldn't bring my DSLR. The one inevitable downside of underwater cameras is that you have to open an O-ring hatch and swap over an SD card every time you want to grab an image. Bluetooth or something like that would be better. Also, the O-ring only lasts so long, and should be replaced annually (~$18, I think). Good luck!

Kevin

GoldenDaze · Post by **GoldenDaze** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:15 am

We have the Nikon Coolpix AW100 underwater camera and have been very pleased. With your research you are probably familiar with the features. I bought a floating strap just in case. Also bought the orange one in hopes of seeing it easier in case it goes for a swim.

equineannie · Post by **equineannie** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:20 am

GoPro sports camera. It is the choice of many dive professionals, takes great pics & video. Check out their website or go to a dive shop and check it out.

hoosierdaddy · Post by **hoosierdaddy** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:22 am

I have had an Olympus Sylus Tough for two years and really like it. The kids use it in the pool all summer taking photos and videos. We had it on St. John last November and it worked great. One of the neat things my wife found for it was a wrist strap that looks like lifejacket material and it floats. The kids will often throw the camera in the pool when friends are over and it floats around until someone wants to play with it.

PaminMaine · Post by **PaminMaine** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:19 pm

Thanks for the personal experience! I will take all pros/cons I can get about them all.

equineannie wrote:GoPro sports camera. It is the choice of many dive professionals, takes great pics & video. Check out their website or go to a dive shop and check it out.

I actually looked at this one on their site, but I thought it looked like it was rather bulky when it was in the housing ??

JJShaw · Post by **JJShaw** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:28 pm

We have the Olympus Stylus and we really like it...We bought it on STJ a cpl yrs back..and haven't had any problems with it...they also suggest you change the seals once a yr...we have not done our..but we also bought the housing when we purchased it,,.I just came back from a cruise with some friends and a friend bought one while we were on the ship..and she loves it..

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:28 pm

Another Vote for Olympus Stylus

Over 6 trips to STJ and still works great.

2muchsnow · Post by **2muchsnow** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:55 pm

PaminMaine wrote:Thanks for the personal experience! I will take all pros/cons I can get about them all.

equineannie wrote:GoPro sports camera. It is the choice of many dive professionals, takes great pics & video. Check out their website or go to a dive shop and check it out.
I actually looked at this one on their site, but I thought it looked like it was rather bulky when it was in the housing ??

I shot with a gopro and a 3rd party underwater lens kit (blur fix) on STJ in november 2011. If you have a bunch of other camera's (like me) and don't want to invest in a $$$$ Dslr housing. It works great. The new Gopro is better than what I have, they also released an underwater housing which solved the underwater blur issue that was inherent with the OEM housing. It's a little different in the sense that you don't have a view finder to look through (and the LCD back is additional $$), it's a really wide angle shot so you need to be a closer to be in the sweet spot of the lens, I found it works best to have it on a wrist housing and and set it on burst mode, when you see something you like it takes 3 quick shots. (The new hero hd2 has higher resolution, different angle of view options, and an even higher burst rate mode). The housing is bomb proof. Make sure you use the antifog inserts, if you leave the camera running for a while, it can generate some heat and can get some condensation, it wasn't a problem in STJ, but I used it skiing the first time and did get some fogging, could have been the temp and altitude difference. Plus it shoots HD video!!!!!! which is the reason I had it to begin with.

GOPR7838 by ross_mike40, on Flickr

the black vignetting in the corners is the 3rd party blur fix kit showing up in the stills, the gopro underwater housing (which was released after I got back, argh!) doesn't have this issue. But the one I have doesn't show up in video aspect ratio, and is easily cropped out of the stills. Hope this helps in the decision making process.

here is a link to the gallery - http://flickr.com/gp/ross_mike/rp0St7/

mnfun2bme · Post by **mnfun2bme** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:32 pm

Thanks for asking the question. I'm in the process of the same homework.

We have friends that use a gopro for other activities but I didn't realize they had an underwater capability. I just read the website and found it interesting...... but do you miss the LCD screen? You have to wait to see the pics on the computer after you connect the camera?

PaminMaine · Post by **PaminMaine** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:00 pm

You can purchase the LCD screen for 80.00 also the dive housing for 50.00, and camera for 300.00. Love the colors and the clarity of that picture!

mnfun2bme · Post by **mnfun2bme** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:24 am

2muchsnow - would you mind linking me to a flicker page that you have taken photos with your GOPRO outside the water? I'd love to see how well it does outside the water environment. Thanks in advance!

2muchsnow · Post by **2muchsnow** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 12:47 pm

mnfun2bme wrote:2muchsnow - would you mind linking me to a flicker page that you have taken photos with your GOPRO outside the water? I'd love to see how well it does outside the water environment. Thanks in advance!

PaminMaine wrote:You can purchase the LCD screen for 80.00 also the dive housing for 50.00, and camera for 300.00. Love the colors and the clarity of that picture!

Should have clarified. We have the LCD screen, but don't use it when we go out snorkelling. But attaching it to and reviewing photos or video later is easy. You could take it underwater as well. I don't like the extra thickness it adds to our wrist housing, and it drains the battery quicker. just preference. We also have the Battery back as well. I split the cost of the kit with my brother, since we don't use it at the same time, we add accessories along the way. We have a pretty extensive kit now with Head straps, chest harness, car suction mount, wrist housings, bike clamps, etc. We added the Blur fix Flat lens kit, right before Gopro released their underwater housing. But we can add underwater color filters if we were divers. There are a bunch of DIY accessories as well.

Out of the water it's a fun, but remember it's really wide angle field of view, so it flares with the sun (good and bad), bends the corners, and you have to put people closer to you than you think for them to be in the sweet spot. It's not a replacement for a DSLR, point and shoot, or even an Iphone 4s. It just a bomb/waterproof, 2 button funtion video and still camera. You can control the settings and frame rates, but it takes some practice to navigate the simplified 2 button control menu. (the LCD back makes it easier to understand what the settings you are changing). The new HD hero 2, is a dramatic improvement to what I have. And the good thing is they kept the camera size the same, so all the existing housings and accessories are compatible.

We like it, but it's not the perfect camera for all situations. If you want something you can drag to the ocean, strap to a car, bike, dog, kid or anything. It's pretty fun. Attached is the flicker gallery link, All are random images from different trips, places, some have been color graded some are straight out of the camera. But you can get a sense of what it's good for and what it's not good for. I take 3 cameras on all my trips. My Nikon DSLR, my Iphone 4s, and the gopro. We use it for video projects at work, and I think the stills are pretty fun, because it's sooo wide.

http://flickr.com/gp/ross_mike/tf4T1E/

Hope this helps. I may add some time lapse STJ stuff I shot, and some Jeep cam STJ video we shot to that flicker gallery as well. Those are on my computer at home.

jayseadee · Post by **jayseadee** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:30 am

I think I'm leaning toward the Panasonic ts4.

I've had 2 D10's fail and a pentax fail.

The latest D10 periodically fails - like whenever it knows it's going underwater:(

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