On May 29, 12:46 pm, "warren montgomery"
wrote:
A couple of months ago I posted a request here and a couple of other groups
for any suggestions on an underwater digital for shallow water (snorkeling)
use by someone who only visits tropical locales once every 2-3 years. I got
no replies. Don't know what that means...

Mostly, it meant that you posted an inquiry on a niche application in
a relatively low volume group. If you would have made the same
inquiry in rec.scuba or rec.scuba.equipment, you would have gotten
responses.


It does a decent job of focusing underwater as well.

How is its shutter lag? I had tried a housed Canon A80 two years
ago...it has significant shutter lag which made focusing quite
difficult.




(It will also draw some strange looks from others who see you dive in the
water looking like you forgot you still had your point and shoot camera on
you and have just ruined it.)

Don't worry, you may still be successful in ruining it:

because the water you had exposed it to was sal****er, you now have
dried-out salt on the camera's internal protective o-rings, which will
eventually cause things to gum up and precipitate a water seal
failure.

The best short-term remedy for you for this 'accident waiting to
happen' is for you to promptly soak the camera in *fresh* water before
it has dried out from its sal****er exposure. This functionally
dilutes the salt, which reduces the salt crystal buildup.

Even if you've already allowed the camera to dry out and its been a
week or two, letting it soak for a couple of days in your kitchen sink
is a good idea. Just make sure to use *just* water, and no additives
(no soap, no anti-salt agents), as these can chemically strip the
lubricants off your o-rings.

Overall, this sal****er exposure problem is why I'd personally look at
buying a camera with a dedicated housing instead of any of these
'waterproof' sealed cameras. Sal****er exposure to cameras is a real
pain (and an expensive one), and since a consumer P&S is effectively
non-servicable, you'll probably not know that you're having a leak
until the electronics fry.


I suspect that some colors simply don't display as brightly as they should,
making it hard to keep a small fish in the frame of the shot.

For color balance post-processing, research on the "Mandrake"
technique.


-hh