camera for diving ?

Antonio Huerta wrote:
I would like to dive and take casual pictures of the rocks and fishes.
What waterproofed camera should I get ? I do not want an expensive
one, because it is first of all for experimenting. And I would not be
sorry if I did not do much diving (thus would not be sorry for the
sunken cost... gee, pun not intended).

I am aware that there are Olympus mu kind of cameras which are
waterproofed, but I am not sure about their suitability for diving and
their image quality. I am also aware that there are housings for
"land" cameras. But I do not know about their suitability...


Underwater cameras can be had for several hundred dollars all the way to
$10,000 and more. What I gather from you is you are leaning more
towards the "hundreds of dollars" range.

What depth are you planning on taking it? There are some very
inexpensive "snorkling depth" type cameras (15 ft or so). SeaLife makes
some fairly good yet relatively inexpensive camera systems.

I have a SeaLife DC310 and get fairly good results for a 3.1 MP camera.
They no longer make this camera but you may be able to get one on Ebay
from someone who is upgrading. I would recommend whatever camera you
get, also get an external strobe. Makes all the difference in the world
in color and detail.

You are correct that housings are made for regular land cameras so they
can be used underwater but you can be talking at least $1000 or more.
Ikelite makes such housings.

I dive with a friend who I think has an Olympus with the underwater
housing. He is happy with it but does not use an external strobe.
If you are interested, I can direct you to pictures I took with my
system and pictures he took.