Dive camera advise/help

[Ksimpson76]

I am looking to purchase my first dive camera and need some help. I would like to buy a solid camera with a great housing for under $1,000. I was looking at the Olympus E-PL5 with the PT-EP10 housing.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? If diving only in tropical waters to 100ft do I need a strobe for pictures?

[skittl1321]

Needing a strobe is going to depend on the quality of photos you want. I think under 30-40 feet, a strobe is going to start being helpful, though if you can shoot in RAW, some things can be corrected for. At 100 feet, even in tropical water, you are almost certainly going to want one for macro shots.

 

We don't have the greatest dive camera set up, but on a low budget (about half of yours), we are very happy with it.

 

We use a Canon Powershot S110 (bought because it can do RAW) in a Polaroid Housing. (Canon makes a housing for it too- at the time the Polaroid one was cheaper.)

 

The case has a diffuser for the flash, and so we can use the flash for pictures when needed. It isn't the same as a strobe system, but it still works great.

 

Here are some examples using this set-up. (Some of these were taken in the Pacific where visibility wasn't as good- if you click on the photos you can see which ones were Cozumel, so great viz, vs Galapagos)

 

This photo used the flash. It would have been pretty awful without it, since the Lion was hiding in a cave.

Edited July 7, 2015 by skittl1321