Dual pupose camera. Good for family snaps but has a good underwater case

I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.

Any suggestions?

By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?

I know a totally luddite question

"dechucka" <dechu...@vomitm> wrote:
> I am looking for a digital camera that is good for the family/holiday snaps
> ( decent zoom and can blow up pictures to poster size) but that I can also
> get a underwater housing to 40 metres or so for.
>
> Any suggestions?

Look through the various manufacturer's websites at what products they
have and what UW housings they sell for the same. One you have some
idea of the offerings, go check out which of these cameras are new and
which are "old" (released a year ago) and consider leaning towards a
new one, so that the UW accessories will be available longer in the
marketplace (also, a housing that fits more than one camera can be
favored here too).

For specific camera features, look for one that the reviews say it
doesn't have significant shutter lag. That had been a harder piece of
data to find, but do persevere.

For other camera attributes, consider your battery choices carefully,
as well as the type of memory card.

A camera with a proprietary battery design means you'll have to buy
their battery to have spares, but are generally more compact for
fitting in your pocket when its not in the housing - - IMO, go for one
that takes AA's.

For memory card type, Compact Flash is gone from the P&S, and looks to
be on the decline for (at least consumer) dSLRs too. Avoid non-
mainstream formats such as the Sony Memory Stick, as you'll end up
paying a premium on each memory card, especially if you're looking at
getting one with a higher access speed. The card that manufacturers
seems to be most standardized on today is the SD.


> By the way what is the difference between an optical and digital zoom?

Optical zoom is a real zoom (via actual magnification through
lenses).
Digital zoom is a "pretend" zoom (via cropping of an unmagnified
image).


-hh

"-hh" <recscuba_google@huntzinger.com> wrote in message
> For specific camera features, look for one that the reviews say it
> doesn't have significant shutter lag. That had been a harder piece of
> data to find, but do persevere.

This is an especially important feature I think. When something is swimming
around you fast you need to take photos quickly.

> For other camera attributes, consider your battery choices carefully,
> as well as the type of memory card.
>
> A camera with a proprietary battery design means you'll have to buy
> their battery to have spares, but are generally more compact for
> fitting in your pocket when its not in the housing - - IMO, go for one
> that takes AA's.

Although AAs are preferable I would consider this to be a lower priority.

> For memory card type, Compact Flash is gone from the P&S, and looks to
> be on the decline for (at least consumer) dSLRs too. Avoid non-
> mainstream formats such as the Sony Memory Stick, as you'll end up
> paying a premium on each memory card, especially if you're looking at
> getting one with a higher access speed. The card that manufacturers
> seems to be most standardized on today is the SD.

I think you'd be mad to buy anything besides SD these days. PDAs take it,
phones take it, car stereos take it, mp3 players take it and even some
cameras use it :-) I would get a mini SD card though as these cost the same,
are just as fast and come with an adaptor.

Michael

"-hh" <recscuba_google@huntzinger.com> wrote in message
> So then the reason you're buying the mini-SD rather than a standard SD
> is because ....?

Because it fits more devices. When I originally bought my camera the only
thing the SD card fit was my camera. But since then I've used it in many
other devices which I didn't have at the time. Same might apply to mini-SD
in the future. Already my phone takes mini-sd although that's pretty much a
novelty.

> Maybe I'm leaping here, but my assumption was that you're assuming
> that the SD format will go away in the relatively near future and that
> either mini-SD replaces it (which re-invokes this "too small" problem)
> or that you're hoping that whatever the new standard is that emerges
> will be suitable for having a mini-SD adaptor invented for it as
> well.

From my pov there are only 4 formats, PCMCIA, CF, SD and mini SD. Memory
stick, MMC, SM and XD don't exist for me because I would never buy a device
that used these. As PCMCIA is pretty much dead as a flash format and CF is
going that way, that only leaves SD and mini-SD. By buying mini-SD with the
adaptor you've got them both covered.

> Ah, okay. But this only applies if you are then willing to take the
> mini- out of its SD adaptor, which then re-invokes the "too small"
> concern, as well as adds the problem of lost / misplaced adaptors.

That's true but in the case of a phone the mini-sd is an appropriate size I
guess. What I think is a wank is micro-sd. While mini is easy enough to
handle the micros are getting very fiddly.

Although I don't completely disagree with you, I would prefer it that mini
and micro SD didn't exist, it just complicates things further when SD
doesn't really need to be made smaller. But now that mini-sd does exist it's
probably worth buying it.

Michael

"Jeff R." <contact.me@this.ng> wrote in message
news:462b6040$0$27221$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.a u...
>>> as a wedding present I have have a fantsicly beaut photo of a sunrise
>>> over a beach that a mate of mine had surf and dived around for years. A
>>> couple of years ofter I asked him about that photo and it had taken him
>>> 6 rolls of 36 over 2 right days to get that one photo
>>
>> That's dedication. :-)
>
>
> Yup.
>
> I used to have a camera like that, too.

Your camera was dedicated? ;-)

Michael