Which underwater camera for less than £100?

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Jinkster

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I have a lovely Leica D Lux 109 but the housing for it produced by Ikelite is £500 and Nauticam is £1000+

Im going snorkelling and maybe some scuba diving in the Maldives in a couple of weeks. Which cheap underwater camera would you recommend? I have lightroom to adjust what I can adjust shooting non-RAW.

Any recommendations much appreciated?
 
I have an Olympus Tough, not sure on the model number think it's the 630, but the pictures it takes are ok for Facebook use. Probably could print bigger too. It's about 4 years old now. And has withstood abuse from my toddler!
 
I bought a canon d10 as a beach, snorkelling camera a few years ago. Works great. I think the d30 can be had for around £150.
 
Ive got a ricoh WG30 - I bought it for tree survey in the rain to avoid killing my good camera - but its alledgedly good to 14m - it was about £120 on ebay
 
Byker28i said:
I bought a canon d10 as a beach, snorkelling camera a few years ago. Works great. I think the d30 can be had for around £150.
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Ditto, but mine probably wasn't quite so many years ago, and I bought the D20. Great little bit of kit.

Part of my reason for buying the Canon, however, is that I use Canon DSLRs and there is a lot of similarity in the menu structures, terminology, etc. (That kind of stuff is baked into the manufacturers' DNA.) I reasoned that staying within the one brand would make it easier for me to use the underwater camera, seeing as how I don't use it that frequently and whenever I do there's inevitably an element of re-familiarisation required. That might be something you'd want to bear in mind.
 
Exactly for the reason Stewart said was why I bought mine. The d10 looks a little childish, but worked well, the later models looked more usual for a small compact camera. It still works and gets thrown in my camera bag for when we go near water/beach holidays just as an extra. These days however a lot seem to use gopros or the the cheap chinese equivilents.
Depending on how clear the water, don't expect pin sharp, accurate colour miracles, but memories, but definately something extra to have

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AFAIK unless things have changed dramatically in the past couple of years none of the waterproof cameras are fit for scuba diving, I've seen many a 'waterproof' die down at 18m.

GoPros have become popular options though...
 
Jinkster said:
I have a lovely Leica D Lux 109 but the housing for it produced by Ikelite is £500 and Nauticam is £1000+

Im going snorkelling and maybe some scuba diving in the Maldives in a couple of weeks. Which cheap underwater camera would you recommend? I have lightroom to adjust what I can adjust shooting non-RAW.

Any recommendations much appreciated?
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If you're thinking of taking it diving, then you want to go for a camera in a case the has RAW capability. Look second hand for something along the lines of a Canon S90 along with the Canon underwater housing. Down to 5, maybe 10 metres you'll be fine with just a little WB tweak but anything further than that and you're going to have to out a little more effort into PP, so for me, RAW is a must as you won't have a strobe.

Get as close as possible without touching anything for the best results, and make sure your diving skills are up to hovering effortlessly to get a shot. Shooting at eye level or slightly upwards makes a huge impact.

Mike
 
For snorkelling, pretty much any of the "underwater" or "tough" compacts will be enough but for SCUBA, you'll need something rather better and more waterproof (unlikely to be available for the OP's budget.) Personally, I'd avoid the Olympus "waterproof" models since in my experience, they're not. The Canon D10 that replaced the Olympus is still going strong and the Nikon 1AW which has superseded that is also doing well!
 
I've just bought an Olympus waterproof from Clifton for £135. I chose it on the basis that it had the least 1-star reviews on Amazon complaining about water leaks. I presume a certain % of all brands will leak, according to Amazon feedback Olympus is the best. It also has in-camera charging which is useful.

The Canon D30 will do raw if you use CHDK.
 
had a d10 its was great until the fancy attachment mechanism broke and I lost the camera in a river :( no luck from canon either.
 
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