Advice needed (again!!)

[ScubaNat]

Hey YDers, I've recently passed my DUP instructor spec and want to get a reasonably swanky new camera and housing. I've been using a Sea and Sea for the last couple of years, but it ain't that great, and was looking for something with a flash I could take down to about 40m that isn't too bulky. Any recommendations?

[GLOC]

Originally Posted by ScubaNat

Hey YDers, I've recently passed my DUP instructor spec and want to get a reasonably swanky new camera and housing. I've been using a Sea and Sea for the last couple of years, but it ain't that great, and was looking for something with a flash I could take down to about 40m that isn't too bulky. Any recommendations?

What do you want to take pictures of as that is your starting point? The second question is how much do you want to spend?

Answer those and we might able to help.

Do not use the onboard flash for UK diving as you will get too much back scatter.

40m in the UK is normally pretty dark so you need external strobes like the DS-125 at around £600-800 each (including sync cords/arms/etc). 40m in blue water is a different game but strobes are still needed to give fill light and you might get away with onboard flash.

[Rod]

Have you looked at the Canon offer on the PADI pro site yet ?

[ScubaNat]

Originally Posted by GLOC

What do you want to take pictures of as that is your starting point? The second question is how much do you want to spend?

Answer those and we might able to help.

Fair question - thanks! Don't really want to spend much more than £400-500. Won't want to be taking many pics in UK waters, mostly tropical fish and coral, Red Sea, Caribbean, etc.

[ScubaNat]

Originally Posted by Rod

Have you looked at the Canon offer on the PADI pro site yet ?

Yeah I did have a look at that, but it's only if you want to buy 3 or more cameras, and I'm not really set up enough for that just yet!

[Fiona]

Don't know how this compares but Brett has this Fuji F50fd on offer at the moment.

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by ScubaNat

Hey YDers, I've recently passed my DUP instructor spec and want to get a reasonably swanky new camera and housing. I've been using a Sea and Sea for the last couple of years, but it ain't that great, and was looking for something with a flash I could take down to about 40m that isn't too bulky. Any recommendations?

If you're on a tight budget and you want a camera system that your students can also buy then there's really only one choice - get yourself a Fuji F31fd or the newer (but not quite so good in low light, apparently), F50fd.

[ChristianG]

Originally Posted by Fiona

Don't know how this compares but Brett has this Fuji F10 on offer at the moment.

I suspect you mean the F50?

Given the monetary constraints I would prefer the F31 to the above, you don't really need all those extra "pixels" (they aren't actually) crammed onto the same size sensor - that's not a good idea at all.

More pixels, today, is not at all necessarily better than less pixels but I'll qualify that: all camera manufacturers today call photocells pixels when they aren't. In the case of conventional cameras (currently all but Sigma) 4 x photocells make a (proper) pixel so if you divide by four you'll get to a more correct pixel count. I recently wrote on another Forum:

"The amount of processing power required to resolve an A4 (210 x 297mm) image to print (trust me, I'm a retired printer) is 1,600 by 2,400 pixels (proper, real pixels - as described above) or 3.8 megapixels - again, proper megapixels, a far cry from what the camera manufacturers would have you believe and most of you wouldn't want to go beyond that size - if you did you'd be a contender for a decent dSLR which will almost inevitably have a bigger sensor than those described above."

Maybe I should copy the whole of what I wrote here? Anyone want to persuade me to do so? Seems to me that there are not a few who really don't properly understand proper pixels and printing in real terms - particularly when one includes the limitations of the human eye - and the human eye has many limitations.

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by ChristianG

I suspect you mean the F50?

Opps don't know why I put F10 it is in deed the F50fd.

[triplefin]

Originally Posted by ChristianG

Maybe I should copy the whole of what I wrote here? Anyone want to persuade me to do so? Seems to me that there are not a few who really don't properly understand proper pixels and printing in real terms - particularly when one includes the limitations of the human eye - and the human eye has many limitations.

Might be useful to put it on DG Christian