Underwater camera

I have an Olympus Stylus 1030SW that I've had for a few years and have been very pleased with. There a couple models in the Olympus line that are very inexpensive, plus some of the older models can probably be had at good discounts. As far as I know Olympus were the first to offer a shockproof/waterproof line of cameras but now it seems everyone has one in their line. One of the great things about the 1030SW is the wide angle lens, I can't emphasize enough the advantage of being able to get the whole body in the picture without having to be a long distance away when shooting underwater, where things often get cloudy with greater distance, depending on the water and lighting. The fact that this camera fits easily in any pocket and is tough makes it great for travel. YouTube- Lindsay Cam clip 59 Butterfly One limitation of my camera is the inability to do a smooth slow zoom while taking video, which would be useful for shots with the swimmer swimming toward the camera. I don't know if more recent models fix this, it's even possible that I just need to set options, I haven't tried very hard. Depending on what other cameras you have and whether you foresee wanting to use it as your still camera as well you might consider one of the new waterproof HD video cameras, some of which are in the same price range with better video quality. These are more video cameras that take still pictures, they don't have as high resolution for stills, while the compact digital cameras have very high still resolution and limited video resolution. Amazon.com: Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD Waterproof Flash Memory Camcorder w/ 30x Optical Zoom (Yellow): Camera & Photo I've used a Canon HD video camera with an underwater casing and the video is very nice, but the camera plus casing is quite a bit more expensive than the other options. It does stuff like nice variable speed zooming. Some sample video: YouTube- MACC Simon F. Underwater 00103 There was a bug with youtube that caused this video, which is 1080i to be treated as though it was 1080p so it comes out half speed, and the sound is bad, but when I convert it to 720p before uploading it comes out full speed. I thought half speed was actually useful for these clips. At other times I have uploaded the same format and had it come out full speed, I don't know if youtube has fixed the bug now. To appreciate the difference in video quality you have to watch it on youtube in HD rather than in the embedded viewer here (click on Youtube in the lower right and then click on the resolution control under the video). Another point is that HD video does take a more powerful computer (probably anything recent) and relatively recent software to view and edit. Most cameras will come with viewing software and more recent OSes and video editing software will support HD. Although my Olympus is good enough for most stuff I miss the HD Canon camcorder with casing, and am thinking of getting one of the HD Sanyo cameras.

I have an Olympus Stylus 1030SW that I've had for a few years and have been very pleased with. There a couple models in the Olympus line that are very inexpensive, plus some of the older models can probably be had at good discounts. As far as I know Olympus were the first to offer a shockproof/waterproof line of cameras but now it seems everyone has one in their line. One of the great things about the 1030SW is the wide angle lens, I can't emphasize enough the advantage of being able to get the whole body in the picture without having to be a long distance away when shooting underwater, where things often get cloudy with greater distance, depending on the water and lighting. The fact that this camera fits easily in any pocket and is tough makes it great for travel. YouTube- Lindsay Cam clip 59 Butterfly One limitation of my camera is the inability to do a smooth slow zoom while taking video, which would be useful for shots with the swimmer swimming toward the camera. I don't know if more recent models fix this, it's even possible that I just need to set options, I haven't tried very hard. Depending on what other cameras you have and whether you foresee wanting to use it as your still camera as well you might consider one of the new waterproof HD video cameras, some of which are in the same price range with better video quality. These are more video cameras that take still pictures, they don't have as high resolution for stills, while the compact digital cameras have very high still resolution and limited video resolution. Amazon.com: Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD Waterproof Flash Memory Camcorder w/ 30x Optical Zoom (Yellow): Camera & Photo I've used a Canon HD video camera with an underwater casing and the video is very nice, but the camera plus casing is quite a bit more expensive than the other options. It does stuff like nice variable speed zooming. Some sample video: YouTube- MACC Simon F. Underwater 00103 There was a bug with youtube that caused this video, which is 1080i to be treated as though it was 1080p so it comes out half speed, and the sound is bad, but when I convert it to 720p before uploading it comes out full speed. I thought half speed was actually useful for these clips. At other times I have uploaded the same format and had it come out full speed, I don't know if youtube has fixed the bug now. To appreciate the difference in video quality you have to watch it on youtube in HD rather than in the embedded viewer here (click on Youtube in the lower right and then click on the resolution control under the video). Another point is that HD video does take a more powerful computer (probably anything recent) and relatively recent software to view and edit. Most cameras will come with viewing software and more recent OSes and video editing software will support HD. Although my Olympus is good enough for most stuff I miss the HD Canon camcorder with casing, and am thinking of getting one of the HD Sanyo cameras.