Quote:
Originally Posted by Annie S
For what it is worth I would be absolutely terrified to take that much money underwater, so I plan to be sticking with my comapct for quite some time to come. (especially as I have given one camera an early bath already!)
I am very serious about my photography and I do consider myself to be more than 'a happy snapper' but I know I have so much more still to learn. I agree with Ken though - the camera is just a tool, it's the person behind it that really counts. Learning to take a decent underwater picture is like learning photography right from the beginning again and having the best camera money can buy will not give you overnight success - unfortunately!!
There are compacts available with a good range of manual settings so why not consider upgrading to one of those first? I would hate to be without my camera when I'm diving now and it is such a huge learning curve anyway.I imagine the tips you got on your course will prove invaluable to you. Having a better compact now would enable you to practice more and save up for better equipment without so much pressure, maybe? And depending on what you ultimately want to do with your pictures you may decide that you don't need to spend £1000's on equipment after all (more money for diving holidays??)
Good luck anyway, with whatever you decide, and have lots of fun!
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Cheers Annie,
There are some excellent points in there. I had / am considering going the more advanced compact route as a stepping stone to taking my underwater photography on further for a couple of reasons. It'll take me a good while to be able to afford all the bits and pieces to take my DSLR underwater and also I want to continue learning and improving my skills whilst I'm waiting to do that. To be honest I hadn't even thought about the risk of a flooded housing! I've not had one yet and it hadn't crossed my mind.
Whilst looking into the compact route I have been lingering on the Fuji Finepix F30. The thing I like is that it has a Shutter priority and an Aperture priority mode which will allow me to continue experimenting and advancing my skills. It also goes up to an ISO setting of 3200 for low light stuff (although I'm sure there would be the expected amount of noise!) There's a good review here if you're interested
DCRP Review: Fuji FinePix F30
I also liked the point of having more money for diving holidays
All I need to do is now convince SWMBO that I DO need to buy my Nikon D80 and a new compact and housing at the same time
Any advice?