I have a Canon PowerShot S500 which my "wife bought for me" a while back. It's an excellent camera that takes great shots, but most importantly, it has a sentimental value which over shadows how well it performs.
The Sea & Sea DX-1G 10 mp Digital Underwater Camera, among others like it, is designed for the purpose of taking professional pictures underwater. My intentions, however, are to take pictures which I think are great pictures, not professional pictures. I am not looking to be a professional underwater photographer. Besides, that sort of toy is too hot for my pocket.
So, despite the uncertainty that such a device will really work, I bought the Canon Waterproof Case WP-DC800 housing, and even the Canon WWDC1 Weight for it. It cost me about $200. It came in the mail yesterday and I couldn’t wait to test it out. I performed what Canon calls, “The Preparation & Care” last night and it work flawlessly. It involved moving the O-Ring from the housing, rubbing some grease on, put in it back in place, stuffing some tissue paper into the housing, sealing it, and submerging the housing into water. (Sigh…what a mouthful).
I added the weights I got to the housing so that it would sink to the bottom. That didn’t work…I guess it also needs the weight of the camera to keep it from floating to the top. Alternatively, I had to hold the housing submerged underwater. I did that for about 30 minutes while pushing all the built-in buttons. Once completed, I took the tissue out of the housing, and it was dry. The test was a success.
Now to the Open Water…
Tell me, have any of you done any underwater photography or interested in doing so? If you have, please share your experience with us. And if you plan on doing so, where will you be going?
2 comments:
I've already shared my experience. I had a similar camera with a similar Canon housing. It failed on the second use. If yours fails, contact Canon immediately. Being a tinkerer and a hard-head, I waited a year or so to try fixing it myself. It worked for a week, but crapped out again. Had I simply contacted Canon I would have gotten a replacement. So that's my $.02.
Happy diving!
The housing did ok at the lake where I dove. There was no leak, but there where a few issues when we went deep. When we wend below 35 feet, the pressure as a little too much for the battery to handle. The camera either take a long time to come on or it didn't come on at all. That has prompt me to look into getting a real underwater camera from SeaLife.
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