Author Topic: Compacts...  (Read 3559 times)

  • Offline zpyder

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Compacts...
on: April 22, 2012, 18:33:08 PM
Whilst looking into Potential Crab Cam equipment, it dawned on me that an option is a compact camera + housing, which would end up offering better image quality as well as being more waterproof.

The problem is though I am well and truly out of the loop of compacts. The Olympus tough was the last compact I bought, and since then the compact systems have come on to the scene, as well as some pretty chunky point and shoots.

The other problem is the cost of the housing that would be required for the camera.

So, what are the generally good compacts that are out there at the moment? I get the impression the canon G series are pretty good, but the latest ones are quite expensive too. I've also seen the SX2xx series that seem to be quite versatile, and the slightly older versions are also in the "tough camera" price range.

Thoughts?

Re: Compacts...
Reply #1 on: April 22, 2012, 19:01:44 PM
I had a G11 and housing and found the underwater video fantastic. They are quite a bit bigger than other options though.

http://www.facebook.com/v/626386187137
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Compacts...
Reply #2 on: April 22, 2012, 23:00:59 PM
Not visible due to privacy settings.

Re: Compacts...
Reply #3 on: April 23, 2012, 08:24:10 AM
Try now.

G9, 10, 11 might have come down in price nicely now. I do miss mine, it could shoot RAW and did so fantastically, with the exception of interchangeable lenses it was better than my D70 (not that that's a high benchmark)
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Compacts...
Reply #4 on: April 23, 2012, 12:55:57 PM
Looks pretty good, and that's not HD either is it? (I think it's only the G12 that can do 720p)?

My main concern is that really I'd like as high-res video as possible. Question is, is it's 720p going to be better quality than a rugged cameras 1020p resolution?


Re: Compacts...
Reply #5 on: April 23, 2012, 13:38:27 PM
Blowing that up on screen actually makes it look much worse than I recall, I've uploaded the full out-of-camera version to drop box if you want to take a look at a pre-facebook version.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7698099/MVI_3589.MOV

To be honest I cant remember the video spec but good seems to confirm it wasnt 720p.
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Compacts...
Reply #6 on: April 23, 2012, 13:59:13 PM
This is a tricky one. I like the idea of the freedom I'd have with a G series or similar, but none of them seem to have an interval mode (would be pretty useful). Gah.

Re: Compacts...
Reply #7 on: April 23, 2012, 14:32:45 PM
On the flip side - do you need an interval mode if your only limit is the size of your storage? I'd imagine you'd get a huge ammout of footage on a 32gb SD card - a quick calc based on my 108mb 80s movie suggests about 6.5 hours.
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Compacts...
Reply #8 on: April 23, 2012, 14:48:49 PM
Possibly.

The thing is though for some scientific stuff, it'd be handy to take photos every 30 seconds or so, and then analyse them in "time sections". Sure you could probably just skip 30s at a time in the video, but the picture quality wouldn't be as good.

I'll have to have a look at some of the options this weekend and have a play with them :D

I guess I could always get a cheap intervalometer to use with the G12...
Last Edit: April 23, 2012, 16:14:28 PM by zpyder #187;

  • Offline zpyder

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Re: Compacts...
Reply #9 on: April 24, 2012, 11:40:10 AM
I'm starting to like the look of the Canon S100, but the battery life may be an issue. Otherwise it might be a good choice for versatility...

Re: Compacts...
Reply #10 on: April 25, 2012, 08:03:10 AM
my wife has an SX220, which is a very nice general purpose compact with 12x optical zoom and HD video (apparently, we haven't used that feature so I can't comment on how well it works). Where it may fall down for your purposes is the lens extends quite a lot so housings may be an issue, it's not something that's important to us since neither of us dives, so I've never looked into it.

  • Offline ERU

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Re: Compacts...
Reply #11 on: June 16, 2012, 17:02:09 PM
I use a Cannon S95 and it's often as good as my SLR.

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