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Crush - 11/19/2008 5:10 AM 
I use a Canon A95 and love it. I will recommend to stay away from the Nikon coolpix. They take so long to reset between photos... Slow is No good.
The Canon has video, and many other options. There are a lot of good choices out there though. My videos were done on this Canon A95.. Hope this helps.
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I’m not sure what your criteria for "affordable" is but the Canon G7, G9 and the new G10 are all amazing Point-and-shoot’s with options for advanced manual settings if you so choose. Canon makes underwater housings for them as does some other company. Brand new G10 (14MP) retails for $499 but I’m sure you can find it less online. That’s the same price I bought my G7 (10MP) and G9 (12MP) for when I bought them like 3 and 1.5 years ago respectably. The housing were NOT the same between the G7 and G9 (annoying) and it looks like the G10 is just different enough that the housing will be different for it too. BTW - Housings can be had online for under $200. I’d put the actual model number into Google Shopping and see what you find.
"http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=17624"
"http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=15669"
Either model will serve you great for years to come.
Good luck and good shooting,
Eric
PS - I don’t work for Canon, just a happy customer
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Hi Pixel,
The Canon’s are really great cameras for underwater. You might check with some of the companies who sell underwater cameras (for example Backscatter, H2O Photo Pros, Reef Photo Video, or Underwater Photo Tech) to see if they might have any inside info about anyone coming out with a housing for the camera you already have. Also keep an eye on digideep dot com. It makes the learning process much easier if you’re shooting the same camera topside as underwater.
What’s even more important is whether or not you have an external strobe. The small point & shoot cameras cannot put out enough light from the onboard flash to get good shots every time. They may be fine for stuff that’s less than 12" away, but for anything further you’ll need an external strobe. At distance, the onboard flash does more harm than good. The best strobes I’ve seen for point & shoot cameras is the Inon strobe. It uses a fiber optic cable to do a TTL sync from the onboard flash. This is very significant, since they are the only strobe manufacturer that can do this. They are not cheap, but worth every penny if you really want great shots. They have recently come out with a smaller, less expensive strobe specifically designed for that type of camera. And someday when you upgrade to a bigger and better camera, the stobe is still compatible.
Another option would be to try Alex Mustard’s Magic Filters. They are great for point & shoot camers that don’t have external flashes and are much cheaper. Color looks a but funky to me, but much better than all blue.
Either way, you’ll have a lot of fun taking pictures underwater. I’m an addict!
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I Don’t know what your price range is but,
Either Sea & Sea or Sealife both have packages that range in price between $700 & $1500 USD and include camera, housing and a flash unit.
If you are wanting to spend a bit more money, then I like Canon. They have excellent cameras and U/W housings are usually easy to find.
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Pixel - 11/20/2008 7:25 AM
Exchange rate for Rand to Dollar is about 8 to 1. So affordable would be about R5000.
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Pix,
My husband (scubaclay) has the Inotva, which is sold by Trident Catolog. He took great Pictures and video in Bonair, this past summer. Also it is very inexpensive. Ask him about it or to send you some of his pictures.
Roxanne
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Hi Pixel,
All my pics shown on my profile were taken with a reefmaster mini by sealife with no strobe attached. They retail for 279.95 american. I also have a strobe kit for mine but have not attached it yet because without it , it fits in my bc pocket very nicely
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