I'm going on a diving holiday to the Red Sea next week and have been thinking about getting a Sony P8 digital camera and an underwater housing. Just wondering if anybody has used the Sony P8 and if it's any good?
Posted at May 14, 2004 9:02 PM
I’m a pro photographer, don’t touch Sony. Mem sticks are a fortune and you’re talking 2.5x what you’d pay for CF cards. What happens when you’re underwater and want to change the card because you’ve run out of space? You also have to be careful opening the UW housing after immersion due to condensation and temperature equalisation. Check out www.dpreview.com - Phil offers the most informed review you’ll find on the web, the forums are full of owners, you’ll get what you need there.
If you want to shoot continous video, then I would choose Sony cameras. If you want to shoot photographs, I would choose Canon.
I have a Canon S30 and I love it. My next camera will be a Canon (S60 or somesuch).
I have a few photos up at www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/show
I personally prefer Panasonic digital camera models. The main reason I switched to Panasonic’s is ‘cause they boast Leica lenses. For the same price of a P8 you can get different models of Pana (just avoid the LC40).
If the underwater housing was a big influence…
Canon has an underwater housing for the Digital IXUS 500 (UK) PowerShot S500 (US/CAN) a 5.0 Megapixel camera.
My husband and I purchased a P8 just before we had our baby.
The continuous video feature was a major plus for us and the quality for a 3.2 megapixel camera seemed really good.
I have found the rechargeable battery lasts quite a long time. I guess the memory sticks are more expensive, but we purchased a 128 mb card for $50 which didn’t seem too bad.
The small size of the camera is also a major plus if you are traveling and carrying it around with you.
Like CH said, compared to other digital cameras in the same price range I think it is a good buy.
User Experience Designer and CEO of Clearleft, Andy is the author of CSS Mastery, curates the dConstruct and UX London events and is responsible for Silverbackapp, a low cost usability testing application for the Mac. Andy is a regular speaker at international conferences and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the UK digital sector by Wired Magazine.
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CH said on May 14, 2004 10:15 PM
I have a couple friends who own a Sony P8, and because I was more impressed by the pictures (in the overall color and sharpness of each picture) they got compared to those taken by other digital cameras (in that price range), I have one now as well. I’ve been pleased with the pictures I get, and I’ve found the flash to work nicely in low-light conditions. I don’t know how pictures turn out underwater however.
Diving in the Red Sea? sounds fun… :)