Cheap underwater camera for snorkelling

[Weslake-Monza]

Having bought a snorkel and mask, rather than borrow the kid's, I am thinking about buying an underwater camera. I'm only likely to be taking pictures of the kids snorkeling and the occasional fish in clear Mediterranean waters. I'd like to take good quality photos (I use a Nokia Lumia 1020 for snaps and a Nikon 7200 for everything else) that are reasonably sharp. I'm guessing I want a fairly sharp shutter speed and would like a zoom as well. I've seen budget cameras on amazon with 12Mp or 16Mp but not sure if in the real world they are as good as my Lumia 1020. I have a zero budget but would be prepared to spend about £60 unless spending twice as much would get me images/ a camera 4 times better. Between the Lumia and my Nikon any new camera isn't likely to see a lot of use unless as a day to day compact it wiped the floor with the Lumia on zoom.

Any recommendations on cameras and suppliers.

[Kernowlokal]

My budget didn't stretch to a Go Pro, so I bought a Sony AS30V. It's been brilliant, although I haven't had enough time in the water with it.

Here is an example picture, although on dry land.



I thought that was pretty good for what is primarily aimed at video use.

As for using a dedicated photo camera, I think you are going to need to up the budget a lot to make it worthwhile. A mate of mine does a lot of surf photography, he uses a Canon 7D and a waterproof housing that costs about the same as the camera. The other local guys that take good shots have similar set ups. A friend has a waterproof Fuji (I think) that was about £120 and that is pretty rubbish - no zoom, I think a pretty low resolution and only waterproof to about 5m.

I guess the Sony is probably over budget too, but there are a lot of others, like SJCams, that are cheaper and probably just as good.

http://www.gearbest.com/action-cameras/pp_380137.h...

I think that one is about £40 via the Gearbest app at the moment

[Tickle]

SJCAM 4000. I use it for stills when driving, works great underwater too. You also have all the benifits of a gopro.

Edited by Tickle on Monday 26th June 11:28

[conkerman]

I had the same situation last year, I went for a Fuji Xp90.

Great Value for money.

Get a float bracelet and a spare battery.

[C&C]

What about getting an underwater case for your Nokia?
This one is apparently ok for depths up to 10 metres and is £23 including delivery. Only low scoring reviews appear to be from people whose particular phone was a bit big for the case. Others seem ok re. the waterproof nature of it, with at least one person using it successfully for snorkelling.

There are also cases available for the Nikon DSLR made by Ewa Marine, but these more expensive at £200 upwards.

[Weslake-Monza]

Thanks for all the replies. I thought about a case for the Nokia but read some less than great reviews. The Fuji looks promising but a bit expensive for what are really holiday snaps (wife and kids to feed, euro rate is now crap and I've recently spent money on the car..).

I looked at a Nikon compact £105/115 depending on colour but Jessops advised that the optical zoom won't work under water and suggested the new Panasonic Lumix whatever at about the same price as being a lot better. I've bunged some stuff on ebay to help fund the purchase that might edge me nearer the Fuji unless the Lumix is better.