I've got a budget of up to £250 and I'm looking for a digital camera I can use underwater, preferably with the ability to use video - I can get some big memory cards for fairly cheap.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

£250 is going to be a tight budget for camera and housing..

Intova - IC10 should fall in budget. Intova has plenty of add ons, but a basic camera.
Fuji - Z200 should be in budget, but not sure how much manual control is available for more advance shooting

Otherwise have a look at these, but I don't think they will fit in budget.
Fuji - F100EXR, the F80 looks nice, but even more £s
Canon - Isus 95

Get some more money is the best option, don't waste it on the Intova.

Best option would be a 2nd hand Fuji F30/31.

what's your land camera? Is there a housing available for it? I bought a housing for my old panasonic lumix in a sale because the new model lumix needs a new housing.

Takes great pictures but I've to be careful of light levels for movies.

I don't really have a land camera. I have an old Fuji laying about I haven't touched in years.

I just saw some of underwater cameras have things like auto-colour correction for when you're taking photos underwater.

I'm going to the dive shop today, so I'll have another look at what they have and see what they recommend.

Hi all...I went to the Birmingham dive show in October with the full intention of buying a new camera...my 'old' one is a sea and sea MX10 with strobe....and I didn't realise how hard it was to get 35mm film these days...so my initial thought was to go for a Fuji F80 EXR (I'd read about the low light level sensor which brought underwater pics back to life)...then I saw the Sealife DC1200 which looks like a really nice,sleek and easy to use camera...however after seeing some of the examples of photo's that these cameras took,I was somewhat disappointed...lacking in colour,looking washed out etc...of course this may be down to the settings but another interesting point was that on the photo wall display at the show...most of the display pics seemed to be taken on a canon with a few by Nikon and other makes...so my question is...is it worth stretching the budget to a Canon G12...?? Anyone with any experience or advice that can help me out..??

I've heard good things about the cannon G series for underwater pics and they do seem to lead the way but at the additional £.

Tafferboy wrote:
I wouldn't use the underwater scene settings, manual white balance is a lot better.

The best way to get good colour though is with a strobe..

There are some examples of mine with the Fuji EXR sensor (fuji 200 EXR) about the site or have a look on my flickr site

Hi Wookie...many thanks for the post and ironically I had seen some of your photo's and was actually going to ask what you were using..!! So i think now I'll need to look at the difference in cost between the Fuji and Canon and see how flexible my credit card is feeling as I think I'll be adding a strobe and wide angle lens...gulp...

I think the cannon is better than the fuji, but the fuji is cheaper and can still deliver. I'd definatley go for the strobe over the wide angle lense if it comes down to a choice. I'm still having to work hard to get the most from the wide angle lense I have. If you do go with a fuji you need to look closely as I think you can't use the manual shutter and apature settings for the 500EXR.

I have new Canon G12 with Ikelite housing, red filter and videolight + wide angle lens, all from Ike.
I'm really happy with the results even on AUTO; Especially pics taken with the red filter. The video is HD -quality.
I still need to learn to use all the manual settings, but I think the quality of the photos can only get better...

Nice one!
My girlfriend and I use the Canon G11 with the basic housing. No strobes. just stock standard. And we are getting great photos from it!
The manual settings are tricky but one of the best ones is the custom and then being able to adjust the white balance. I love that!!
Big fan of the canons!