non DSLR underwater camera recommendations

[electrokate]

Hi,
I am wondering if any of you have a recommendation for a camera I can use snorkeling and in my tank, not looking for a DSLR but something compact and not spendy (have a DSLR but the price of a case is prohibitive considering the DSLR is already outmoded and unreliable). I have an Intova IC 600 which is fun but pretty old, and the pics are pretty small with a tendency toward blown out highlights in the tanks. I do not scuba so it's not going to need to perform under pressure, and I would like to try something without a case as it is awkward to use a camera with case in my tanks. I have read some good things about various point and shoots by Olympus, Sony, Pentax but wondering if anyone has actual experience considering a fish geek's needs and reef lighting? Would also be nice if it took video, but not essential.

Some recent pictures with the Intova:

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One big bonus to shooting your tank from inside the tank is you don't need to clean the glass. Another is you get to see all tha majanos hiding in the back where you can't normally see them Obviously this camera works for still subjects but when I shot in HI the subjects were fish, which were farther away and thus when I blew up the picture you could see a lot of grain. This unit also has a lag time between when you hit the button that resulted in a lot of pictures of fish tails. For coral pictures it's great fun though.

So does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[BlueCorn]

We used a Canon G12 and a WP-DC34 housing while we were in Hawaii. It worked great and it's a terrific all-around camera.

 

[electrokate]

Here are the best shots I took over the year in Hawaii... lots of ISO noise, small pictures.

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n72/electrokate/Snorkeling pictures/

 

[r-balljunkie]

i dive every weekend. my workhorse is the oly xz-1 with PT-050 housing. its a relatively inexpensive combination. the camera is amazing out of water too. does much much more than im capable of. here's a nice clam and fish shots.

the service from oly has been outstanding. ive done some 'abusive' things to this camera, sent it in, they fixed it and sent it back, no charge.

 

[hans1976]

I like my Olympus ....Olympus 1030

Only thing you need to be sure of is that the door is closed.

 

[electrokate]

Thanks, will look into the Olympus options if I get another chance to take a tropical vacation. We are here, using the old camera. I like Oly products, actually use old Zuiko lenses with adapters on my DSLR, the consumer grade canon lenses do not compare. We are in Tulum now, snorkeled a couple times, the hard corals are in bad shape. 99% of the acros dead. Talked to some Nature Conservancy people who are monitoring and reporting on the declines in fish and coral, got a boat out to the one last stand of acro they knew of. Few fish. Tons of gorgonians though, and a couple nice size crocodiles. Them you don't want to see.