I read a product review today on the new Canon Powershot S60 digital camera. I have the S40 from about 2 years ago, and the underwater housing and I love it. All of the pics in the Underwater Gallery on my Photo Galleries page were taken with it. (note photo galleries are offline temporarily til we get the right app installed)

After mine came out, an S45 came out, and then S50 with 5 megapixels. They all had the same body and button layout, so the WPC-DC300 fit all of them. The only problem with the S45 and the S50 was with the software. On the S40, you could push the menu button multiple times to 'scroll' through the different menus and then slide L-R to choose a menu item with the center button of the 4-way rocker switch. The only thing you could not do with the camera in the housing was scroll up and down, but that wasn't a big deal, as I never really had the need to scroll through the menus that required it while it was underwater.

That changed with the S45 though, the menu button was a one-press button that brought up a menu on-screen with the various menus, and you then had to scroll down to select a menu, and then left-right to select an item. What's the big deal? White Balance.

White Balance is the key to taking underwater photography. Brad figured it out a couple years ago when he had the original Digital Elph. At the time, I had my Kodak 240Z and custom housing from Ikelite, but the thing was friggin huge. I was looking to upgrade, and this manual White Balance setting seemed to be the trick to not having to have video lights underwater to get good colors. I was sold and looked into the Powershot line. I had just reccommended the S30 to my friend Andy for his wife for an xmas present, and that spring the S40 came out with a 4 megapixel sensor. I picked it up in Tampa at Wolf's for $599 and ordered the WP-DC300 case from CDW for $249. (A far cry from the $1200 for the ikelite housing). Apparently the good people at Canon realized what they had on their hands and went so far as to develop the Powershot Underwater Photography Guide.

They've also realized that they made a teensy error on the software/firmware on the S45 and S50 by making the white balance unaccessible in the housing (unless they updated the housing since last time I checked) and have made big, bold steps to correct this in the S60. Not only have they re-designed the buttons on the back so that everything is accessible while in the housing, they've added a new white balance setting: UNDERWATER MODE. Not that it was brain surgery to figure it out before, but now it's a camera mode and mostly idiot-proof.

So it's time to upgrade! that means that  I have to sell mine. A Pluck eBay Power Search turns up Canon S40 cameras in the $250 dollar range, and the housing doesnt seem to be listed anywhere, but it probably worth about $200 or so. Damn. $450 for a 4 megapixel underwater camera. Who woulda thunk it? Anyway. if you're interested or know someone who wants to get their feet wet (ha ha pun intended) drop me a line or forward this link on to them.