A good underwater camera...

Any recommendations on a good underwater camera? Something that can shoot video as well?
Thanks!
Andrew

Yer gonna take your own Ab movies at Salt Point then? 

I have an Olympus SW850. It has preset filters for underwater and video that work well. I have been very happy with it. My only complaint is that you have to take the battery out to charge it; I would like to minimise opening and closing of the waterproof seals.

I also purchased a floating wrist handle, just in case.

How deep do you want to go? And what is your $$$$$$$ budget?

For shallow freediving and Kayak use Pentax optio's are popular. The the Olympus sw can go deeper and are HD but slower and the video is not as fast.

Deep freediving or scuba is going to require a UW housing which increases the bulk and weight. But you can get them for a lot of cameras. Seahunter uses the Panasonics with a housing for his vids.

Thanks for the tips. I have a couple of high-end Panasonic cameras that I use for work which I will absolutely not take underwater regardless of the housing. However, I've found a few point and shoot still/video cams with underwater housings for a few hundred bucks.

Yep, I'm thinking about shooting my own underwater footage to show the F&G commission how healthy our abalone populations are. Abalone on the north coast, are, simply put, OVER-populated. Nature never intended for there to be so many abalone, but since we've wiped out the sea otters, we have a surplus of abalone. These snails are not going anywhere - ask anyone who has been diving this coast for a long time and they will tell you just that.

If that's "all" you want it for then I'll happily lend you my camera in exchange for an abalone!

(assuming thats considered "legal" by the F+G).

(Seriously tho' if you want to borrow mine it's no problem, ab or no ab, i know there are restrictive yearly limits. A childhood ear operation means I am unable to dive myself.).

My sister bought one of these to take to Hawaii with pretty good results. She bought one of the cheaper models http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/dc800.html
Do you think they would watch your video at the meeting? A couple of posterboard shots might be more effective they would have to look at them the whole meeting.

I forget which model seahunter uses but he has shot almost all of his video with it and it takes incredible underwater video.