DO NOT use one of those plastic baggies - they do not do a good job if you plan on doing any sort of surface dive with the camera. You need to get close to your subject, and...well....if you aren't diving down then your underwater pictures are blue. Most of the time Photoshop (or comparable program) can't fix that.

SOME Canon cameras have an 'underwater setting' that changes many things.

Save heartache and get a regular housing if you want to take the Canon underwater...or you'll have a soggy mess on your hands. You'd be surprised how useful that housing will be anyway - doing a daysail? stick the camera in the housing. Out in the rain (or inclement weather)? Housing. They're more useful than for JUST going underwater.

my 2 centavos

I faced similar choice last year because I didnt want to spend the $$$ for the UW housing that fits my Canon A80 digicam. I bought this UK made product called the AquaPac. Google it and it will pop up if you are curious.

This is actually a pretty well engineered waterproof plastic bag that I tested for water tightness before I left but was unable to test for true functionality like in a pool or something.

First off, I didn’t have enough silica dessicant packs in the bag and my Canon is apparently very sensitive to the extra humidity created in the enclosure and kept shutting down.

Second, even though this Canon has an LCD screen that swivels out from the camera at various angles, I was pretty much unable to use it to see what I was framing.

Thirdly, the bag seemed to play tricks with the lens and auto focus and I also had troubles with exposures, tried different ISO settings, white balance, etc.

It finally dawned on me the last day at Secret Harbour to try my much older 2mp Kodak digicam that I let my daughter use and that worked much better. Wish I had tried it earlier at the Indians and Waterlemon.

Therefore my underwater photography efforts were disapointing. This was quite frustrating considering the UW photo ops I had in STJ, the BVIs, and at Secret Harbour.

This year I bought a Canon housing on Ebay for about $100 that had been used 1 or 2 times from a seller who did other photo stuff and had 100% clean rating. Tested out OK and am looking forward to using it in about 30 days.

So maybe go for the Canon housing and as other post said, discover other bad weather uses for it OR turn around and sell it used on Ebay (take good care of packaging, instructions etc.)

I didn't think the plastic bags would work very well...and I wasn't about to test it out on a $300 camera! The A540 does have an underwater setting, which is why I was leaning towards getting it. Good point about the day sail, which we plan on doing. Thanks for your advice.

we bought the new pentax wpi underwater camara. no housing needed. they go for 350, bought i found it on line for 250 shipping included. we had it in the water longer than the 30 minutes it said. pictures turned out great also. scooby

takes a bit more than a bathtub. The commercially available housings aren't foolproof either - a tiny grain of sand can ruin yer WHOLE day, as can a stray hair.

Best thing is to put a paper towel in the housing before actually putting the camera in it, to make sure you know the peculiarities of the closure mechanism.

I have my housing just back from annual service, and am SICK therefore can't dive on these couple of days off...WAAH!!! 🙂