more on the 10bar housing for the panasonic LX3

there is a price list here, from 10bar, which mentions a price of 630 USD for the 10bar LX3 housing. also available here, but the price is ... 905 USD ("availability 3 weeks"). 

phase versus contrast detect focusing in low light (underwater)

i ve used my olympus E520 underwater only a few times so far (10 or so) and i've notice that in low light, low visibility, wide angle it has some trouble focusing. In similar situations my previous camera, the canon G7 of course wouldnt focus either, and would never be able to take a photo of any use. the olympus can take good photos but the focusing part becomes slightly noticable.

i also noticed (i think) that in such cases, switching to live-view/constrast detect focus works much faster and possibly better.

i was wondering if anyone had the same experience with similar cameras?

are there cases where contrast detect focus is better than the normal/phase detect focus especially underwater?

panasonic LX3 underwater housing from 10bar

there is a recent review on dpreview.com comparing a bunch of higher end compacts that finds the panasonic lx3 as the overall winner. the camera is probably one of the best compact options at this time for undewater use. the only problem is that there are no cheap housings for it.

there is a 10bar housing, made of aluminum, that looks quite nice (and expensive..)

there is some information about the new housing on the 10bar website, as well as this thread on wetpixel. the price is reported around 600 USD in the wetpixel forums. the camera is around 400 USD.

the canon g10 is so much cheaper, at 400USD for the camera plus 200USD for the canon housing.