quick price check for dSLRs

A quick price check for entry level dSLRs with a housing
(prices are in US dollars, so also in AU dollars..)

• Olympus E520 in an Olympus PT-E05 housing, with the standard lens port PPOE05 :
  700 + 830 + 300 = $1830
• Canon 450D in Ikelite with port:
  800 + 1330 + 200 = 2330
• Canon 1000D has a price tag of 700USD, but not sure about a housing for it.
• Nikon D60 in fantasea (fantasea housings prices include a port):
  630 + 1000 = 1630
• Nikon D80 in fantasea:
  950 + 1100 = 2050

I believe that the olympus housing is the only one (from the short list above) that allows the camera's internal strobe to be used (for use with external strobes connected with optic cables).

new Canon 1000D

canon 1000D announced, which is placed below 450D. most features are similar to 450D (including the live view with both phase and contrast detect auto focus) but with a smaller lcd screen, slightly slower in continuous mode, no spot metering, 7 point (instead of 9) AF, no highlight tone priority, and slightly less magnification on the viewfinder. for a detailed preview see the dpreview pages.

current camera prices

current prices from adorama and fantasea:

670: nikon p5000 in fantasea 340 + 245 = 585 USD = 670 AUD
790: canon G7 in canon housing 500 + 170 = 670 USD = 790 AUD
930: nikon p5000 in ikelite 340 + 450 = 790 USD = 930 AUD
1165: sea & sea DX-1G 999 USD = 1165 AUD
1212: canon G7 in ikelite 500 + 529 = 1029 USD = 1212 AUD

also:
canon 400D in fantasea 730 + 1066 USD = 2100 AUD
canon 400D in ikelite 730 + 1250 = 1980 USD = 2310 AUD

new sea & sea DX-1G camera announced

bhphotovideo lists this camera for 999USD (not yet available).

interesting points:

• weird hotshoe accepts an LED flash that can be used for triggering up to two strobes through optic fiber cables without firing the internal camera flash.
• wide angle starting at 24
• add-on wide angle wet-lens gives 16mm
• shutter lag time of only 0.1 sec (full shutter press)
• rated to 50m
• camera (most likely Ricoh GX100) might have the same ccd sensor as the G7 (from a post in a discussion forum)
• RAW (about 4sec write time ?)
• its battery lasts 350 clicks, but can also use AAAs (50 clicks)
  

some links:
from digideep, engadget, news.myspace, wetpixel, wetpixel forums discussion, adorama.

photo from bhphotovideo.