In Reply to: Re: I've wrassled with a similar question posted by David V on January 27, 2006 at 21:49:46:

I know the feelin'. Luckily, right when I got certified, I bought a $150 housing for my canon SD500 (which I already owned). Playing around with that has gotten me a bunch of great experience and really taken the edge off of wanting something better. I've taken that thing beach diving, to Casino point, to the pool, on boats, to Maui, Key Largo, and even Truk Lagoon. It's really done a good job of teaching me some basics, especially on lighting, composure, and holding still!. It's also satisfied the want enough to let me sit back, analyze my options, and really think about what I want. So, I guess what I'm saying is that going either "cheap" ($150) or "not cheap" ($2-$3K) seems to work pretty welll. I'll never regret the $150 I spent on that housing, but if I spend $1000-$1500 on the DX8000 setup, I'll be pissed at myself if I really needed to spend $1K more to get what I would have ultimately been happy with. Anyway, that is obviously my humble opinion only. With the 54 degree temp at Shaw's last week, I'm focusing on getting a drysuit rather than anything else. Gotta enjoy the actual diving before I want to see any pictures of it!

P.S. Other than the review that was recommended to me in that previous post, I haven't been able to find much info on how comparable a DX8000 is to a full SLR setup. Please send me some info if you find it.

Tom