I'm thinking more along the lines of $20.00 canadian.
a few inches of 8-10" PVC drainpipe, two end caps, glass plate from an old halogen work lamp, some aquarium glue, a couple small pieces of 2" pvc pipe, some wire, a switch , and a piece of bycycle tire tube for a gasket on the switch, and one o-ring......

Hi catterm.
I'm working on that same problem.
What r your specific requirements?
depth, lenses, flash etc.

my goal is upto 5 meters, fixed focal length 50mm. for snorkeling, and pool/water shots. inexpensive, easily built.

I'll provide more detials if what I'm building might work for you.

did I ever mention we have 8 kids?
2 flown the coup.
4 come and go, as per custody order and two home full time.

need a child proof container open? Call the kids.
lol

P.S......I'm still the biggest kid.

those numbers refer to the fstop. the smaller the number the wider (read more light) the aperture.
with macro, you'd be stopping the lens down to at least f8 and more likely f16-f22. The wider apertures then equate to brighter viewfinder, which can be helpful with macro rings which lower the amount of light getting through.
bottom line, any of those lenses will serve you well. I get great results using my 1.7.
prime refers to a single focal length lens, and most often refers to a single focal length lens in the 40-50mm (35mm) range which approximates the human eyes' feild of view.

my Gerri woulda taken me with her and got the lens!

I like my 10-17 fisheye!!!!
I like it a lot!

one of my personal faves.

My new macbook can run parallels which means it'll run linux...any particular flavour of linux you'd recommend?

Liam, Matt, I'm eager to learn all I can about an open source project called cinepaint. it has been used on some major hollywood films recently. It used to be called film gimp and apparently can do much of what the gimp does, but also does video and works in higher bit color. anything you guys can teach me will be apreciated!

these animals will spend up to half thier days in marshy waters foraging on aquatic plants, hence the enlongated face and the nostrils which can seal out water. the cow by the road is very young (no calf, and very small), by moose standards she's got another head and shoulders to grow.
I wish I'd found a Bull....you have no Idea just how big they get until you see one up close...even by clydesdale standards they're huge, and with that rack...well try to imagine a clydesdale crossed with a bulldozer...I've seen one charge, another bull and a birch tree about 3 inces diameter was between them, he ripped the tree out of the ground and threw it up and over his back!