Underwater photography equipment

joxang

joxang

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Joe Z
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Hey guys, I've lurked here for ages but this is my first post :).

I'm going to Seychelles next February and was hoping to do a spot of diving. Was wondering if anyone could suggest some sensible (but cheapish) equipment? I won't be going below 20-30metres. Unfortunately I can't find any enclosures for my current stuff.

And let me know if there's a better place to put this but I couldn't find an 'underwater' board ;).
 
Unfortunately 'cheap' and 'diving' don't usually go in the same sentence. There is some cheap stuff out there for underwater photography, but most of it will only be good for depths achieved whilst snorkelling.

Housings for normal cameras or specialist underwater cameras that are rated to 20-30m+ tend to be pricey, and for good reason. After all, you wouldn't be very happy putting a £1000 camera in to a housing, only to find the housing full of water at the end of the dive.

The other thing to consider is some sort of lighting. Light tends to fall off quite quickly as you descend and the red part of the spectrum starts to get filtered out. A strobe will address both problems. If you don't want to go to the expense of a strobe, a filter will help with the colour balance, or just shoot raw and adjust WB in post.
 
Thanks for the advice there - I only do this for a hobby so I'd probably be happy with a small P&S with housing.

I guess I was wondering if there was a well-known standard kit that amateur underwater photographers like to start with. Otherwise I might go take a look on eBay :).
 
There are some waterproof P&S style cameras that are good down to 10m or so, perhaps one of these would be suitable rather than trying to find a housing. I imagine housings for P&S cameras are few and far between, and if you change your camera the housing, if you can find one, becomes obsolete.
 
A couple of tips;
either a good UW compact - I have an Olympus - earlier version of this.

Then there's a quality compact with an UW housing, oddly the housings often pop up on the Canon ebay outlet store - really cheaply, you could buy one of those then buy a camera to fit.

Up from that is a proper housing for a DSLR - usually they cost more than a consumer SLR, so only really suitable if you've a grand or so burning a hole.
 
There are loads of underwater housing for compacts, Olympus, Canon G12/S95 etc. Around £250-ish on Amazon for example.
 
Depends how much you like your camera and how you want your photos to turn out, but I have used one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Underwate...amera_Underwater_Housings&hash=item20b8b82b61 aware of the risks, and just took it in the sea for a laugh tbh.

They average at 15 quid, not sure why that one in the link is so pricey, just first link I saw. Now lets watch everyone else rip the above product apart!
 
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yeah, I'm looking for a lumix TS3 soon for general ruggidness
but it won't go below 12 metres!

however, a decent housing for a quality compact would do you nicely.
G10 ish series from canon or a lumix lx5 or similar would be my first choice
esp as they have hotshoes on them
 
Thanks for the advice, I'll be checking those options out. If I can't find anything I might get a bag for my GRD3 and only use it in the shallower reefs...there seem to be plenty of complete sets of 2nd hand equipment going on eBay though, so hopefully will grab something off there before next year.
 
I got a fuji waterproof point and shoot jobby for diving in the maldives for about £100. Its only guaranteed to 3m, though given that the most colourful fish are near the surface anyway, this caused no problems. I spent the day's diving properly, and then the evenings snorkelling, chasing fish, and sitting very still trying to get "the shot".
 
joxang said:
I'm going to Seychelles next February and was hoping to do a spot of diving. Was wondering if anyone could suggest some sensible (but cheapish) equipment? I won't be going below 20-30metres. Unfortunately I can't find any enclosures for my current stuff.
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if its your first time diving concentrate on that first, when you're comfortable and at a reasonable standard at a camera to your workload. At first there's too much going on to worry about photography as well.

As said above amazon (and others) sell good, reasonably priced underwater housing and P & S combos
 
The dive guides in the Red Sea say that the easy availability of underwater cameras has been disastrous for the reefs. People with poor buoyancy skill crashing into coral whilst trying to get a badly composed, poorly exposed picture of Nemo.
I saw the same in the Maldives earlier this year with some really rubbish Russian Divers trashing the seabed wherever they went.

I have over 400 dives and took a camera on about half of those but decided this year to concentrate on my diving and haven't taken it much at all and enjoyed myself much more.

If that hasn't put you off :D , look for an old Fuji f31d and housing or try this lot.
http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/index.php
 
I would echo the comments about not learning and using a camera at the same time.

That said, assuming you are learning and still want a camera, just buy any old compact and housing off ebay, underwater photography not only relies massively on diving technique it also relies on camera technique far more than on land so to be frank you will be by far the limiting factor.

I would say though, Canon compacts work particularly well under water, they seem to cope well with the blues and they meter well too.
 
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Joe,

I'm a newbie here but am an experienced diver and would agree with what's been said. Easiest way of turning a good diver into a nightmare is put a camera in their hand. I have taken some great underwater shots using a Canon p&s but now very rarely take my camera. Buoyancy goes to pot with a camera unless very skilled (breathholding etc.)

However, if you really want to try it beyond the throwaway option, manual white balance is a must and try to buy something that won't be obsolete too quickly (hard in the P&S market). Now, I won't use my dive compact for anything else, because the housing is too expensive to replace. Also, be very, very careful about the o-rings etc. because at 10-20m there's a lot of pressure trying to force seawater in. However, if it does get flooded, the memory card often retains the data.

HTH

R.
 
boyfalldown said:
if its your first time diving concentrate on that first, when you're comfortable and at a reasonable standard at a camera to your workload. At first there's too much going on to worry about photography as well.

As said above amazon (and others) sell good, reasonably priced underwater housing and P & S combos
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:agree:

First get comfortable and aware of your sorrounding while underwater. To many bad stories of inexperienced divers taking there cameras out.

A decent compact with housing are a good start. I started with Olympus and their housings and got great shots.

Also practice while snorkeling. Go down to app 5 metres and take shots before having to come back up.
 
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Loads of fantastic advice, thanks :)!!!

RalphC said:
I'm a newbie here but am an experienced diver and would agree with what's been said. Easiest way of turning a good diver into a nightmare is put a camera in their hand. I have taken some great underwater shots using a Canon p&s but now very rarely take my camera. Buoyancy goes to pot with a camera unless very skilled (breathholding etc.)
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I'm in no way an experienced diver so I think I'm going to scrap the whole underwater kit idea. I might pick up one of those 'waterproof to 10m' P&S cameras and use those if I go snorkelling in the shallow reefs around the islands but I won't take a camera kit on a longer dive.

...And the money I save I might use to upgrade my GRD3 to an X100 :p.
 
joxang said:
I might pick up one of those 'waterproof to 10m' P&S cameras and use those if I go snorkelling in the shallow reefs around the islands but I won't take a camera kit on a longer dive.
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Good idea, photography is all about light and at anything below 10m it gets tricky, above that natural light should make everything look bright and colourful.

Practice your snorkeling though as ideally you want to be slightly below the fish you are shooting.
 
Good on you mate for listening to some very good advice.

Your snorkelling idea is a good one and there will still be loads to see.

Have a great time.

Not jealous at all......:D
 
For snorkelling, I used to use an Olympus Mju 700 SW which decided that it didn't want to stay waterproof, failing on a simple surface swim. TBH, picture quality was never really its strong point either, above water or below the surface. I've since replaced it (dare I say upgraded) to a Canon D10 which I find easier to use, gives better results straight from the camera.

Speaking to divers who also take photographs, they all seem to say to concentrate on the diving before starting to take photos - the fewer distractions you have, thw safer your dives will be.
 
RalphC said:
Joe,

I'm a newbie here but am an experienced diver and would agree with what's been said. Easiest way of turning a good diver into a nightmare is put a camera in their hand. I have taken some great underwater shots using a Canon p&s but now very rarely take my camera. Buoyancy goes to pot with a camera unless very skilled (breathholding etc.)

HTH

R.
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As an experienced diver, you should know that breathholding is a big no-no. :nono:
 
If like me your going to be diving for a hobby and want pics for your hobby too, go to your local dive shop, they should/will have a selection of camera's to use. I bought mine from there for just shyof £150 and I have had it to just over 30m so well good enough for an advanced diver.

I also bought the strobe for it too, but find it a bit bulky so just used the onboard flash, it worked well and I got some great pics with it.

link to my camera hope this helps you

spike
 
I've got an Aquapac, for small digital camera.

It's been used in a swimming pool & works fine.

There is no way i'd use for expensive kit. But if you're on a budget - it does the job.
 
MartynL said:
I used a dicapac... even got one for my 5Dmk2... It's only a camera, guys... ;-)

http://www.martynlewisphotography.com/blog/post/Underwater-Adventures.aspx
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£1589 (Mifsuds price) worth of camera - plenty for any of us to drop should the bag/housing leak - hell, even the couple of hundred the failed Oly cost me was a nasty shock, although I'm sure I ended up with a better camera because of it...

And, Viv, swimming pools aren't at all deep compared to the deep blue sea, so what works fine in the pool is unlikely to be ideal at any real depth...
 
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