Underwater photograpy

[dan00001]

Hi,

I recently took up scuba diving and am looking to take my photography underwater,

Is there a way to get DSLR like quality without the huge price tag?

I have a Nikon D90 but can't at this moment of time afford the £1000+ price tag of an underwater housing. I also have a cheap GoPro clone that's great but I'll never be happy with the quality of photograph from.

So I need something relatively cheap with DSLR like quality/userbility that's safe to at least 35m.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thank you.

 

[pooley]

Hi Dan, if you've only recently taken up diving, then you really need to get some dives under your belt before taking a camera down with you.

Adding a camera rig makes a big difference to diving and you need to be diving virtually on auto pilot with great buoyancy and control, because adding the camera adds a lot more to think about.

Now, onto the cameras. Unless you're into fast moving fish or wide angle reef scenes then you can get very good quality with recent compacts or mirrorless.

An Egyptian friend of mine uses an Olympus tg4 in the Olympus housing with a ring flash and that's brilliant for macro, with scope to add a wide angle lens at a later date. Macro is a lot easier to begin with than wide angle.

He gets good stuff mainly because he's a pro diver as his technical knowledge is limited.

Best way to improve your underwater stuff though is to become a better diver an buoyancy is key, as is getting as close as possible.

Please really make sure you're comfortable with the diving firstly though, both for your safety and protection of the reef.

Mike

 

[Nawty]

It’s good advice, buoyancy and control first, photos later.

Basically underwater photography falls into two categories: wide angle from close or macro from point blank, there isn’t really much of an in-between unless the visibility is amazing (Red Sea being prime example). In order to do any of these you need very good buoyancy and control or you simply won’t get close enough.

For cameras, even cheapy cheap cameras and a housing can take very good photos as you will be using a flash for nearly everything as it is generally dark down there and you need to take your own light (which in turn means you need to be very close, camera on the fishes nose close). If you must take a camera with you then I would just find a housing for a point and shoot on eBay and buy the camera that fits it (which will probably cost peanuts), it will be small enough you can just clip it to your BCD to keep it out the way.

 

[boyfalldown]

Hi Dan,

Mike’s @pooley advice is spot in. You’d do no better then to listen to him and both your diving & photography will be better for it.

A few years ago I saw a diver seriously injured when his camera caused him to lose awareness of everything aroundh, his buddy & his air supply. Watching someone try to surface from 30m as his air ran out and he ignored his buddy wasn’t pretty. Don’t be him

 

[shreds]

You will find that if you pick your locations, you don't need to be diving to 30m which introduces all the light degradation and need for supplementary stuff, but as is said, get to be a great diver where everything is second nature before wanting to photograph it all as well.

Shallow snorkelling can get great shots and colourful fish in very shallow water without all the inherent risks. Scuba is great fun and an adventure but don't let that enthusiasm lead you into trouble. Photographically its quite dark at 30m too. Maybe not the most colourful subject either at that depth?

 

[dan00001]

Thanks guys,

@pooley Thank you, that is pretty much the exact same advice I have been given by one of the divers at our club who enjoys photography. I have taken my GoPro copy into the pool and also a local lake and yes it can feel a bit of a task overload.

Being only recently bsac ocean diver certified I am limited to only 20m for the time being but will certainly be doing my sports diver (35m) sooner rather than later.

A compact camera is along my lines of thinking, there are casings on eBay rated to 40m for around £150 but I need to do more research before I decide on anything. I'll be more interested in wide angle landscape type shots and photographing of larger sea life seals/dokphins etc.

We are planning a trip to Lanzarote in May which will be my aim to get my buoyancy/diving up to a standard where I feel comfortable multitasking and also give me enough time to explore all my options as far as cameras go and make a purchase.

Thanks, any more advice welcomed