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forum about under water photography.

why

Taking photos underwater forces your mind to be more aware of the surrounding. What do I want to photograph? A colourful fish in a nice composition? or I want a photo that shows behaviour, and interaction? Finding a good subject, approaching it, it all keeps your mind focused and sharp while in the water.

Also, you can use the photos later, to  identify the fish, moray, octopus or other animal  you saw.

 

Composition

The most common mistake is to take photos  while floating on the surface, with the camera pointing downwards. This way you get a photo mainly from the fishes back, with a dull coloured distracting sea bottom as background.

Photographing the fish from the side, will get you a full picture of the fish with  beautiful blue sea water as background. To get to a good photographing  position, dive (even one meter can makes a  positive difference) and point the camera horizontal or even a little bit upwards towards the subject. photos

 

Underwater camera`s

There are much underwater cameras, from very cheap to extremely expensive, real underwater cameras and  land cameras that need an underwater housing;  conventional and digital.

Rather then give a long and not very practical  list, it is better to focus on some affordable cameras which have a good performance/price ratio, and already have proven themselves, and are  popular with scuba divers and snorkelers.

 

                                     Conventional underwater camera

-disposable underwater camera.

You can take nice underwater photos with this kind of camera. They are cheap, and available at many holiday beaches.  Some excellent photos you can see at Diana’s Homepage

Diana’s underwater photos

 

-“Minolta vectis weathermatic”

they can go 10 meters deep, so it is more a snorkeling camera then a scuba diving camera. The queen of Holland has one,…

minolta vectis weathermatic

 

-“Sea&sea” cameras

there are various models, especially the MX-10 and the more expensive MotorMarine are very popular.

sea&sea cameras

 

-“Epoque” (!)

I had two époque cameras. The quality of the photos was poor. I don’t recommend this cheap camera. Other cheapo`s like reefmaster I never tried, but I suspect the same low quality.

 

                                        Digital camera plus underwater housing.

 

Maybe your next all purpose camera will be a digital? For some digital cameras are special underwater housings available, that makes your land camera suitable for deep dives.

 

Sony has the digital dsc-p8 with the underwater housing “marinepack”  mpk-pha.

The  most popular underwater digital cameras come from  Olympus, which offers various models with different  underwater housings. The c4040z camera, and the new c5050z, are most popular. The performance is professional, for magazine publishing, but still an affordable price. Choosing for a popular camera has its advantages; on internet forums you can discuss and share experiences about the camera, and likely there will be a  range of side products such as special underwater lenses.

A list of some Olympus cameras with their underwater housing. By using a search engine (“google”), you can get more information about those various models.

 

C4040Z with the PT-010

Camedia X2  and X1 with thePT-014

C5050Z with the PT-015

u-10 digital and u-20 digital with PT-016

X-200 with PT-017

C-750 ultra zoom with PT-018

 

In some western countries it may be difficult to buy the camera and appropriate housing. Try buying through the internet, or consider spending your next holiday in an Asian country, where camera prices can be considerably lower, up to half price. Before returning though, make sure the camera is “used” in order to avoid paying import taxes at the airport.

Be sure to get English manual.