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Underwater Photography Primer
UW-PHOTO is a mailing list devoted to discussing all aspects of underwater photography. Topics in
UW-PHOTO can include equipment, video, schools, techniques, and even showing off. UW-PHOTO
will become an archive for items related to underwater photography which will be accessible through
UW-PHOTO, anonymous FTP, and the World-Wide-Web.
Ken Hancock kenh@vgi.com
-- Matthew Endo, November 8, 1999
The Kodak one time use waterproof camera worked great on my scuba trip. We took the camera all the
way down to 100 feet and it did not leak. However, it will not work below about 13 feet of water. It did
not work when we were diving deep, but once after we went up about 13 feet it worked again. The
camera is under twenty dollars. It's a very worthy investment on diving trips.
-- Han Liu, April 16, 2000
I just recently went on my first ocean dive (my forth open water dive ever) with an underwater camera,
and I must first of all agree with the other comments that if you are new to diving you should wait until
your buoyancy skills are under control before you take out a camera. I didn't do too badly, but the worst
problem was a huge increase in air consumption that meant I was surfacing ten minutes before everyone
else had to. The next few trips I take I'll stick to topside photos.
However, I took an option that I have not seen mentioned here - I rented an underwater camera (in my
case the Nikonos V). That's a wonderful choice if you just want to try underwater photography to see if
you like it before you spend a LOT of money on equipment. In my case I didn't have many good pictures
but I had a handful (out of seven rolls of film) that convinced me I will make the attempt again someday.
You can rent cameras from just about any SCUBA shop, in my case it was about $100 for a ten day
rental.
I have to agree with Philip in disliking the Nikonos V for having to adjust the aperture on the front of the
camera so the shot would be properly focused. I think that slight errors in this department ended up
making a few shots that would have been really wonderful turn out slightly fuzzy and thus
disappointing. If you do rent a camera, try and rent one with some sort of autofocusing!
Also, be very attentive to the seals on the camera. I had no trouble with camera flooding over the course
of four days diving, as I made sure to very carefully inspect and relubricate the o-rings on the camera
every time I opened it up. It takes a lot of care to keep a camera healthy in deep water, so that might be
something to think about before you buy or rent a camera - are you willing to put the kind of time you
need to for proper equipment maintenance?
-- Kendall Gelner, April 26, 2000
http://www.photo.net/underwater/primer (14 of 23)7/3/2005 2:18:13 AM