Underwater help.

[dicklynch]

Morning All,

Not sure if I should post this here, but if I have guessed wrong, will a kind Staff Member please put it in the correct place.

I am looking for suggestions for an underwater camera to be used by a complete novice (me) on an up coming snorkeling trip.

I would like to take digitals, I have a Nikon CP-4500, however, the underwater housing for this camera is $600.00 US and I don’t think I need digitals to the tune of $600.00.

Anyone had any experience w/the plastic bags? Or should I just convince myself to live w/prints and buy the throw away cameras?

Thanks to all

Dick

[alan_rymer]

This product is available in the UK. The USA must have something similar!.
http://www.ifsogo.com/acatalog/aquapac_camera_cases.html

Just found this US site:
http://www.scoutgear.com/poc007.html $44.95 inc shipping.

[Katy Penland]

Dick, PM forum member "kerrypilot". She and her husband are pro underwater photogs, lived in Maui for 10 years (now living stateside), and could help answer your questions about the various underwater housings, their safety, and most importantly, the kind of light you'll need (which you'll definitely need for any depth below 10'). I'll email her to let her know you'll be sending her a PM since I don't know how often she's actually online here. :t:

[dicklynch]

Alan/Kathy,

Thank you both very much.

Dick

[Tyler Vargo]

I would like to take digitals, I have a Nikon CP-4500, however, the underwater housing for this camera is $600.00 US and I don’t think I need digitals to the tune of $600.00. $600?! For a plastic housing?! I don't care how precise or well sealed it is, if it is made by a machine a plastic case that size shouldn't cost that much! (hand made on the other hand would be a different story)

Well, that's not as overpriced as the nearly $2,000 Nikon D70 housing...

[SeanKP]

Morning All,

Not sure if I should post this here, but if I have guessed wrong, will a kind Staff Member please put it in the correct place.

I am looking for suggestions for an underwater camera to be used by a complete novice (me) on an up coming snorkeling trip.

I would like to take digitals, I have a Nikon CP-4500, however, the underwater housing for this camera is $600.00 US and I don’t think I need digitals to the tune of $600.00.

Anyone had any experience w/the plastic bags? Or should I just convince myself to live w/prints and buy the throw away cameras?

Thanks to all

Dick
Hi Dick

I've never seen any decent results from the disposable cameras.

The plastic bags may be ok for snorkelling but I'd be worried about their integrity and I suspect they would be difficult to use at anything below just under the surface. If that is all that you are doing, then I guess they should be ok but if you are planning on duck diving and taking pictures at any sort of depth, I would worry.

Also, remember that you will start to lose colours at anything other than just below the surface so you'll want to either use flash (but beware backscatter) or continually set the white balance on the camera or shoot in RAW (if your camera permits) and adjust the white balance later on your computer.

I use a Fuji F810 (£250) with the Fuji housing (£150) and some examples from a recent diving trip to the Red Sea using the latter technique can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/bvpyo

For plenty of additional advice try searching the forums at www.digitaldiver.net.

Sean

[john young]

hi have recently used an ewa-marine housing specific to nikon coolpix 990 in a small marine reserve of eastern spain (isla tabarca)and was pleasantly surprised, practiced a little to get the procedure right beforehand and results were pretty good, i believe these are available for less than $100?

[dicklynch]

Hi Dick

I've never seen any decent results from the disposable cameras.

The plastic bags may be ok for snorkelling but I'd be worried about their integrity and I suspect they would be difficult to use at anything below just under the surface. If that is all that you are doing, then I guess they should be ok but if you are planning on duck diving and taking pictures at any sort of depth, I would worry.

Also, remember that you will start to lose colours at anything other than just below the surface so you'll want to either use flash (but beware backscatter) or continually set the white balance on the camera or shoot in RAW (if your camera permits) and adjust the white balance later on your computer.

I use a Fuji F810 (£250) with the Fuji housing (£150) and some examples from a recent diving trip to the Red Sea using the latter technique can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/bvpyo

For plenty of additional advice try searching the forums at www.digitaldiver.net.

Sean

Sean,

Thanks for the information. I enjoyed looking at your pictures, thanks for sharing those. Needless to say you had a great time. I also looked at digitaldiver site, but divers probably can't use these plastic bays. Very few hitsa on the searches I ran.

Let me change the medium, what was your first underwater print camera? Perhaps I should look here and have diditals made from the prints??

Thanks again

Dick

[dicklynch]

hi have recently used an ewa-marine housing specific to nikon coolpix 990 in a small marine reserve of eastern spain (isla tabarca)and was pleasantly surprised, practiced a little to get the procedure right beforehand and results were pretty good, i believe these are available for less than $100?

Thanks John,

Found a couple of places that sell the Ewa bags, and looking into that.

Ciao

Dick