$5-15 100' depth disposable 35mm camera

[chimchim]

I'm not sure how long they've had these out, but these disposable cameras (that can be bought at Target, Longs Drugs, etc) are just $5-15 and are waterproof to 100'.

As a casual vacation diver who's only scuba equipment is a corrective mask, shorty wetsuit, and second hand booties, these cameras allowed me to take my own scuba picture for the first time in my life. I had the one without the flash, and it basically took really crappy pictures. At about 95' everything was super blue, and the pics made vis look like it was just 15' when it really was 30'. ONly 20 of 27 exposures came out. You get what you pay for, but I was pretty happy because they were my first shots. And I've always wanted a snap like this:

So... if you're a low budget diver like me and you want just some pics that are YOURS without a huge investment, this is a great camera.

 

[chimchim]

Here's a few of my best shots of the crappy lot.

 

[H2Andy]

you need a flash, for sure

otherwise, you'll just get blue pictures

you can actually take fairly ok pics with these cameras if you use a flash
and stick to close subjects (say three or four feet max) so that the color
can come out

also, the shallower you take the pic the better

another thing to do is run these through Photoshop or smilar program,
to bring out the colors (but the better the pic you start with, the
better the result)

 

[BIGSAGE136]

If you have photo software...any kind...you'll be surprised how they will clean up. Picassa is free and doesnt do a poor job.

 

[chimchim]

Thanks... flash? I thought the strobes that the cheap camera come with make it look like headlights in fog. No?

I'll try flash next time. As you can see, I'm a beginner's beginner scuba photographer. I didn't even know the camera well enough to aim it right.

 

[Rick Inman]

Now if they would just make a disposable underwater digital camera.

 

[H2Andy]

Thanks... flash? I thought the strobes that the cheap camera come with make it look like headlights in fog. No?

i'm a beginner too, lol, dont' get me wrong.

check out my gallery and you'll see what to expect with an internal flash.
you can work with it. it's not pro stuff, but you can work with it.

what you say is absolutely true if there's lots of particulates inthe water.
in that case, the flash will "bounce" back and will look like blobs of light.

but if the water is reasonably free of particles, the flash works great

 

[nerfboy]

With the flash built into the camera and some editing (photoshop) & you can get pretty good pics. I took these last year with a $10 disposable at 60 to 80fsw. The snapsight. I was able to re-use this camera on a couple of more dives. If your careful you can change the film and reseal the camera 2 or 3 times.

 

[H2Andy]

that's a nice *pink* flashlight you got there, nerfboy

 

[Rick Inman]

Maybe we need a non-photographers disposable camera forum.
No flash, PhotoShopped: