Digital or film?

[mct1976]

Hi guys,

This is my first post on this website. I am a beginner in scuba diving and uw photography. My question is simple: which kind of uw camera is more durable? digital or film?

I had a digital camera + exclusive housing before, but it got flooded in its second dive and the camera was dead instantly. I have read some articles here, and some people said "sooner or later one will flood his camera." But I don't expect it happening so fast! So I turned back to film cameras. Theoretically, film cameras are less "electronical", and therefore more easy to maintain and more resistant to flooding. Is my hypothesis correct?

Currently I am looking for a Sea & Sea MM II with strobe. Is it a durable camera under water? Once it gets flooded, is it easy to be cleaned up and restored to working condition by my own?

Thank you in advance.

Happy diving & no flooding

 

[alcina]

Welcome to ScubaBoard!

Definitely digital. Being able to instantly review your results will help you improve dramatically over just a few dives!

Flooding isn't a function of film or digital. It's a function of user error in most instances - even if the user isn't 100% sure what happened. Before heading into the water, get to know your camera and housing and spend good quality time with good light setting your rig up. Double and triple check it before dropping in.

 

[drew52]

Digital. You'll learn a lot more a lot faster as you can see your photo's instantaneously underwater which means you can take multiple photo's of the same thing with different settings and learn as you do this.

Also if you do flood your camera the money you save on developing bad photo's with film will probably enable you to buy a new digital camera.

Start with a basic point and shoot for now. Any of them are good, Canon, Sony, Sea & Sea, FujiFilm. It doesn't really matter. Just make sure you can get a housing for the Camera.

Check out these sites for camera reviews:

http://www.digideep.com/ - underwater photography site & equipment info)
http://www.dpreview.com - digital photography site (review different cameras)

DpReview can get quite technical but still good to see side by side reviews of similar model cameras by different companies. They even take the same pictures with different cameras and you get to see the difference in quality with comparisons of the pictures taken from each camera.

 

[Larry C]

Go digital. Even a lot of film cameras have an electronic autofocus. It's still going to die if you flood it. Knock on wood, I've been diving my rig for about a year, in pretty much all types of conditions and the only water inside has come while rinsing it in the kitchen sink, from direct water blast too near the faucet. Just service it properly and constantly check the o-ring and surfaces for contamination.

 

[DesertEagle]

I agree with the others about digital. The instant feedback will help you take better pictures. This is coming from a longtime Niknonos user.

Follow the directions on your camera/housing. Never jump in the water with it; have someone hand it to you.

The Sea & Sea is a durable camera, as long as you don't flood it. If you do, the insides will probably be cooked. It's easier to replace than repair them. FYI if you really want a film Sea & Sea camera, get their Motormarine III. It comes standard with a 20mm lens. Sea & Sea is selling it for $300 as a closeout on their website. http://www.seaandsea.com Look for Factory Direct Closeouts.

Aside from instant feedback, printing is another issue. Until a year ago, I used to get Ilfochromes (direct prints from slides). Now most of the labs have closed. Nobody makes direct prints from film anymore. Everything is scanned. Outside of using a drum scanner, a native digital file will look better. My $199 Olympus 7MP SP-310 files output beautifully at home or at a digital lab.

 

[fdog]

To answer the OP's question, there is no doubt that film wins the durability contest hands down.

In fact, I'd even point to the Nikonos III as the king of durability. I personally never flooded one, but I've seen enough that were flooded, and returned to service after drying out. After a trip to a repair shop, they worked literally like new.

Alcina is quite correct when pointing out that floods are a function of user error, though, and have nothing to do with digital vs film. So go ahead and stick with digital, you'll be glad you did.

All the best, James

 

[victor]

Without a doubt digital.

The nikonos 3 (from memory) was the last manual Nikonos film camera. They do work well and, apparently, can recover from being flooded.
Later Nikonos would loose the TTL etc but could still be used in manual mode.

However cost of processing film, cost of multiple dives as you cannot see your results instantly, etc more than outweigh the cost of point and shoot digital.

If you are worried buy a couple of backup cameras.

With care you should not flood your camera, if you have a backup and are careful then murphy, hopefully, will go elsewhere.

 

[AUTiger]

Flooding is why you get insuranc (DAN or DEPP). With careful attention, you can go many years without flooding - I've made it four so far [knocks on wood]. You have to check and recheck everything religiously. I have two friends that have flooded Olympus housings on their first dives with them. Both clearly by user error. In both cases, they would have noticed the problems if they had looked at the entire sealing surface after closing the housings. One nice feature of the Ikelite housings is that you can clearly sea the entire o-ring to perform the post-closing inspection.

David

 

[Gilligan]

Film is out of the question. It limits you to 36 photos, can't see your shots while you are taking them, developing costs etc.

Flooding is 99% user error.

Digital is the only way to go.

 

[caymaniac]

Film is out of the question. It limits you to 36 photos, can't see your shots while you are taking them, developing costs etc.

Flooding is 99% user error.

Digital is the only way to go.

All the R&D is focused on digital. Film still works fine but with our microwave mentallity (myself included) using digital you can have your pics almost immediately.

One area that film still shines is in the detail of the shadows, and of course there are photos with sunballs in them, this is where digital really is lacking.

One of the biggest problems with digital cameras is that they don't expose well with back lighting and thus when you have a pic with the sun in it (underwater), digital doesn't seem to be able to capture it very well at all.

If you are a wide angle photographer and you like to have the sun in your underwater pictures, then choose film.