Disposable Cameras

[ophelia moonglow]

Hi

I'm very new to diving, I am only on my second pool session for my SSI OW. I'll be completing my OW at Stoney Cove in Leicestershire, UK and I would like some photos to remember the event. I cannot afford to buy a proper camera and a waterproof housing for it so I was wondering how good disposable undwerwater cameras are? I believe the visibility at Stoney Cove is about 5m. Would be worth buying a disposable one or are they not good enough for these sorts of conditions?

Any advice would be appreciated,

Ophelia :life:

(PS I'm planning on asking my instructor to take the photos as I will be concentrating on learning/displaying my skills and staying safe)

 

[mike_s]

For an OW class, in most peoples opinion, you need to be really paying attention to class instead of messing with the camera. It's really important to get all your skills right.

However, there's nothing wrong with taking a few quick shots, but you should really check with your instructor on what his rules might be.

The disposable cameras are "ok" but they don't put out great pics below 10 feet. They are hard to wind much past 20 feet and pretty worthless past 40 feet.

Hope all that helps. -mike

 

[immersed]

They do ok. I used a couple that didn't have built-in flash and the pictures ended up looking blue, even though while I was taking them it sure seemed like there was enough light and nothing looked blue to my eyes. Turns out your brain does a certain amount of automatic color correction for you. I don't remember what brand they were, but they did ok all the way down to 40 feet/12 meters.

I was able to scan the prints into my computer and color correct them with image editing software.

They make disposables that do have flash, but they're a bit more expensive - if you can scan them or a friend can scan them for you, I'd recommend that over the extra expenditure - your first dives aren't going to be so deep that you'd miss shot opportunities because of no flash.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Would you consider reusable, instead?

I just ordered a SnapSights camera based on recommendations on other threads on this board. At $18 it's in the same price range as the disposables, but it's reusable.

They have several models. The $18 'Sports' is rated for 95' and has a built-in flash.

Here's their web site:

http://www.snapsights.com/

but when I tried to purchase on-line last Thursday I ran into some problems. I called and they took my order over the phone.

(808) 837-0074

They told me that they are currently updating their web site.

 

[montyb]

Hi:
I used a couple of these for over a year until I got my C5050 and Pt015 housing. They did pretty good. I had the 95 ft with the flash model. Sad they charge 18.00 for them. I think I picked them up in hawaii at walmart for 11.00. Must be inflation.

montyb