First dive camera?

[Octopusprime]

I am looking for my first dive camera. I have a go pro but it is almost too small. It works great for fixed mount for descents or just let it roll. I do a lot of Midwest diving where vis is low and water is cold so with heavy gloves camera is hard to operate.

I was was looking at adding LCD backpack to gopro to be able to frame shots better. But not sure if it is worth it.

on the other hand I'm looking at sea life camera or getting an enclosure for a cannon camera. Then there is the iPhone enclosures.

Budget is not big but I likely need a light to get good stills.

 

[decompression]

You could start small, add a filter to the go pro and then a strobe/video light. Then if you want swap out the go pro for something else. I use my gopro with dry gloves with no issues as it's a great little camera. I recommend lots of practice before changing cameras as it will give a better idea of what you may want.


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[Dirty-Dog]

Those were all shot with an iPhone 4S or 5. All are ambient light (with a red filter) except for the one on a night dive. None have been edited, except for cropping the turtle pic.
I'm no pro, but I think you can do pretty well with basic gear.

 

[flareside]

For something that is a good starter, consider the Canon S110 with a Meikon housing. Plenty of positive comments here on the forum about both. They total out around $370.

 

[jscan1]

Go pros do pretty good wide angle, but if diving in low vis, a camera that shoots raw and has manual controls will help elevate your photography. You can get a Fantasea package (cannon or nikon) and do it camera and housing for a very reasonable price. Add a sea and sea strobe for around $350 and you have a pretty capable package you can grow with. I stepped up from a gopro to a nikon p7100, with fantasea package and am very pleased with the results

---------- Post added September 11th, 2014 at 09:42 PM ----------

Oh and low vis , a wet macro lens is a great addition

---------- Post added September 11th, 2014 at 09:44 PM ----------

Skip the light, a strobe for photos is way better

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Go pro's are great for basic point and shoot, but for low vis and to add more options for lighting and image quality (flash/macro settings etc) I prefer a regular digital camera and housing. The suggestions from previous posters for canon and nikon are good. Our shop camera is an Olympus Tough, which can do shallow dives without additional housing, but we rent it out as standard with the housing included. You can pick them up pretty cheaply, and the image quality is good - and easily enhanced with basic microsoft editing or photoshop if you want to do further colour enhancement etc.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

The usual answer given is that why spend so much money in the intermediary steps on your way to getting your final setup, so you should skip all those steps and go straight to EOS-1D C/Aquatica w/Atomos Shogun 4k SSD recorder, or a Arri Alexia and Gates housing.

 

[Tippytoes12]

We have a Canon S110 which has given us fantastic pictures. You do need to manually adjust the white balance every few mts , but the colours and the detail on reef scenes in particular are awesome. It also takes brilliant video and top side photos are also really really good.

 

[Ran Mozaik]

As many here said, the options with a GoPro are limited. It's great for videos and some ambient point and shoot images, but if you want to get nice photos of marine life, a compact + strobe would be the best combination.
There are quite a few entry level options such as the G16 + Fantasea bundle, Canon S110 + Ikelite housings or the SeaLife cameras which are excellent and go well with gloves since they have huge buttons and very simple to operate. All these bundles are about $500 to $900.
You can start out with the internal flash and add a strobe on your next birthday or on Christmas
Many divers also mount the GoPro on the compact rig and shoot video while taking stills, so you get the most of both worlds.

 

[spoolin01]

Any point and shoot camera from the last several years, in a waterproof housing, will take good U/W pictures. I would say any of them would be an improvement over the GoPro. That's not a knock on the GoPro video camera, just acknowledgement that the GoPro lacks almost all photographic versatility.

That leaves you to decide:

1- how big a rig? To me this is a major convenience factor for casual use
2- how much to spend? You can buy inexpensive years-old gear that is perfectly up to the task, or brand new.
3- do I want RAW capability? Here I think the answer should be yes, but many don't bother.
4- how high-end of a camera do I want? This engages a lot of feature considerations, which may or may not be important to you.

#3 limits the field considerably, but still leaves a lot to choose from. I'd also say that a red filter is highly desirable if you're going to be shooting natural light at 15-40ft depths, so ensure the housing has provision for mounting a filter, such as a threaded port or one that will accept a slip-on filter such as those made by Ikelite.

I've never considered the dedicated U/W cameras because I didn't think they offered the same value and flexibility as a housed P&S, but they are the smallest option.