Guestimate of how many Underwater photographers Worldwide in 2014?

[Fastnail]

Dear All,

I have recently taken an interest in underwater photography which has generated a couple of curiosity questions in me regarding the size of the Underwater photography population of divers as recently as 2014.

Due to the relatively high expense of Underwater camera equipment i cannot see that the numbers of underwater photographers (and Videographers included) word-wide would be more than a 100,000 people?

I tried searching online but very difficult to get any real answers.

I assume sales figures from Underwater Camera housing manufacturers would give an indication but their is no collective data as i can find.

Am i miles out and the worldwide underwater photography population is much larger than 100,000 divers?

I would be interested to have your valued opinions.

best regards,

Fastnail.

 

[bvanant]

There are about 6M divers worldwide and 20 M snorkelers. If we estimate that 1/10 have a camera in the diver category and 1/50 snorkelers have a camera then you get about about 1M total cameras in the water. Seems reasonable to me, 100K seems quite low.
Bill

 

[JackConnick]

Billions and billions ;-)

 

[Dirty-Dog]

You're mistaken about the "relatively hgh" cost of dive cameras. A GoPro can be had for a few hundred bucks. Smartphone housings are available for less than $300. Buy used, and you can get point & shoots for the price of a meal at a good restaurant.

Yes, you can spend $15,000 on dive camera gear. I wouldn't, but plenty of people do. I'll stick with my iPhone housings and my GoPro, and spend the money on trips.

 

[ibj40]

I just hope all of the strobes don't go off at the same time!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I'm curious, what is it you want to do based on this information?

 

[the_dragon_no1]

I just hope all of the strobes don't go off at the same time!

And... Think of all the flash blinded fish swimming around worldwide!! [emoji85]
Billions!

 

[Fastnail]

There are about 6M divers worldwide and 20 M snorkelers. If we estimate that 1/10 have a camera in the diver category and 1/50 snorkelers have a camera then you get about about 1M total cameras in the water. Seems reasonable to me, 100K seems quite low.
Bill

Hi [FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif]bvanant,[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif]Thank you for your reply, h[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif]owever what do you base your figures on re the 6 Million divers worldwide and 20 Million snorkelers worldwide?
[/FONT]
Can you please provide a source for the figures you provided?

Thanks once again for your valued input (-:

---------- Post added October 14th, 2015 at 08:05 PM ----------

You're mistaken about the "relatively hgh" cost of dive cameras. A GoPro can be had for a few hundred bucks. Smartphone housings are available for less than $300. Buy used, and you can get point & shoots for the price of a meal at a good restaurant.

Yes, you can spend $15,000 on dive camera gear. I wouldn't, but plenty of people do. I'll stick with my iPhone housings and my GoPro, and spend the money on trips.

Hi Dirty-dog,

Haha yes i agree, some camera set ups look like underwater space stations...i love your financial philosophy re money for dive trips.

 

[bvanant]

My data came from DEMA
BVA