hello

[metalman I]

hello, just getting started with Scuba. Have been waiting for my 11 year old
son to be ready. We are starting classses this week. I have so many questions: What gear should I buy/rent? What camera gear should I get? Should I get a housing for my Canon T1I or get a stand alone model? Looking forward to learning and especially getting into the water!! Woohoo

 

[alchickypup]

Well if you have never done any kind of diving pool or quarry, I would suggest renting everything and see if your instructor will let you try different equipment to make sure you buy what you really want. Example: some like Back Inflate BC's other Vest BC's. There are tons of different types of regulators and fins. So I would try diferent equipment out before buying.

 

[scubamarketing]

I would second the try before you buy vote. As for the camera, that's a whole different realm of expense in SCUBA. A housing for your camera will probably cost as much if not more than the camera. Add in some strobes and arms and you've spent a decent chunk. You can get a compact, dive specific setup with a strobe for less these days, but you might not get as high quality pictures (by a tiny bit) or as much manual control. But if you're just sharing photos online with family and friends, the decreased quality won't be noticeable.

 

[DeputyDan]

Couple of thoughts.

Its more important that you buy your child's gear before yours if you have a limited budget - reason being it's very hard to find rental gear to fit is he has a small frame.

Find out if the LDS or whomever you buy from will give you full or partial credit when he out grows his gear for gear in a larger size. My LDS gave me full purchase price less $100 when I traded up.

Also, my kids and I have the excat same gear. The reason being is so that they will be comfortable with their gear and their dive buddy's gear will be exacty the same. That isn't a big deal now that they are grown but when they were 12 and 14 it was important to me!

Try lots of kinds of gear during class. Our LDS had a different set up for us to use every OW session. Both for us to try our different set ups and or course hoping we would buy from them. I found that I really didn't like Air 2's when we did this. But to each his own.

 

[LyndaLou]

As a relatively new diver and member to this post,,,I would suggest holding off on camera equipment, particularly if you have a child in tow....
Lots of foundational skills that can be better learned without the added distraction of a camera....
Of course, I am not a "camera" person on land either....