Help! Need an underwater camera/housing... yesterday!

[amandajean05]

So my sister conveniently (accidentally) threw away the underwater Canon housing on Wednesday- she thought she put it away but it is nowhere to be found. Anyway, I just found this out today, and my husband and I are leaving on Sunday for a cruise to Roatan/Belize/Cozumel, and anything I find online can't get me anything until Monday, which is no use to us. We have no other way to take underwater pictures at the moment, except for spending money to purchase the pictures the dive masters take, if any.

We live in Houston- if anyone has any suggestions please let me know asap!

Thanks!

 

[smellzlikefish]

Can you call the cruise line and see if you can have the housing shipped to one of your visiting ports?

 

[diversteve]

You could go out tomorrow and buy a GoPro Hero. GoPro Official Website: The World's Most Versatile Camera



They come standard with a housing good to 197' and shoot both high definition video and 11/12MP stills. Simple learning curve but since they're fixed focus there's no real macro option for much closer than about 1 foot. It's also really small - the video shows a snorkeler with one on his head. Also gives you a good idea of the quality you can expect. To frame shots you'll need the optional LCD Bacpac.

They're $199-399 depending on model chosen - get the Hero 3 Black if you can - it's the newest highest resolution model. Besides 12MP individual stills it can shoot 30 images per second in burst mode. Notice that the cheapest model (White) only shoots 5MP stills.

There's 45+ locations to get one in the greater Houston area including many of your local dive shops and most Target Stores. GoPro.com: Store Locator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucivXRBrP_0

 

[flareside]

Check with your local dive shops for rental equipment. There should be plenty of choices out there.

If you go with the GoPro, buy extra batteries as the battery life can be as little as an hour and fifteen minutes depending on the settings and even less with the LCD.