Recommendation for a Beginner

[sylpha]

[I can't tell you the number of times I've watched new divers with cameras run out of/low on air, lose buoyancy control or plow into or kick a delicate coral while trying to take pictures.

Terry[/QUOTE]

I'm really glad you said that, i got into trouble a few years back because i'm not an instructor & i criticised someone who had done at least 15 dives for taking his camera on a dive.

i was his buddy & i watched him like a hawk because i didn't feel comfortable with him, it's a site i know well, but it still ruined my dive, at no stage did he check his air or his computer all he did was peer into the display on his camera. when we came back up he shot up the line, my computer was beeping trying to keep up with him. I have a trick of stopping at 3m to make the inexperienced work on their bouyancy, usually for a minute, i made him stay there for 5 minutes having done a 3 minute stop at 6m - he really had to work at it!

i mentioned it to the diving officer who asked the training officer to keep an eye on him, but he & his cronies made my life uncomfortable for quite a while. He got himself into trouble a couple of months later, lost his confidence & never dived again.

 

[markusde]

Hey
I agree with many others that learning to take photographs means first learning buoyancy in perfection, and then as you are a more experienced diver you can begin to learn to take pictures.

Basically it is not difficult to take U/W pictures, it's just different. Stability is an issue, as you have to be perfectly trimmed to maintain your position while aiming and shooting. Then, you have to have a good camera that allows you some settings. For me, the key setting is to be able to control exposure and white balance. You can correct some of these things in Photoshop but it will certainly not be the same quality.

I bought a small Sony DSC-W120 camera and a case from Ikelite for it. It's a small, cheap camera that goes for about $190. It makes perfect pictures, at least for a beginner like me. Although you cannot do white balance manually, it allows exposure control and you can still do the WB at home on your computer.

You should also consider doing videos on your camera! It's fun and you can share them with your friends or on YouTube.

As for the camera, I have accustomed myself to always carrying it with me with a boltsnap on my BCD. Even if you don't plan to take pictures, the perfect fish might show up and then you wanna be there to shoot a few pictures!