Rent photogear on divetrip?

[YsB]

Hi!
In november I will spend a few days by the Great Barrier Reef and going to have a few dives. My very first ones after my qualifying dives. Every daytrip is advertised as underwater cameras can be rented. Does anyone has any advice regarding if you can make decent pictures with these cameras or better to spend a few hundred pounds to get a good uw compact?

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks

 

[MA]

Hi, this wont be the answer you're after but I would get some more dives under your belt before taking a camera down. Just enjoy the experience.

Have fun!

 

[gee13]

Yes you would be pretty much wasting your money on diving if you want to take photographs before your bouyancy skills are good - plus you may irk others if you end up on the reef or bumping into other divers trying to photograph. You could also compromise your safety if youre a new diver trying to photograph as you may not realise your depth / ascent rate whilst with a camera on a dive profile. UW cameras also add to your baggage depending on which - they could be x negative bouyant or + positive bouyant and forget it if you are even hiring your bcd etc...getting trim right. Enjoy your dives, get your bouyancy up to scratch, learn to be safe underwater then think about a camera later.. when you take photos you also often miss out on seeing the good stuff.

 

[YsB]

Okay! I will take the advices. Thank you for your responses.

 

[Tigerman]

Wether you are ready to actually take UW photos or not, Ill leave out of this and Ill go straight into another problem instead, because I have not seen you dive and have no clue about your bouyancy - but I know I had less than 50 dives when I got my camera..

If you rent camera gear, you are most likely unfamiliar with the camera youre renting. This means you dont know how to operate the camera itself and how to get good pictures with it under water. Yes, the photographic theory of shutter speeds, iso and appertures are the same on all photography, but how each camera behave - especially cameras with lenses that cant be changed - differs.

Now, cameras has automatic settings that you can use, which makes it a bit simpler, but that does not mean youre out of the woods.
The camera is in a underwater housing and that means you need to know what buttons to push to activate flash, macro, maybe change to video and so on. This is not neccesarilly very easy to see on a UW housing, especially not quick enough to shoot that shark swimming by while youre still in macro mode with your flash on..

So in short - I would want to be familiar with uw camera gear before I take it down. In a bind I might take down a p&s Im unfamiliar with and just put it in full auto, but I wouldnt expect to get anything but the run of the mill vacation memories out of it.

If you DO want to take a UW camera, I would definetly recommend spending a few hundred pounds and get a good P&S and UW housing.
You can always use that P&S on land when youre not out on dive trips too