Should I wait on buying an underwater camera until I have more dive experience ?

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I took a Canon G11 in an Ikelite case with me the day I completed my open water check out dives. I have not been diving without it since. It is entirely up to you and how comfortable you are under water.
 
I started carrying around a camera somewhere around dive 30 or 40. I would have done so before that, but I did not own one capable of shooting underwater.

I would recommend you consider a GoPro HD Hero if you just want a point and shoot camera, and one that will shoot video. They are waterproof to around 180', easy to use (especially with the LCD backpack screen), and relatively inexpensive. There are several aftermarket lenses that improve the image you get underwater with it, and GolemGear just announced a purpose-built underwater housing that looks really nice.

When/if you outgrow it for underwater use, it makes a great camera for most outdoor activities.

Just do yourself a favor if you decide to start carrying a camera. Put it on a short tether that will allow you to drop or stow it when its time to tend to more pressing business during a dive.
 
As has been said, you cannot take good photographs if you can't be still to shoot them. The problem is that people use various methods of being still. The most difficult to master is to hang in the water, perfectly still. This requires good buoyancy control, breath control, and usually a bit of finesse with the fins to combat the movement the water is doing.

The easiest is to crash into the bottom or hang onto the coral or other reef structures, or kneel in the sand. Unfortunately, this is the method a lot of new divers use to get their pictures. And I think a lot of them are completely unaware of what they are doing.

I chose to focus on my diving first, and then spend some time learning about the animals I saw, where to find them, and how they lived. When I had a pretty solid handle on all of that, I started using a camera. I found that getting really GOOD pictures -- the kind that people really enjoy looking at -- used all the good skills and knowledge that I had acquired.

Shooting snapshots is pretty easy. Shooting something you'd want to frame is a whole 'nother story.
 
I see two primary issues: (1) Diver safety and (2) Diver/Photographer development.

Diver Safety - Whenever a diver adds new equipment and skills to their 'toolbox', it will initially increase their task loading on scuba dives. Increased task loading demands more concentration/focus by the diver on the new tasks. As consequence, other existing skills will be degraded unless they are are ingrained and instinctive (occur naturally without thinking). The foundational skill most impacted by task loading is 'situational awareness'; the diver's ability to monitor their air, depth, time, NDL and buddy. If using a camera causes increased task-loading, at the expense of situational awareness, then it is significantly impacting upon your safety.

There are two possible solutions to overcome this safety issue:

1) Ingrain core foundational skills first, before adding further task loading with new equipment or skills. Do a lot of dives, until everything becomes automatic. At that stage, add new stuff. Make that automatic. Add more stuff. etc etc

2) Make efficient use of the buddy system to complement/reinforce your own situational awareness, in anticipation of task loading. If you have a reliable buddy, make sure they will monitor/manage the dive.. including your gas etc. Make sure they will remind you to check, when necessary. This will be entirely dependent on the quality and reliability of the buddy you dive with. It can be considered the 'division of tasks/responsibilities within a paired team'. It should never be considered as an opportunity to abdicate those responsibilities to another person. You are still responsible for you. It's just a fail-safe in anticipation of potential human error.

Obviously, there is no reason why both solutions cannot be implemented concurrently.

When I teach photography courses, the maintenance of 'situational awareness' is one of my core themes. On a short photography 'intro' course (i.e. PADI Digital Underwater Photographer) a lot of drills and procedures can be taught, to emphasis and develop that situational awareness. These aren't on the syllabus, but IMHO are the most critical component and create the most critical outcome (i.e. a more 'aware' photographer).

Diver/Photographer Development - Using a camera, or other specialist equipment (reels, DSMBs etc) causes a distraction from the core dive management. Specifically, it can impact upon your buoyancy, trim control etc. I think there are two possible lines of thought on this:

1) That additional equipment shouldn't be used until your buoyancy/trim is perfected. Spend your initial dives focusing on perfecting those core skills without distraction. The degradation to those skills will be detrimental to any photographs you wish to take anyway. Good buoyancy/trim control is an essential component of successful underwater photography.

2) That using additional equipment may actually help you to practice and refine your core skills. Attempting underwater photography is a good catalyst for identifying deficiencies in skill and helps focus diver awareness on fine-controlled buoyancy development. Whilst using a camera will degrade your buoyancy initially, it will also help to improve your buoyancy development at a quicker pace. Anytime you stop and attempt to take a photo, you'll be conscious of your buoyancy - and that means you're likely to start improving it. In short - taking photographs is a great buoyancy exercise.

Thus, your choice, in respect of development, is really going to be determined by your expectations. A new diver with a camera is unlikely to get amazing photographs. Do you isolate skills first; developing buoyancy, trim etc before adding a camera? Or do you add a camera and then use it as a catalyst for all-round development. Is it better to hold-off on taking photographs until you'll get decent results... or is it better to accept sloppy results as an inevitability in the learning process?

Personally, I don't think it matters - as long as the safety issues are dealt with.

Adding a camera early in the development process means that you'll get some extra enjoyment from the dives, providing you can accept the frustration that your results won't be perfect at first. You'll also have a photographic record of those early dives, if blurry. However, if you do so, then you must recognize that the core scuba skills (buoyancy etc) are a key component to your photographic results - and make sure that these skills form a dedicated part of your self-development. The only major developmental drawback would occur if you allowed the use of a camera to distract you from your core development - focusing too much on the camera, rather than the scuba competence that actually under-pins good photography.
 
The camera is a double edge sword for me. I hate diving with it because it really reduces my situational awareness during a dive but as many of us i enjoy reliving the experience. My rule is if the team / buddy is very capable then I might spend more time shooting with the camera. If not then it's clipped off till something cool shows up. One thing you can do is direct your shooting toward your buddy. This will keep focused on them and increase your shooting skills in the water at the same time. Anyway that's what I have found diving with a camera for a long time.
 
It's not about any single skill like buoyancy, a new diver does not have the bandwidth or the ability, no way now how to do justice to personal safety, a buddy, the environment and photography... pick 3.

Buy the camera when you have done enough homework to make a suitable choice. Take it diving when you feel reasonably accomplished. In terms of maturing as a diver everyone will be different however in terms of raw situational exposure that comes only with bottom time anything less than a few dozen dives is foolish and/or self indulgent.

Pete
 
I have decades of photo experience...i own a D300 as my topside cam...and i think the concensus here is to wait. For a shooter, though, that is hard. you might consider doing what I did. It is based heavily on "it's not the equipment; it's the eye." I bought a canon G12, their top of the line point and shoot. and I also bought the OEM Canon underwater housing for the G12 and I've been shooting with that since only a couple of weeks after having been OW cert (I'm Advanced OW now). I have not maintained my gallery, but in the time since i was OW cert, i've done several hundred shots and movies. I will try to post some here...as soon as i figure out how to.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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