Taking pictures while diving

[Doc Harry]

A lot of good advice here. I will add a few more tips.

Without a flash, your photos will be a big disappointment in all likelihood. To minimize the disappointment, take photos in the top 30 feet where the sunlight is still fairly strong. Get very close to your subject, no more than 2 to 3 feet away. Anything else is going to leave you with blue photos, since the water filters out the red part of the spectrum. If your camera can be equipped with a red filter, then you can get some pretty decent photos as long as you stay shallow.

Lastly, be very careful of the reef. Pick your photo opportunities carefully, in places where you won't accidentally kick things. You would be surprised how many times novice photographers leave a trail of destruction. They just don't know what they are doing. Get your buddy to spot you, and keep you from destroying things. That's why everyone is telling you to get more experience before you grab a camera. It takes a lot of experience and control to keep from wrecking the reef when your eye is glued to a camera's viewfinder.

 

[m00dawg]

I second the recommendation on the GoPro. I was allowed to use my during our OW class and used the head and wrist mount they have. Aside from changing batteries between dives (We were in springs, so the cold water drained them pretty quickly), I didn't have to think twice about having and could focus on learning my diving skills. If you are looking for capturing the experience and still being able to work on your skills and concentrate on the experience, that's the way to go!

Well you guys make good points. I really wanted to shoot some pics while I was on my cruise, but that will be my first post certified dive. Although I do have experience with cameras out of water, the idea of compromising and using something like this and just letting it record is quite intruiging since I can focus on the scenery and my skills. Point taken.

With the GoPRO, I'm confused over the product offerings. Is the standard case waterproof? And for the head mount, does that work for diving pretty well? It would suck to have $300 fly off the top of my head without me noticing But it also seems like the best place for it to live for my first dives since it's not going to be in my way and I can just not worry about it whatsoever.

 

[TartanFrog]

All of the above is great advice. Buoyancy is a huge issue as a new diver. Being able to maintain buoyancy while holding a camera out in front of you is going to be even more of an issue! As most everyone said, enjoy the dives and if someone else has a camera they will likely share photos with you.

Since these will be your first dives after certifying at Millbrook, enjoy the diving. Work on relaxing, enjoying, and seeing all the cool stuff UW.

 

[Agility]

Being a beginner myself I would like to share my experience with my camera.
I bought a housing for my Canon digital Ixus 70 and took my camera to Egypt.
On the last day of my holiday (dive 23) I took it under water for the first time. I ended up handing it to my buddy, a divemaster
and he took some very nice pictures for me with our guide showing us the good places to go.
Although I felt o.k. when diving and did not have to _think_ about bouyancy, I could not comfortably get close enough to the fish and corals to make decent pictures myself.
So I left the camera at the beach and only took some photos of my buddies and the landscape.

I have also noticed, that divers with cameras are often no good as buddies, they sometimes get too focused on the pictures they want to take and have no eyes for their partner.

 

[c0r3yz]

Well you guys make good points. I really wanted to shoot some pics while I was on my cruise, but that will be my first post certified dive. Although I do have experience with cameras out of water, the idea of compromising and using something like this and just letting it record is quite intruiging since I can focus on the scenery and my skills. Point taken.

With the GoPRO, I'm confused over the product offerings. Is the standard case waterproof? And for the head mount, does that work for diving pretty well? It would suck to have $300 fly off the top of my head without me noticing But it also seems like the best place for it to live for my first dives since it's not going to be in my way and I can just not worry about it whatsoever.

GoPro Official Store: Wearable Digital Cameras for Sports

$269 gets you a camera with the housing rated for 180' and a couple of their adhesive mounts, but I wouldn't use the adhesive mounts in the water. Pick a mount that you like, I have used the Head Strap, Chest Strap, and Wrist straps under water. They hold pretty well, but the head mount would be the less stable of the three. That said, if you want to capture your experience without having to worry about manning your camera, it's the best option. What I did to make sure I wasn't going to lose it was to tether it to the slap strap on my mask. Keep it short so as to not create an added snag hazard, just enough to make sure if it gets knocked off, you won't lose it. If you're not comfortable with this, you can go the route of the chest strap, but keep in mind that it's not going to necessarily see what you see.

The great thing about the GP Hero is that you can shoot video or set it to take stills for you. We typically use ours for video, but the stills we've done have been pretty cool, too.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My opinion is that new divers should not take a camera underwater. The primary reason is because it increases risks associated with lack of awareness ... things like losing your dive buddy or accidentally running low on air ... because you're devoting more of your attention to your picture-taking at a time when you're still developing those awareness skills. As a new diver, you're also going to be struggling with the level of buoyancy control needed to take decent pictures, and increasing the risk of damaging marine life or brushing up against things that can sting (like fire coral).

A better plan for the new vacation diver is to see if you can hook up with one of those people who accompanies boats out, takes videos and stills, and sells them for a nominal fee. It's less expensive than buying a camera (for now, anyway), and the memories you bring back will not only be a quality you will be proud to share with your friends back home, but you'll be in them ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[m00dawg]

GoPro Official Store: Wearable Digital Cameras for Sports

$269 gets you a camera with the housing rated for 180' and a couple of their adhesive mounts, but I wouldn't use the adhesive mounts in the water. Pick a mount that you like, I have used the Head Strap, Chest Strap, and Wrist straps under water. They hold pretty well, but the head mount would be the less stable of the three. That said, if you want to capture your experience without having to worry about manning your camera, it's the best option. What I did to make sure I wasn't going to lose it was to tether it to the slap strap on my mask. Keep it short so as to not create an added snag hazard, just enough to make sure if it gets knocked off, you won't lose it. If you're not comfortable with this, you can go the route of the chest strap, but keep in mind that it's not going to necessarily see what you see.

The great thing about the GP Hero is that you can shoot video or set it to take stills for you. We typically use ours for video, but the stills we've done have been pretty cool, too.

Awesome, thanks for the info! I'm pretty much sold with this option based upon the thoughts here and reviews online. Looks to be durable, cheap, and with good enough quality to get things done. Plus I can use it outside of diving as well.

I'll likely go with the head mount as well based upon what you say. I wonder - is it possible to connect it to the carrying strap of my BC instead of my mask (assuming the one I'll end up using has a handle near the top like the ones I've been using for dive training). That way if it flies off, my mask won't (though a camera that small is likely to do that unless it was pulled?)

Thought about wrist strap, and I might get one just in case, but on the head it's basically completely out of the way and I just hit record and go and never have to think about it.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Since you will be on cruise excursions for your dives, I am confident they will not be terribly challenging and they will be led by a divemaster. While I would pass on the camera on your first dive, if you are comfortable and competent on that dive, I see nothing wrong with taking a simple camera ( many shops will rent you one that is essentially a "point and shoot" with no external lighting) and get some snaps of the experience. To take really good pictures you need peak performance buoyancy, and no distractions from the framing, lighting and etc. you have to do, but that is not what you are talking about. If you don't mind film instead of digital, rent a Sea and Sea MX10, the simplest underwater camera ever made You'll know it when you see it- bright yellow with MX10 written on it. There is another alternative. There may well be someone in your group taking digital pictures. If you ask nicely they will likely be glad to take you picture. Give them your email address and I'll bet they will send it and a few others to you. I do that all the time.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com

 

[Dirty-Dog]

I carried a camera from day 1. That being said, I also didn't focus on the pictures. I focused on the dive, and occassionally remembered that I had a camera.

Most dive ops (in my experience) are happy to take a long a camera and provide you with a disk of your dives, at a nominal cost.

Before you start spending money on cameras, do a ton of research. I found myself unhappy with stills, and quickly migrated to video. I can still take 10MP stills, but for the most part prefer the video.

I use a Sanyo Xacti in an Epoque housing with an Epoque wide angle lens.

If you don't have lights, you can get excellent results by adding a filter. When we dive in the carribean, I use a red filter and it makes a world of difference.

 

[PatW]

Good advice above, there is enough going on during your first 50 dives to keep track of without fooling with underwater photography. A major risk or hazard in diving is just task over load. You can forget something important when you are trying to keep track of too many things like your the fact that you are down to the last bit of air, or the fact that you are approaching your decompression limits and do you really mean to be at 120' on the wall.

Underwater photography is very challenging from a technical perspective. So it has a very high distraction index. The light loses its "warm" colors as you go deeper which means you need strobes. You have sediment in the water column which means you need to get as close as possible to your subject. Your housing makes controlling your camera a little like handling the camera while you have gloves on. Also the housing makes the camera much larger and unwieldly. Also you have issues like F stop, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, and shutter lag. Then you have the problems of trying to compose a shot whilst everything is moving. It is not easy. It is fun but not easy.

Another thing, underwater photography is not cheap. An advanced point and shoot system will cost anywhere from just under $1000-$3000. A DSLR system will cost from $4000 on up.

You can get a little point and shoot with an inexpensive housing and a small strobe and take some nice photos but even then you are at about a minimum of $500.