Using camera on OW course

[Zoe83]

Are you allowed to bring an underwater camera on your Open Water course? My husband and I are doing ours in 3 weeks and were thinking of getting a camera for it, i was shown a disposable type one that can be used a few times. I dont have the money for a top notch one so I would prefer to get a disposable type for this trip...but do the instructors allow them, or would they get in the way?

 

[Mike Veitch]

definitely not, you will have so many things going on you won't have time to even think about a camera. Definite over tasking, and not allowed in standards anyway.

And please, even after your course get a lot of dives b4 you try to take a camera, you will have enough trouble with buoyancy as is...no need to make it harder.
Get comfortable with your gear, buoyancy, etc etc first and foremost

I refused to touch a camera until i had about 400 dives under my belt...

 

[ChillyWaters]

I refused to touch a camera until i had about 400 dives under my belt...

Useless bragging??? Come on... 400 dives is NOT necessarily to shoot a few pictures... unless, of course, you're a VERY slow learner.


Though, no, a camera shouldn't be used in your OW course, or in several dives after that (until you're VERY comfortable with buoyancy, etc. -- say, 20-30 dives).

- ChillyWaters

 

[crabball]

Are you allowed to bring an underwater camera on your Open Water course? My husband and I are doing ours in 3 weeks and were thinking of getting a camera for it, i was shown a disposable type one that can be used a few times. I dont have the money for a top notch one so I would prefer to get a disposable type for this trip...but do the instructors allow them, or would they get in the way?

Whether the instructor allows or not depends on him but i think it is not advisable for the first few dives as you will already have your hand full trying to get your bouyancy and weighting right as well as practising your skill. I dont think you will like to have a camera with you when you do your emergency bouyant ascend.

You may want to try it after you get more confortable and have better control over your bouyancy.

Just my personal opinion.

Regards
Andrew

 

[RonFrank]

Are you allowed to bring an underwater camera on your Open Water course? My husband and I are doing ours in 3 weeks and were thinking of getting a camera for it, i was shown a disposable type one that can be used a few times. I dont have the money for a top notch one so I would prefer to get a disposable type for this trip...but do the instructors allow them, or would they get in the way?

and shap some shots for/of you.

Ditto the responses so far, dealing with a camera while trying to do all the skills is not a good idea, and I doubt the instructor would even allow it. However on our OW one of the students wives who was already certified hung out, and had a camera.

If there are more than on DM (depening on class size) they may also we willing to carry a camera.

 

[hdtran]

I'm going to disagree with the above. A disposable point-and-shoot with no controls (except the shutter) should not interfere with your tasks *AFTER* you've passed your checkout dives.

Don't take it on your checkout dives, but you may take it after you've been signed off.

Be aware that you should concentrate on diving first, and pushing buttons second. And that, only pushing a single button. (None of this what's my f/stop, speed, is my housing leaking, etc.)

I took a disposable point-and-shoot (only rated to 10 ft, but took it to 55) after my OW and took a couple of bad pictures. (Not to mention the camera getting x-rayed to death by the baggage machines). The camera stopped taking pictures below about 25 ft, but didn't leak. (Button mechanism stopped). I concentrated on diving, and took badly composed photos of my wife, a puffer fish, my instructor, etc. Do pay attention to your diving environment, though. If you're comfortable after your last checkout, I don't think a single-button point-and-shoot will overload you. If you're still feeling shaky with buoyancy, ascent, descent, etc., be careful not to let the camera prevent you from diving safely.

Good luck & have fun!

 

[MarkH]

I took a disposable camera in a ziplock bag in the pool during my certification. For some reason I expected to get recognizable pictures. I think there was a smudge of colour in one shot (a diver's fin maybe?). On the ocean dives, I had a Aquashot2 housing for disposable underwater cameras (again the few pictures I managed to take showed back-scatter and not much else). I felt comfortable in the water and didn't feel that a small box with a button hanging from my wrist was a grenade waiting to go off. Since then, I've done a few hundred dives and I don't think there was a single one where I didn't have at least one camera with me.

 

[Shrew]

I understand that safety comes first. I took one on my 3rd ow dive. I didn't even notice it was there when I was focusing on bouyancy and correct skills. Once we got a chance to float around a bit I was comfortable pointing and clicking a few.

My gf and I are very happy taking our dives slow. We want to see the fish and reef and enjoy slowly floating through the water. We are focused on staying w/in our safe limits, taking things slow so we critically think out our bouyancy, kicking, breathing, ascending, and buddy system. Since this came first we enjoyed taking a few pics when we had a moment to suspend infront of the reef.

We were also comfortable w/ the notion of ditching the camera immediately if it became a problem.

 

[ChrisA]

Are you allowed to bring an underwater camera on your Open Water course? My husband and I are doing ours in 3 weeks and were thinking of getting a camera for it, i was shown a disposable type one that can be used a few times. I dont have the money for a top notch one so I would prefer to get a disposable type for this trip...but do the instructors allow them, or would they get in the way?

There is this concept in diving called "task loading". Basically if you try to do to many things at once your brain overloads and you start messing up. New divers are working at the threshold of task overrload just by breathing and swimming around. Add a camera to the mix and there is no way you could do it all at once.

Wait till you've done a couple dozen dives before you take a camera down with you. Underwater photography is hard. Seems like it should be easy but you have to have the diving part down so you don't need to think much about it. One the diving tasks can be handled in the background then the "front" of the brain can be freed up for photography.

BTW thse disposable cameras work better then you might think. They claim to be water proof to only 15 feet but some of them will work at 40 feet. and if some of them floodit is no geat loss. That said, you will be better off with a digital camera.

 

[ChrisA]

I refused to touch a camera until i had about 400 dives under my belt...

Waiting for 400 dives is a bit extreme. Even 50 dives is quite a few.

But it does depend on conditions. I notice Mike is from Vancouver. They have cold water, big current and maybe low visibility and some walls that drop off to undivable depths Diving in those conditions is much harder then in clear warm water. And some people learn faster then others and some are already experianced photographers while others are trying to learn about photography while underwater. So numbers can vary.