Snorkelling and photos

I%26#39;ve seen a few of you have mentioned photos of turtles, and have seen a few pics on the Reethi page.

Do you have really expensive camera housings, or are you using disposable underwater cameras?

I%26#39;m very intrigued as I would quite like to snap some of the fish whilst I%26#39;m in the water - use it as a momento, and to show off to my friends and family when I get back from my honeymoon to show just how amazing the Maldives are!

Thanks,

BT28

Snorkelling and photos

Hi BT28

We%26#39;ve used disposables before we got an underwater case for our digital camera, and were very disappointed witht the results to be honest.

If you do a search for ';vivitar'; in the search box above, you%26#39;ll find some previous threads regarding a fairly cheap digital camera (about ￡80) which you can use when snorkelling. I haven%26#39;t got one of them, but they seem to get decent reviews from what I remember.

Failing that, if it is Reethi you%26#39;re going to, you can hire underwater cameras from the dive centre. Link to the price list is below. Most - if not all, islands will do the same thing.

sea-explorer.net/english/pricelist-new.php

Snorkelling and photos

Vitar does get a look of backing as a reasonable cheap option, also Pentax and olympus do a digital compact which is waterproof to 3-5m which is enough for snorkelling. I dive, so need a proper underwater housing for my cannon digital compact, they cost almost half as much as the camera though. So it depends on how much you want to spend and will it be used again to warrant the outlay.

sg

Hi BT28

I used to use disposable cameras for snorkelling. as long as the sun was out and the water was clear the quality wasn%26#39;t too bad. However, it is quite difficult to get the viewfinder up to your eye when you are wearing a snorkel mask! So you have no idea how your pics have come out until you have been to your local Boots or wherever.

So, for our trip last December to Athuruga I bought myself a Vivitar 6200 underwater camera. It was quite cheap - ￡55 - and is not the most elegant of cameras. Bit like a yelow brick actually. However, it is a 6 megapixel camera and can hold about 400 pics on its memory card. So I just snapped away at anything that look vaguely interesting and downloaded everything when I got back.

Some snaps were rubbish but others - like my avatar - I was quite pleased with.

OD

Hi BT28,

your cheapset option of taking UW photos is to buy one of these:- (or a throw away)

http://www.dicapac.com/new_eng/index.html

Ebay is the best option for cheap deals (about ￡20).

You can then use your existing digital camera (presuming you have one) - the cases are very safe and I use this set up with my casio exilm when I%26#39;m snorkelling - underwater pictures will always look washed out and blue/green as the first colour to be lost in water is Red, this goes in just 1 metre, so regardless of what camera you have, unless the flash is a strobe light, you will not replace the red in the image. This is where editing software comes to the aid of all uw photos (adobe/paint shop pro/serif/photosuite or freebees like Picasa).

(I have a Nikon D40 + UW housing for diving) but this is a bit bulky just for snorkelling.

Honestly you would not be disappointed using one of these bags, they are just as safe as a housing and have a series of leak proof fastenings to protect your camera.

Regards

Emu

I agree, these are a cheap alternative to the more expensive solid casings.

I have had the same one for 2-3 years now, and used it on four holidays. Works fine and had no problems whatsoever. Unless you damage the casing then it%26#39;s completely water tight. When under water I%26#39;m always double checking that it%26#39;s ok - just paranoid I guess.

The proper casing for our Fuji camera was about ￡150 (the camera was only ￡200!) so this type of option is ideal if you only use a few times a year.

Just to add to Emu%26#39;s post about the colours, you can also buy %26#39;magic filters%26#39; that help to correct the colours. I%26#39;ve yet to try one but have heard good reports, and had excellent service from them when I emailed with questions. I%26#39;ll be trying one with my canon this June.

If you pick your camera wisely you can usually get a good deal - the vivitars are pretty good I think, but if you want to step it up a notch look on amazon for which digital cameras are going cheap and see if you can get housings for any of them. Go for cameras that are being discontinued/end of line.

I managed to get mine in New York for about half the price - ￡160 for canon ixus 75 and housing, but that was last april when the dollar rate was more favourable.

Also check out the canon official outlet store on ebay - i%26#39;ve ordered from them and they were really good. Cameras Underwater are a good underwater camera shop, but more pricey stuff - they also have an ebay outlet so you may be able to match up a cheap housing from their outlet with the corresponding camera from somewhere else.

I%26#39;d say if you just want some good souvenir shots for a very reasonable price then the vivitar is your best bet - I got my boyfriend one for ￡40 last June. If you use disposable you will spend about that getting all the pictures developed, to find that most are just blue.

Sarah

If you only want it for snrokelling the Olympus 770 doesn%26#39;t need a housing. You can go to 10m without. Really robust camera but only small compact, really good.

Softail

We have the Olympus 770 and I must say its a great little camera. Like whats been said before it only goes to a certain depth so for diving it needs a housing, I%26#39;m currently on the hunt for one. Camera cost ￡ 170.00, the housing, the cheapest I%26#39;ve seen so far is about ￡ 150.00. We have a seperate camera at the moment for diving and that a Cannon, if I remember correctly we got this for about ￡ 50.00 on ebay and that was including the housing.

We have a sea life reefmaster and find it be excellent. You can take great pictures and video. It has different modes on it for deeper water and snorkelling and you can also use it as a normal camera on land. The zoom is good too. Do an online search but we got ours from Bristol underwater camera shop.

We have a sea life reefmaster underwater camera which we find really good. It has good zoom and a great video. Different modes allow you to shoot in different depths and you can also use it on land so only need to take one camera. You can buy them online at a southwest underwater camera store. email me if you need more info.

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