Underwater pics / video ....... ?

[Bob & Sue]

When I visited the dive shop last week , I noticed a display of cameras , in housings for UW use . They all seemed to be regular digital
rigs , probably capable of taking hundreds of pics as long as the batteries last ..... prices ran from $300 up to $700 .....
I didn't see any of the popular , small video cameras that are becoming so very common on the YouTube and MySpace sorts of message boards ....
Are you divers able to use these video cameras in the water ???
Are you using regular cameras in these plastic "boxes" , or using other underwater cameras that don't need to be enclosed ???
Bob & Sue

 

[Royal]

I do know that if you are gonna use one you need lights to have any color at all. I think the reds filter out at about 10 ft or so and when you are down thirty or fourty ft there is little color.

When I dive a reef in the Carribean I always take a light, even in the daylight. As soon as you hit anything with a light the colors pop.

Off the reef in Cozumel, fifty ft to the reef and if you go down the wall it goes to 2000 if I remember right, it is all shades of blue. Blue to black as you drop down the wall. Turn on the light and it is like the videos you see.

We had a guy take videos of us on Bonaire and he had lights.

 

[Coobie]

I am no expert but here's my 2 cents worth. Underwater photography has become a lot more affordable nowdays with the advent of digital. It used to be very cost inhibitive and you normally only got a couple of good shots out of a spool of 30 odd pics!!

What you want to achieve will determine what system you end up buying in the end. I have a Canon A95 which takes good stills pics and will run approximately 3 minutes of video. It is housed in an underwater housing that has a working depthof 40m altough I have never taken it that deep.

As for the lighting, Royal is quite correct in saying that the ambient light is filtered out as one gets deeper, but I have found that you still get fairly good results in the shallows (10m / 30ft). The std flash on the camera can also be used, but if there is any sediment or particles in the water, they reflect as scatter on the pic and the result is not good. This is often why the lighting on these cameras is offset on arms which are at an angle to the camera itself.

 

[Bob & Sue]

digital for water work .... We'll be starting shallow , so we'll see how things progress . Thank you both for the advice . B&S

 

[kaptainkosmic]

just out, i ordered 1 today, but i'm not going to dive with it just wade & drop i'm sure.

HH Kap Kos