UKC

Not climbing I know, but have just signed up for a diving course and thought there must be someone on here who dives as well as climbs. So my question is, what would you recomend a a good camara and case for diving, have a Canon 5d but this would be far to expensive to by all the gear for to take diving so what compact would be a good choise or sould I go down the road of a camara especialy desinged for diving like I have seen in the diving shops. It is already costing quite a bit for the basic diving gear and course so dont want to spend a fourtune on a camara but still want a half decent one. Also dont want to think im getting a bargain only to find out what iv bought is no good and then have to replace it. Cheers in advance for your replys Russell.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

If it's your first scuba diving course as a total beginner, you will have far too much other stuff to be concentrating on and the instructors probably won't LET you take a camera around on your first few dives. I would just cross my fingers that they can rent you a camera for a single dive.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

which then leads me to my origonal thought... gopro?

with the added benefit you can use it above water too

In reply to Russell Lovett: I recently reviewed this http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/stories/1331609594858/rugged-waterproof... it's certified down to 15 mtrs - so not a true 'dive camera' but would that be enough for at least beginning scuba? Anyway, I thought it took rather nice pictures above and below water - click the link at the end of the review to see some.

In reply to Blue Straggler: not thinking of taking itvon the course lessons as you say will be far to much to do on the course without having a camara to deal with aswell. Just fishing for ideas for next year and do some wb research so l can start dropping hints to the missues for my Christmas present.

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Have a chat to these guys: http://www.oceanleisurecameras.com/
I have a basic housing for my S95 which has worked well down to 40m.

Taking the 5D out will be expensive. I don't trust the bag-type systems for anything other than dealing with brief accidental immersion and spray.

In reply to Russell Lovett:
Fair enough.
I would wait until you find out whether you like diving first, though!

In reply to rallymania: Gopro option looks good, afordable reliable and seams to be a good compact camata. Anyonewith surgestions along a similar line?

In reply to Russell Lovett: I'm using a Drift Ghost HD with the 60m case. It's similar to the GoPro, but the built in screen, form factor and wifi functions swung it for me.

The dive case is great except for the inability to add a red filter easily.

Action cameras of this type do assume that you'll attach them to your person or kit in some way but that tends to give bad results underwater. I dive with mine hand held which gives two benefits.

1) It allows me to point the thing where the interesting stuff is easily without having to align myself to get the shot. This means you can track a fish or object easily as you pass over or by it.

2) It stops me waving my hands about to position myself in the water. This is a very good thing - watch a video of an experienced diver, they will clasp their hands in front of their chest or just cross their arms for the whole dive.

My son dives with a Canon Powershot SX220 or SX230 with the Canon case. It's bigger to deal with in the water but the video and single shots are very good. The ability to adjust the white balance gives much better results and failing that there is a third party firmware available that allows the camera to shot in RAW mode and hence gives you the ability to play with the white balance in photoshop or similar.

WARNING: Underwater photography can become very expensive.

In reply to bigsecret:

before i type anything else, i'm not a diver or underwater expert in any way.

however i have seen loads of people online building a very simple "rig" from bits of plastic plumber pipe to hold a small camera (like a gopro) a light etc. this makes it very cheap and simple to amend if you don't like how it feels. personaly i think i'd also tether it to my wrist in some way just incase i'm my usual clumsy self and dropped it

something like this

youtube.com/watch?v=wUh9H0hB89g&

In reply to Russell Lovett:

Check out these guys in Devon. I've had housings off them in the past.

http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk

In reply to Russell Lovett:
I recently purchased a GoPro Hero 3 Black and would recommend not to get this for two reasons, first if you google forums on it you will find a huge amount of people who have had problems, as I have. There are constant firmware updates from gopro trying to correct issues with cameras freezing and locking up, I am on my second one after returning it and this one still does not work, when you contact gopro they always say the same thing 'Update the firmware' or blame the memory card. If you do wish to go the gopro route research it thoroughly. Secondly the gopro is so wide angle with no zoom facility unless you are virtually in the mouth of any fish or it is the size of moby dick they dont come out in the pictures. you also need different colour filters for a go pro depending where you dive, either red or magenta depending on tropics or europe.
As you will learn on your course coloured light dissapears underwater in the order of the rainbow, red first every 10 meters or so hence you need to be able to manually set the white balance of a camera every 5 to 10 meters, this is easier if you can program a button to do this rather than going through a menu, remember you will be doing this underwater maybe with gloves on. Secondly as the light will not be bright a camera needs a large sensor for better results rather than milions of pixels.
A couple of links that may help:

http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=57

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/digital-underwater-cameras

One last thing I came back from two dream diving trips, one in Thailand and another in the Red sea with virtually no pics or video thanks to my Gopro, a manufacturer can replace an item but not the memories.

Hope this helps

Graham.

PS. there are lots of used combinations of camera and housing on Ebay and Gumtree, I am searching at the moment to replace the GoPro.

In reply to Graham6664: Thanks for all the replys they have been realy helpful. Almost settled on the Gopro until I read Grahams reply. In the end I think I may well go with a Sony RX100, a bit more expensive but seems like it will be worth the extra, full manual control and shots RAW files cheers again Russell.

In reply to Russell Lovett: Take a look on here. good reviews on all sorts.
the SJ 1000 looks interesting for the price, review is 2nd page.
http://www.techmoan.com