Underwater Camera

gazzebo69

Any camera techies out there know lots and lots on underwater cameras.

I`m looking to get one for my dad for his birthday. Now its just for snorkelling, so i guess anything upto a few metres will be fine.

I have trawled and trawled the tinterweb for advice and it all leads to one thing, they all seem to leak after a good few trips out in the water.

There are good reports, but there are also lots of bad reports for all underwater cameras. Its like they haven`t mastered this technology yet, but i find that hard to believe.

Do they all leak, or are these just customers with a gripe against the company they have bought from. I dont want to buy him one to have it break after a few snorkelling trips out.

Any advice whatsoever would be most appreciated.

Regards
Gazzebo.

pledgeX

What's your budget, as that will swing things massively depending on what you can get.

Do you/your dad have a camera already? As you can buy waterproof housing for a lot of cameras.

I'd personally avoid anything that was marketed as a snorkelling camera, i.e. only any good for a few metres as like you say they get a bit of a rep for leaking and generally being a bit naff in terms of the picture quality you get.

I bought a Fuji f50d with a waterproof housing (WP-FXF50) for it for about £250 a couple of years ago. This is rated at 40m and has survived about 20 odd dives and 50 odd snorkelling trips.

I'm far from an expert but I have been very impressed with the results.

The added advantage is that the waterproof housing is completely removable so I have an everday camera as well as one I can use underwater if the occasion calls for it!

gazzebo69

Hi pledgeX

Thats great advice, will look into that.

I was hoping to get a small digital camera without an housing because it would be smaller and slimmer etc.

The reason I was choosing to go down this route is that on hols last year some chap explaining his digital camera and underwater capabilities (without housing) and he was very pleased with it seemed a nice bit of kit. Think he said it cost him a couple hundred quid.

Thought I would take a look into it cause mi dad loves snorkelling. But was disapointed to see that almost all had problems with leaking, not one stood out from the other.

I am looking to spend upto around £300, but don`t want to spend ages taking it back and forth to the shop when it leaks.

I take it the f50d is only used underwater with the housing.

Thanks for the advice, will look into underwater housing see how they fair.

Cheers
Gazzebo.

pledgeX

gazzebo69 wrote: »

I take it the f50d is only used underwater with the housing.

Yes, if you take it out the housing it will look and work like any other compact camera.

I bought mine from here:
http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/d_stills/packages.html

Despite the shocking website their service was very good. I believe they've got a shop in London where you could go and look at some. But looking at the images in that link will give you an idea of what they look like.

£300 will get you something with a housing after a brief look. I think the ones designed for snorkeling are nearer the £100-200 range.

It depends on how fussy you are about picture quality and all the features. I'm very happy with mine, although someone who is used to something like a Canon 5d would be appalled by my camera!! Likewise someone has has no experience maybe happy with a £20 dispoable waterproof camera!