Underwater Camera

Youstolemyname · 18 Aug 2006 at 10:30

Hi all- am off to Egypt on sunday and want to do some underwater photography. I have a canon a70 but can't find any underwater housing for it that won't break the bank. Plus I go on sunday!

So any pointers or brands of underwater throwaway cameras that you would recommend?

thanks in advance guys

Beansprout · 18 Aug 2006 at 11:36

The disposable ones won't suvive the depths you'll dive to - most seem good to only 3 - 6m.

We found a film-based, non-disposable camera waterproof to 20m or so for about £30, but it took a few working days to deliver so I don't reckon you'd get one before you left. Can't remember the name etc either

Time to go looking round the shops I think

Edit: failing that you can buy them here, I'm fairly sure of it.

Youstolemyname · 18 Aug 2006 at 14:02

Just got back from boots. Got two kodak underwater cameras for a tenner. They are good to 15m deep so fingers crossed. I will post the results on here when i get back

Amp34 · 18 Aug 2006 at 14:38

I think they are the ones we used when we went to egypt (at least they were kodak and W/P to 15m), they weren't too bad although you will find that below about 1-2m the pictures will be a bit dark due to the lack of light.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 18 Aug 2006 at 16:39

You say Egypt and underwater and all I can think of is CROCS!! :O

Baz · 18 Aug 2006 at 16:55

Youstolemyname said:
Just got back from boots. Got two kodak underwater cameras for a tenner. They are good to 15m deep so fingers crossed. I will post the results on here when i get back

Those are not too shabby, they work waaaay past 15m, but the colour is terrible, everything is blue..

good luck!

Paul11 · 18 Aug 2006 at 23:44

without a built in flash forget anything below 10m-14m or so

most of the best photos though will be at the shallows where the natural light is best and the coral and fishes strongest in colour.

i hired a camera in the red sea when i was there a few weeks ago (canon s1 and housing). it was very expensive but well worth it but if i knew i was going i would have bought my own before i went.

benjo plz. · 18 Aug 2006 at 23:48

Fstop11 said:
You say Egypt and underwater and all I can think of is CROCS!! :O

He's diving in the Red Sea, the Nile's a complete **** hole.

funkyphantom · 19 Aug 2006 at 00:56

My cousin might be able to help you out, try www.aquaimaging.co.uk

Sam Dufton · 19 Aug 2006 at 01:45

I used ummmm.... kodak i think it was, and they were brilliant!!

Hamster · 20 Aug 2006 at 16:43

If you are using those Kodaks, you might want to get the pics back on a cd, after which you can use adobe photoshop's underwater colour correction filter which produces good results. Not as good as having a colour correction filter in your camera's housing whilst taking the pictures but nonetheless you will see good improvement. Here's an example on a safety stop. Not the greatest framing i know, but just to give you an idea:

1. WITHOUT CORRECTION:

2. WITH CORRECTION:

HTH

m

Belly · 21 Aug 2006 at 13:19

Baz said:
Those are not too shabby, they work waaaay past 15m, but the colour is terrible, everything is blue..

You can't expect miracles with colours in Egypt..... White Nile, Blue Nile, Red Sea.......

benjo plz. · 21 Aug 2006 at 13:25

Well it's not exactly that, the water adsorbs (dunno the technical name for it) different frequencies of light, so the further you go down, the less colours you have, so unless you have a decent flash (not one of these crappy things you have on your normal af camera, but a big external flash) or a damn big torch, you're going to lose quite a bit of colour.