I’m sure after your open water, you explained to your friends and family how wonderful the Ocean is, you just can’t put it to words? Either your Sea Vocab is still limited to ” IS JUST  AWESOME, REALLY AWESOME” or they have no comprehension to what you’re trying to say.

You wished you had taken some pictures to show them. That moment when the Eagle Ray zoom by, the beautiful Wreck sleeping on the seabed, the arrays of Corals with the school of fishes prancing by or finding even the small Pygmy Seahorse. All these images stored in your brain and you can’t verbalized is just frustrating.

Is time you get yourself a Camera for Underwater  Photography but which camera and what is what ?

What we need to know if we wanna take up photography after our Open Water

1. Is there a casing for my camera (existing or new):

This is very important, Underwater casing is what enable your camera to function without short circuiting. Duh ! but knowing if the market has a ready casing for your camera helps.

check the listing here if to see if your Camera have Casing from these trusted and reliable Brand:

a. Aquatica

b. Ikelite

c. Subal

d. Nauticam

e. 10 Bar

f. Epoque

g. Fantasea

h. Patima

i. Sea&Sea

j. Seacam

2. Choose your types of dives: Casing are usually made from plastics to expensive aluminium and varies in depth tolerance. some 40m, some 60m. Depending on your certification and the type of dives you usually do. Reading the max depth will save your camera and casing. If budget allow, of course the deeper range and the best Aluminium

3. The Image Quality: RAW/Megapixels/Apertures/Shutter Speed/ISO/Processor

In a nutshell (very big nut) with the advancement of technologies in Cameras, we have the luxury of choosing the very best of these.

RAW: Camera that can shoot in RAW provides divers the flexible options to adjust white balance, exposure, fill light, black fill, tint, and etc. Because in Raw format although big in size (mb) keeps all digital colour information thus making tweaks if any picture is under/over expose can be easily corrected as compared to .jpg/jpeg that compresses the information.

Megapixels: Pixels, they make pictures by having diff dots of diff colours. More concentrated the dots in X specific area, the more details you’ll see and the bigger your pictures can be printed. Megapixels is not the definite spec you need to look for when choosing a camera, although having more megapixels will retard your camera from being obsolete.

 

Apertures: The Iris of cameras. Apertures allow X amount of light into the camera, by controlling the amount of light we are able to capture in either Low Light environment with Bigger opening of Aperture or better depth of field with Smaller Opening Apertures.  The confusing terminology for apertures is their f STOPS which range from f1.4 to f.32 (the smaller f the bigger the Iris opens, bigger f, smaller Iris)

When taking underwater pictures, macro uses big f stops for detail imaging like patterns of nudibranch or eyes details from fishes/shrimps, etc while Wide angle requires mid to low f stops for more lights to capture distance corals, blue sea background, etc

Fast Shutter Speed

 

Slow Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed: As easy as the name explained. Most modern days camera have wide range of shutter speed. This controls how fast the Aperture open and close. The Longer the aperture opens, the  more light it will expose the Sensor (assuming we’re all on digital). Faster shutter speed can achieve stand still images when capturing high speed movement and slower shutter speed can capture more lights like distant stars, night scenery or making water flow looks like a cotton floss.

When underwater, this is is vital for capturing high speed fishes with f6.3 1/250 or f8 1/100 macro on slower speed for colours.

ISO: International Organisation standard is an old Film Camera standard for Film. Unlike Film Camera which rely on different types of Film, digital Cameras uses ISO (old name stuck). Many different explanation on ISO but the easier for newbie to remember is that during the Film Days, Film uses silver halide. The opening of Apertures exposes the Silver Halide on the emulsion which “burn” at the X amount of given time. Smaller ISO have more compact Silver Halide thus giving better details as compared to Bigger ISO like 800 which the Silver Halide are more scattered making it easier to “burn” when light source are scarce enabling photographers to capture night shots.

 

During Underwater Photography, High ISO are usually used for Wide Angle as composition of pictures are from either distant objects or very low light pictures (underwater, the colours and lights are limited) but remember, HIGH ISO = More NOISE (will cover this explanation later)

*pictures from Wikipedia.org/dslr

Processor: Like Computers, Digital Camera processor play the vital role in capturing pictures. they are the Film + Brain of the Camera. How big the processor determine how much data can be captured. DSLR can have a full 35mm processor  to 4/3 cameras which uses 17.3 mm x 13mm processors. Small processor makes smaller Camera but lesser capturing details.

Newbie can look for a semi pro cameras which 4/3 system is more than adequate for all types of pictures.

Which Camera to choose from out of thousands of choices

So after all that basic info, what camera should we invest on.  There’s a couple of good brands in the market that Underwater Photographers (new/pro) highly recommends it. Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and Olympus.

Newbie:

Canon: G Series (G9/G10/G11/G12), S series(S90, S95, S100)

Nikon: Coolpix p7100, Nikon V1 (launching soon)

Panasonic: LX3, LX5, GF1, GF2, GF3

Olympus: EPL3 , E.P3

Pro:

you’re already pro, any DSLR with Alu Casing will do. shoo shoo ! go Wetpixel to Horne your skill

Macro or Wide Angle ?

Depending on individual, Wide Angle (WA) and Macro can be both fascinating and frustrating. Frustration, due to restriction of equipment and dive sites.

 

Sample of Macro : Xmas Tree- Spirobranchus giganteus

Macro: NEED to go close without spooking the object (can be easily rectify with a Macro Lense or two), excellent buoyancy control (you need to hover without touching the seabed or destroying corals and sometimes 180º degree head down for some tight creaks) and patience, lotsa patience.

example of 180º  buoyancy training (picture courtesy frm Alan Lok)

 

Wide Angle: NEED to take over the limit of what your camera lens can capture(and more with dome) good mental composure and (strobes helps but not necessarily a must) Wide Angle loves beautiful coral formation, circling schools of fishes, wreck and sometimes Half & Half pictures.

examples of Wide Angle pictures * Courtesy pic from Edvin Ng (oceanxplorer.com.my)

Wide Angle : silhouette of divers * Courtesy of Terenceg.com

Software that can save your pictures

My usual software consist of Adobe: Lightroom and Photoshop which is very flexible to convert RAW to DNG  and for editing (light and heavy)

If i have time, i’ll try to give a couple of screenshot on lightroom to correct white balance and some minor tweaking of pictures.

Other Equipment needed (but not necessary)

Inon Z240 Type 4

Strobes: Since Colours fades underwater, we need to substitute artificial lights to compensate.  Is good to have 1 strobes when you’re taking Underwater Photography. Will Cover the positioning  of Strobes and backscatters later.

Inon Arms and Clamps

 

Ultralight System arms and Clamps

Extension arms & Clamps: They are the extension of your strobes. Depending on what method you’re going for, Macro or WA, the length of the arms plays a vital role. Macro require shorter arms while WA requires Longer Arms. There are plenty of Arms in the market and almost all are similar concept with balls at the end (usually with an O ring for better clamping control) but if you’re serious about Underwater Photography, you need to invest in a good Arms. Inon and Ultra Light System provides one of the best.

Ulralight system Tray

Inon grip base D4

Casing Tray or Handle : Some cameras will have their own tray system, some don’t. Having a good light tray helps eliminates unnecessary weight. Good reliable tray system also enable your Camera casing to fit snugly without wobbling or dismount during dives. Again i would recommend Inon or Ultralight System as their versatile fitting can accommodate most types of Casing

A complete Inon Setup with 2 x Z240 Strobes, 1 x D4 base, 2 x 3′ arms and clamps (the additional are: 67mm Lens mount)

Complete ULS setup with; Tray with 2 handle, 2x 5′ arms and 2 x 7′ arms

Well with this short info, i hope is sufficient for you to decide which and what type of camera you need to use. This is just basic touch base info and not Cast in Stone.  Is best you check out your dive forums, talk to your dive shops, instructors and or your friends that have extensive experience in Underwater photography.

Is also good to have your friends’ UW cameras and practice in your pool before splurging a small fortune buying something you don’t like, or worse breaks easily.

As for the Strobes and other accessories, those are not the essential part to take good pictures. The problem usually lies with the USER and not the equipment. Same equipment given to a pro will produce excellent results as compared to a High End DSLR to hands of NOOBS. Go Figure ! (literally !!)