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Snap Sights makes one with a flash that is reusable and is rated to 100ft/30m. it is dirt cheap (<$20 ) and uses a clamshell housing that is easy and quite reliable.
Disposible Underwater Camera
- Thread starter GDCB
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Lisa0825
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claplant:
COOL! I was looking for something inexpensive to start out with too!
RussR
Contributor
I cant say for the quality of pictures, but I just got a 35mm reloadable camera called Shark Diver from Sealife, with automatic flash (which I dont think the disposables have), rated to 80 ft from Amazaon.com for $19.99
I will post some of the photos once I get back and have them developed
I will post some of the photos once I get back and have them developed
below 20 feet everything turns very Blue....they will not advance in 60'+ depths...so you will need to go up to 30-50' level What looks to be a perfectly clear shot and up close willturn Blue and look like a million miles away...the no flash on the camera makes it unusable for walls/caves/etc. :11doh:
Saying all that, for pictures framed by the sky( shooting upward) at 4-6' away, you can get a solid picture...take an orange filter with you to get rid of the blue or spend about 6$ extra and get one with a flash and still use the filter....Trying to tell someone how colorful it is only works when your picture doesn't look like a "blue-0ut"....
i thought the same thing, it was cheap...should have spent the extra for a flash and color screen...will not make the same mistake again....
Saying all that, for pictures framed by the sky( shooting upward) at 4-6' away, you can get a solid picture...take an orange filter with you to get rid of the blue or spend about 6$ extra and get one with a flash and still use the filter....Trying to tell someone how colorful it is only works when your picture doesn't look like a "blue-0ut"....
i thought the same thing, it was cheap...should have spent the extra for a flash and color screen...will not make the same mistake again....
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for those of us that have been doing this UW photo stuff for a long time, we consider ANY camera we take underwater as disposable ;-)
Lisa0825
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Has anyone had the SNAPS8 Snapper-8 Digital Camera with SnapperSkin? I saw it on the same site linked above, http://www.bonicadive.com/webpages/Snapper-XP.html. at under $200, it would make up the price difference by not needing film pretty quickly, if it is any good. Or is there any other under $200 that you'd recommend?
BIGSAGE136
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AMEN!Chris Bangs:
If you think you are close enough, get closer, yes closer....:06:
No matter how close you are, if you think you are "close enough" you won't be....
I was standing on top of a turtle( I thought), it looked like I was 20' away
No matter how close you are, if you think you are "close enough" you won't be....
I was standing on top of a turtle( I thought), it looked like I was 20' away
Two thoughts in response:
First, my girlfriend has used those. Yes, the camera works. However, for the pix to be "good" they have to be taken in really shallow water -- less than 15 feet -- near mid-day on a sunny day, and you have to be close -- no more than two arms lengths -- to your subject (a good rule of thumb for most U/W photos).
Second, as regards disposable cameras for U/W photos, one that I have a love/hate relationship with.... Ikelite used to make a housing called the Aquashot housing that accepted 27 shot cardboard disposable cameras. The Aquashot kit included an external slave strobe on a plastic arm, a flash deflector to block the disposable camera's flash (and thus reduce backscatter), a flash diffuser and macro lens attachment. My Nikonos-toting friends pooh-poohed the Aquashot set-up for a lot of reasons (e.g., the plastic lenses), but honestly, I got some excellent U/W shots with it. You could use it in drive-by P&S mode, or take your time, compose the shot, get close, etc., and get good color print photos. And, by varying the plastic shims in the case, you could get it to accept a variety of cardboard cameras.
The Aquashot has some downsides:
- stuffing it with disposable cardboard cameras costs more than dropping in a 36 shot roll of color print film, and way more than dropping bytes onto an SD card.
- everything is pre-set, so you have no control of aperature, shutter speed, flash, etc.
- the external flash is fixed in position. If you want it anywhere other than above and to the left, you have to unhook it and manually hold it at the right angle for the subject, tough to do while hovering close to your subject and manipulating the camera at the same time.
- AND -- this was the one that drove me batty -- if the cardboard camera wasn't positioned juuuust riiiight in the housing, the controls didn't work. You couldn't advance the film, or the shutter release wouldn't work, or you couldn't turn on the camera's built-in flash, etc. This didn't happen all the time, just often enough to make me crazy. You could guarantee that the dive when the Aquashot wasn't working was the dive where the manta would swim past, or a school of squid would surround you, or you'd find 4 scorpion fish, etc.
- finally, I think Ikelite discontinued the Aquashot. You can probably find them on eBay, though. I've still got a couple -- bought three of 'em last year when a dealer closed them out, cannibalized them to make two good systems, and have a spare housing and strobe.
BTW, even if you don't use the Aquashot housing for anything, the strobes make reasonable slave fill-flashes for lots of shots.
Still, before I bought my first "real" U/W camera system, I used the Aquashot on maybe 10 dive trips, and got good results most of the time.
Bottom line on disposable U/W cameras IMHO: just like topside, the most important ingredient is the eye behind the camera. Once you develop that, you can take decent to good shots with any camera system you know how to operate.
First, my girlfriend has used those. Yes, the camera works. However, for the pix to be "good" they have to be taken in really shallow water -- less than 15 feet -- near mid-day on a sunny day, and you have to be close -- no more than two arms lengths -- to your subject (a good rule of thumb for most U/W photos).
Second, as regards disposable cameras for U/W photos, one that I have a love/hate relationship with.... Ikelite used to make a housing called the Aquashot housing that accepted 27 shot cardboard disposable cameras. The Aquashot kit included an external slave strobe on a plastic arm, a flash deflector to block the disposable camera's flash (and thus reduce backscatter), a flash diffuser and macro lens attachment. My Nikonos-toting friends pooh-poohed the Aquashot set-up for a lot of reasons (e.g., the plastic lenses), but honestly, I got some excellent U/W shots with it. You could use it in drive-by P&S mode, or take your time, compose the shot, get close, etc., and get good color print photos. And, by varying the plastic shims in the case, you could get it to accept a variety of cardboard cameras.
The Aquashot has some downsides:
- stuffing it with disposable cardboard cameras costs more than dropping in a 36 shot roll of color print film, and way more than dropping bytes onto an SD card.
- everything is pre-set, so you have no control of aperature, shutter speed, flash, etc.
- the external flash is fixed in position. If you want it anywhere other than above and to the left, you have to unhook it and manually hold it at the right angle for the subject, tough to do while hovering close to your subject and manipulating the camera at the same time.
- AND -- this was the one that drove me batty -- if the cardboard camera wasn't positioned juuuust riiiight in the housing, the controls didn't work. You couldn't advance the film, or the shutter release wouldn't work, or you couldn't turn on the camera's built-in flash, etc. This didn't happen all the time, just often enough to make me crazy. You could guarantee that the dive when the Aquashot wasn't working was the dive where the manta would swim past, or a school of squid would surround you, or you'd find 4 scorpion fish, etc.
- finally, I think Ikelite discontinued the Aquashot. You can probably find them on eBay, though. I've still got a couple -- bought three of 'em last year when a dealer closed them out, cannibalized them to make two good systems, and have a spare housing and strobe.
BTW, even if you don't use the Aquashot housing for anything, the strobes make reasonable slave fill-flashes for lots of shots.
Still, before I bought my first "real" U/W camera system, I used the Aquashot on maybe 10 dive trips, and got good results most of the time.
Bottom line on disposable U/W cameras IMHO: just like topside, the most important ingredient is the eye behind the camera. Once you develop that, you can take decent to good shots with any camera system you know how to operate.
OP
GDCB
Guest
Lisa0825:
The 180' depth rated camera was 350.00 the 200.00 one was only rated at 3'.
CB
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