Getting started in underwater photography

[Jeff85248]

Hello,

I was looking over the posts and some are old and some are new. didn't know if I should start my own post or try and find one that has what I'm looking for. if I shouldn't start a new post you are welcome to point me in the right direction and I guess I can delete this one.

Basic questions and comments:

I have used various film and digital Canon cameras for many years. I now would like to get started in underwater photos.

what would be a good starter camera to take point and shoot photos?

can I find a good "last year's model" or older model that someone is trading up from and good for me?

what is the general price I should expect to pay to take simple photos. I have no immediate plans to get photoshop and spend hours playing with my photos. I will at best crop my photos and simple stuff.
simple attachments? strobe? video light? housing?

Honestly don't know if I will stay with this. My son got me a GoPro for my birthday and used it on my last dive. I could not get a good photo but got great video. my plans are that if I go on a week dive trip I would probably (at least at first, my intention) only take it on a few dives. not each and every dive. mostly the more shallow dives that have better light.

As always, if I did not ask an important question or missed an important point. please let me know.

simply put. if you could do it all over again. which camera would you get and why?

Thanks
Jeff

 

[Skeptic14]

If you are looking for a point and shoot that will perform pretty well out of the box and not have a super steep learning curve, take a look at the TG-4. I've been very happy with mine and what I as a novice have been able to do with it.

It's good to 50ft without a case which makes it great for snorkeling and shallow diving. Add a case, strobe and wide angle lens and you can get some pretty nice shots for $1,500.

IMO the most important thing is learning some of the most basic uw photography techniques, that is what will make the biggest immediate difference.

I use photoscape to do very basic post processing.

 

[MB NZ]

If you know your way around a camera already, I would skip point and shoot and look at the micro 4/3 cameras. They can of course be used as a point and shoot camera, but can also be used in full manual mode which is very useful underwater.

I would start with macro, or at least small subject photography which is easier in my opinion. A single strobe is going to be pretty much essential even for this. The camera is often the cheapest part of the setup! Lenses, housings and strobes often cost more individually than the camera itself!

 

[Jeff85248]

If you know your way around a camera already, I would skip point and shoot and look at the micro 4/3 cameras. They can of course be used as a point and shoot camera, but can also be used in full manual mode which is very useful underwater.

I would start with macro, or at least small subject photography which is easier in my opinion. A single strobe is going to be pretty much essential even for this. The camera is often the cheapest part of the setup! Lenses, housings and strobes often cost more individually than the camera itself!

Thanks for the info. Yes. I know about the cost. A friend I dive with has a Nikon. His set up is in the $15k area and the camera is only $1500 of that cost.

 

[Jeff85248]

If you are looking for a point and shoot that will perform pretty well out of the box and not have a super steep learning curve, take a look at the TG-4. I've been very happy with mine and what I as a novice have been able to do with it.

It's good to 50ft without a case which makes it great for snorkeling and shallow diving. Add a case, strobe and wide angle lens and you can get some pretty nice shots for $1,500.

IMO the most important thing is learning some of the most basic uw photography techniques, that is what will make the biggest immediate difference.

I use photoscape to do very basic post processing.

Thank you. I have read a few posts about the TG-4. I guess I have to take a serious look at this one.

What do you think about getting an older used model? Anything still worth a look or is the older models just too legacy?

 

[Skeptic14]

The TG-4 can shoot in RAW, whereas tg-3 doesn't, so depends on if you want that capability. I have mine in the RAW+jpeg mode, but find that I usually don't use the RAW images. It's mostly there just in case some auto setting boogers up the jpeg, I can still salvage the image.

 

[Plashb199]

Hello,

I was looking over the posts and some are old and some are new. didn't know if I should start my own post or try and find one that has what I'm looking for. if I shouldn't start a new post you are welcome to point me in the right direction and I guess I can delete this one.

Basic questions and comments:

I have used various film and digital Canon cameras for many years. I now would like to get started in underwater photos.

what would be a good starter camera to take point and shoot photos?

can I find a good "last year's model" or older model that someone is trading up from and good for me?

what is the general price I should expect to pay to take simple photos. I have no immediate plans to get photoshop and spend hours playing with my photos. I will at best crop my photos and simple stuff.
simple attachments? strobe? video light? housing?

Honestly don't know if I will stay with this. My son got me a GoPro for my birthday and used it on my last dive. I could not get a good photo but got great video. my plans are that if I go on a week dive trip I would probably (at least at first, my intention) only take it on a few dives. not each and every dive. mostly the more shallow dives that have better light.

As always, if I did not ask an important question or missed an important point. please let me know.

simply put. if you could do it all over again. which camera would you get and why?

Thanks
Jeff

Although I'm new to scuba. I am not new to photography or underwater/surf photography. I've been shooting for years.

I'd look at an old canon 7d or even an old 5d. I have both and they Still work great. the 7d is almost indestructible. there are videos of people abusing it on youtube. and it still shoots!
The canon 7d out of the box is ready to shoot. You don't have to tweak the color profile or adjust the cameras dynamic range.
I'm sure you can find old 7d on eBay for under 500$. I don't recommend getting into Photoshop, especially if all you want to do it crop/adjust minor things. maybe look into adobe lightroom. (i use that) and if not, the apple app store has some pretty user friendly photo apps on both computer and phone/tablet.
If I could do it again. I'd buy the same camera (7d) and Aquatech surf housing. (I can't go deeper then ~25-30ft with this housing because it is a "sport" housing.) which is my setup's only drawback. however, at those depths i still get full color, light penetration so i don't mind.
Why don't you stick to using the gopro, i use it all the time because of how easy it is, and if you get really into it, bite the bullet.
just like scuba, photography is an expensive hobby!

Enjoy your time in the ocean,
Pete

excuse typos, and grammar. typed on my iphone