Simple Startup Non-professional Photography Equipment

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Check out the Kraken underwater housing - it works for Android, iPhone, etc - as long as your smart phone fits within the dimensions, it works! My dive buddy uses one with his phone in place of a camera and loves it.

I used the Watershot housing for my iPhone - back when I had an iPhone 4 - and it worked great. My fear now is if I lose my phone (flood it) I lose so much more than just pictures. Otherwise, I'd probably go back to that. My phone takes some incredible pictures!
 
Here are some TG-5 photos, no strobe, no housing. Just keep it above 45 feet.
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The video quality is outstanding as well, especially given the price. I don't do much video because i never get around to editing it.
 
With regards to the Watershot case, you could get a slightly older iPhone to use for photography that could do more than a camera, but still be semi disposable.
 
Here are some of my pics with my old (2016) Olympus TG-4 in the Olympus housing without strobes, but I do use my dive light to bring out the colours. These were taken in the out islands of the Bahamas and the atolls off Belize during day or night dives. I'm sure the TG-5 and TG-6 are even better right out of the box.

Some people who adjusted the white balance and had strobes had fabulous shots with the TG-3 and TG-4.

With the TG-4, I found the best setting was the "Underwater Macro" *but* un-zoomed right out to wide angle so you could get as close as possible:

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How deep can a GoPro go without a special housing?

From personal experience -- the buttons start getting unreliable after about 30ft. We had it down a little deeper than that and it still worked (maybe 40ft). So, then we tried taking it down to 100ft without the housing. The buttons wouldn't work. Kept pushing and nothing (so it seemed) would happen. Eventually, back above 30ft it started working again. We realized later that the GoPro -- on its own -- had taken about 1700 random photos while we were down deeper. The pressure makes it do funny things without the housing, apparently.

Thankfully, the thing still works alright. We then bought a housing, but it fogs up sometimes. Anyway, I think I will probably try to find a separate camera for underwater photos this summer.
 
According to my LDS, the DC2000 might be discontinued shortly - no idea what will replace it, but they may go down in price or be easy to grab secondhand once whatever new model launches.
 
Below photos are snipped stills from my GoPro H6 videos. I think the GoPro deserves more credit in terms of photo quality. I have some of these framed in 8x10 and they look great (to me!) I have a Big Blue video light with my tray that also helps bring out colors.

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An alternative is to just get a used GoPro 4. The dive housing came standard with these cameras. With a minimal investment you can experiment and find out if it’s something you actually enjoy or want to explore further. I suggest a tray for stability, a red filter and at least one nice video light. All stuff you can buy used. You can capture quality video and extract pictures all day long. We also have a GoPro 6 with a Super Suit, but I prefer the GoPro 4 because I have more control over the field of view. The video below took 5th in the Cozumel Museum Contest last year and was taken with the GoPro 4 with a Backscatter 20-50 feet flip filter. Good luck.

 
I want to thank EVERYONE for their input. I have looked at multiple options and configurations and pricing thereof. I finally pulled the trigger on an Olympus Tough TG-6. I am looking at a couple of different housings. One is the Olympus PT-059 for about $250 and the other is the Chinese knock-off SeaFrogs 60M/195ft Housing for the TG-6 for about $160. My concern is if the Chinese model is really as waterproof as the specs say. I haven't been able to see a used one on ebay. I don't do Facebook so if there is something there, I can't see it.
Okay, all my SB friends, non-friends, nay sayers, and anyone else in the range of my request, is the Japanese Olympus housing worth the nearly $100 difference over the Chinese SeaFrogs version?

Thanks again and
Cheers - M²
 

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