My suggestion.. don't take a hand held camera diving quite yet, get your skills and experience tuned up first. As much of a photo maniac as I am... too many vacations end with funerals. No picture is worth that!
I'm sorry, I have to call BS on this one. Do you have any statistics for this? While I think getting better at diving before worrying a bunch about photos is certainly a good idea, this kind of FUD is completely annoying.
If you can find 2 divers that have died specifically as a result of being newbies and not controlling ascent or whatever due to a camera, I'd be surprised.
Controlling buoyancy is a good idea but the attitude here of "you're going to die" is complete nonsense.