How many dives before taking a camera with you

[Marie13]

I have a cheapo GoPro knockoff (avatar pic was taken with it). I took a camera out earlier this year (got certified last October). Probably 15-20 dives at the time. I shot a lot of stuff at the local quarry before I took it on my first wreck dive on Lake Michigan 6 weeks ago.

So, practice with it locally if possible before taking it on a "big" dive.

 

[Storker]

practice with it locally if possible before taking it on a "big" dive.

Seconded, thirded and fourthed.

I'm a strong believer in doing at least one training/check-out dive at a known, benign site after any change in gear configuration.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

I took my go pro on almost every dive after certification. But... (you knew that was coming right?) I rarely used it. I told myself that if I could turn it on without losing my position in the water column then I could shoot. I found that for at least the first 30 dives that trying to get it out of my pocket and turn it on resulted in my losing my place. I then started practicing getting it out on dry land with gloves as that is how I usually dive. No small amount of amusement to my husband as I walked around the house in my bc and gloves taking the camera out, turning it on, turning it off, securing it. Also those first shots and video were horrible with all my sculling to keep steady. I still bring it on almost every dive, but never my first dive of the day. I have to get the ants out of my pants on that dive.

Another thing I decided was I like scuba. I like photography, but now the photography interferes with scuba. I know with my skill level I wont be getting that great shot, so I enjoy looking at everyones captures and knowing that I too saw that.

Dive safe.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

"cocker spaniel puppy effect". So much of the undersea world is new that you will spend a lot of time, energy, and ultimately air bouncing from one cool new thing to another. For a while, it will seem like you will have the attention span of a cocker spaniel puppy. It is actually a skill for most people that they have to learn to deliberately slow their breathing and in time, their air consumption will get better. Eventually, it will seem natural, but it takes a while to get to that stage.
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still guilty of this

 

[Laurie S.]

I took my camera, a Canon G11, for the first time on my 14th dive. I had been doing photography on land for decades, and my buoyance, etc., was excellent so it worked for me.

 

[Tippytoes12]

I had two hundred and eighty , but because we were going to Raja Ampat On th next trip I decided to get an underwater housing for my smartphone. A very persuasive sales person in the dive shop in Charing Cross in London said " no way use just an iPhone , you need a decent camera for Raja Ampat". This was probably one of the best pieces of advice every , it was an eight week trip so I spent ages mastering manual white balance etc etc etc....and now just love taking photos. I don't regret not getting it earlier....just have to go back to the places we visited without a camera !

 

[bdejong11129]

All great information, thanks for sharing. I love the cocker spaniel effect analogy. I think I have experienced both that and the frozen in time effect where it was so amazing what I was seeing that I just floated in the same spot and stared at all that was around me.

I do think that there will have to be a balance in diving with and without the camera. I know from shooting on land that there are times where seeing everything though a lens you can miss out.

It is nice to see how active this board is and how quickly I got so much good information and how polite everyone was with their opinions.

 

[jstrang]

I know this topic has been kind of beaten to death, but here are my 2 cents FWIW.
I like 25 dives before adding more complexity. BUT, more importantly, you should feel ready to start shooting pictures or video, 25 dives might not be enough.

And I would wait another 25 dives using a point and shoot before you progress to more extreme photography ie strobes, dslr, dual video lights, etc

And if you progress with diving ie AOW, deep, doubles, technical, cave, wreck, rebreather, etc. I would wait until you have at least 25 dives on each of those areas before adding a camera to that specific area.

have fun.

 

[hilljo88]

"...The charter has an option to have a dive lead go with you for a few extra bucks and that is what I am going to do..."

That's a great idea for any new diver and even for experienced divers in new location. A good DM will also point out photo worthy marine life you likely wouldnt notice.

Getting good shots requires more skills than most beginning divers have, as other posters have pointed out. It takes time to develop those skills, but that shouldnt necessarily deter you. One thing that might not be obvious is you will be much slower. The frequent stops and starts and manuevering for the right angle takes a lot more time, and air.

Also, you should know that the most frequently found object on dives now are cameras, usually Go Pros!!!

 

[Clark Fletcher]

For me personally, I took it on my 16th dive but, didn't use it till my 17th dive.

First, I have a Sea Life Micro 2.0 with a Sea Dragon 1500 light. One of the reasons I didn't take a camera before then is that I was a little intimidated by the size of the whole setup with the camera, light, and light bar. My instructor was with us on this dive trip because several of us were working on Adventure dives for AOW and this particular dive was our deep dive. I wasn't planning on taking my camera but, my instructor suggested taking just the camera without the light or light bar (i.e. crawl before you walk). So, I stuck just my camera in my BCD pocket and off we go.

Turns out when we got down on the wreck, I couldn't get my camera out of my BCD pocket. I had on reef gloves and couldn't feel the pulls on the BCD zipper. And, I didn't want to take the glove off for fear I'd lose it. Anyway, I finally figured it out on our next dive (another wreck), was able to actually get the camera out of my BCD pocket, was able to snap a few pictures, and then stick it back in my BCD pocket. So, for me it was dive #17.

The point of my blathering is that you don't have to make the camera the focus of your entire dive. If the camera by itself is small enough to fit in a BCD pocket, take it with you. You don't necessarily have to use it. But, if you get down there and feel like it, pull it out of your pocket, snap a few pictures, put it away, and then enjoy the rest of your dive. You don't have to jump into with both feet all at once. I can honestly say that for me, it's been much easier starting out with baby steps and working my way up to the full photo rig.

Hope this helps.