What's the best way to secure a camera to you? Gear retractor?

[diversteve]

How does the coil lanyard attach?

I clip the brass clip on a d-ring on the high right side of my BC. It has the advantage of not dragging on the ground when shore diving also when it's clipped off. The caribinier goes through a hole drilled in the bracket that holds the handle to my housing - I think it's for light battery pods or ?.

 

[vladimir]

Well, my vote is controversial. I never attach a camera during a dive. I always have a bolt snap though to attach it in an emergency or at a safety stop if I feel the need.

I agree with this, for the most part. I generally hold my camera. On the rare occasion that I need both hands free (clearing while descending down a line, for example), I have tied on a bolt snap and 10 cm of cave line that gets clipped to a D-ring.

It sucks that you (the OP) lost your camera to assist your buddy, but I wouldn't go too far in adapting my rig to accommodate that pretty remote scenario. Having your camera tethered to you might present its own set of hazards.

 

[divengolf]

I agree with the use of the coiled lanyard attached to a D ring with a bolt snap. However I have bought the coiled lanyard that has a magnetic clasp rather than the plastic one. The advantage is that it can be opened and closed with one hand. The plastic clip requires two hands to close unless you have great dexterity. That way I never have to let go of my rig. The downside is that the magnets tend to attract small magnetic particles from the bottom if you're laying in the sand, etc. But this can easily be brushed off.

I would not use a retractor for two reasons. They are relatively unreliable, plus they always have tension on your rig which can get old real quick. The coiled lanyard doesn't have any tension until you get beyond an arms length from your body.

Plus it's always clipped to by BC. In an emergency, I may not have time or the ability to find the boltsnap and connect it to my BC. So it's always connected. I can just let go of it and be assured that my rig is hanging a few feet below my feet.

This topic has been posted several times before. Do a search and you'll find plenty of opinions.

 

[ElliottM]

As to a new camera, I have been really happy with the Canon SX230HS' 12MP w/ 14x zoom and an underwater mode if you want to use such a thing. You can see what I've taken with it at Picasa Web Albums - Jak Crow - Underwater Ph... . Everything in that section has been taken with the 230. I've seen it for under $200 recently and Canon sells a case for it at around $170. Pretty good deal for a compact underwater system that gives great results.

Jak, those are nice looking photos from such an inexpensive camera. What do you use for lighting?

 

[Gilligan]

I used a coil lanyard with my tray/arm/strobe/Canon housing. No doubt they are very convenient and I like them. HOWEVER if it is a coil without a wire inside it watch out. One day while doing my 3 minute safety stop in about 20 feet of water I let the rig hang from the coil while I got my signal tube off my BCD to inflate and low and behold I look down and my camera rig is on the sandy bottom. The coil broke. Not wire reinforced. Lucky for me I was shallow and had a sandy bottom so no damage. Guess it got old and funky like all things do.

 

[ScubaMarc]

2 feet of bungee with 2 snaps, 1 goes to the bc other to the camera. Always connect during a dive.

 

[oly5050user]

if serious about images just hold camera.Stupid line/lanyard whatever gets in the way too often and if you depend on it you have the chance of camera banging around and getting damaged.Shooting images starting with nik 2 on thru 5 and now digital since 1970 and never lost a camera and never attached it to myself. As to diver who lost her belt and you had to assist her should have just handed the dummy her belt,see that she just holds it in her hand and point her to the boat and advise her to get out of your ocean..

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

When I use to with my old SLR, I had it attached to a large retractor, which was good bcuz when in need, you can just let go the camera and do your stuff with your hands and not have to think about it. Then I got one of these pro-am digital cams, I just used the wrist strap, and still didn't worry about where the camera is when I needed to use my hand. Later, I got a strobe and even though I got a brass clip for it, I was grabbing the strobe arm's handle so much that I did not use the strap anymore. One of those dives, I got into the water and was making all sorts of adjustments on the surface and when I am ready to grab my camera, it was nowhere to be found. We were in around 30 ft of water and didn't see anything nearby. Good thing when somebody descended on from the surface to the bottom, which was around 30ft, they saw this whole setup lying on the reef. I guess we drifted around 15 ft on the surface, thus when looking below me, I couldn't see my gear, plus the red parts of the camera housing/strobe became completely black looking at 30ft below. Tried my old retractor kind of in the wrong side of the BC, so definitely will move it to the side of the strobe arm in the future.

 

[Doc Harry]

I'm with Broct on this one.

Bolt snap.

 

[Larry C]

I've been using a coiled lanyard for quite a while, currently with my massive D300 rig. I don't trust it. The weight of the rig pulls the lanyard way down when I need to do something else with my hands. There's an outfit called BTS who make a double strap set-up that connects the camera to your shoulder straps at chest level. It's designed for rough water entries, but looks like it would do a great job of securing the camera with hands off. Might be overkill for your compact. They attach to the BTS tray with stainless through pins. They have an adapter for non BTS trays with a little nylon loop, but that's the part I least trust on my current system. They also make some stronger looking coil lanyards, also with stainless rather than the typical nylon fittings.
Beneath the Surface Beach Diving Straps with BDS11-15B B&H Photo


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