Equipment

Why Digital?

I have been using a Canon S45 in the Canon WDC300 housing for all my underwater photography. I initially chose digital based on price, after trying a Nikonos system and missing the option of autofocus! Ideally, I wanted a housed SLR (like my Minolta 7000i ) but the costs were prohibitive!

Since then I have had no reason to regret my choice. The system is NOT perfect but certainly, for a novice, it is very easy to get started-with acceptable early results that I believe are superior to those I would be getting with  a film based system.

I sincerely believe that a good Film based SLR with appropriate media, strobes AND experience produces superior quality pictures to digital. I just don't have the time or money needed to get both the equipment and the experience! However - digital is QUICKLY catching up as resolution increases, sensors improve and lens quality is acknowledged as increasingly important.

Digital systems have their own advantages of course. Instant feedback being a major advantage - especially for a novice. The old rule of shoot one roll of film and hope you get one good shot is a thing of the past now. Cost is substantially cheaper - both for the initial equipment and "running costs". At last the major companies see Underwater digital photography as more than a niche (read - not very lucrative) market and are producing decent housings, lenses and strobes. Digital SLR underwater is now an economically feasible reality.

The next few pages will outline my specific equipment and what I see as the pros and cons of it.

 Camera, Housing, Tray and arm, Strobe, Lenses, Case,  digital darkroom.