Would you spend lots for a real underwater digital camera vs buying lots of disposable underwater film camera?
02. Dec, 2009 
5 Comments
We are going on a Caribean cruise. We want to take underwater pictures of our snorkeling adventures. We have the choice of buying lots of disposable underwater cameras or buy one decent real digital camera. Is the image quality of a real digital camera worth the $250 vs buying several $12 disposable cameras? Basically how good are underwater disposable cameras?
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The disposable underwater camera I once owned was no fun at all. The fist picture that was developed was that of a faded sea horse, the second was nothing more than a blur and after that the pictures completely useless. My underwater camera wasn’t as waterproof as they said.
Other disposable underwater camera’s have worked fine though.
I think you should wonder if you’re ever going to need an underwater camera after your trip. If so, then the real one might be best.
Have fun on your trip, it sound really great!
Look for disposable cameras that have at least a 12-15 foot depth limit, and you’ll be fine. To get REALLY GOOD underwater pictures, you need a REALLY GOOD flash. I’ve been scuba diving since 1975, and I’ve seen a lot of u/w pictures. The ones that really stand out are the ones where the photographer had a good flash.
To get that, you will not only need an u/w camera, but also an u/w flash, or at least a housing for one. You’ll spend several hundred dollars to get the combination. The pictures will end up costing you several dollars a shot, if you want to look at it that way. You would be better off to hire a diver with a camera to follow you around, and you can pose or point to the shots you want all afternoon.
But if you’re snorkeling, you’ll be close to the surface already, so you’ll have sunlight to light your pictures. And odds are, unless you’re already used to snorkeling, you’ll struggle enough trying to set up for and frame each picture that you’ll scare off the fish, or cloud the water, or otherwise ruin the shot.
Stick to simple cameras, enjoy having snapshot-type pictures, have fun, and remember to use lots of sunscreen.
if you do this a lot, maybe it’s a good idea to buy a good underwater digital camera. i’m not sure if you can get one for $250 though. your other option is to get a waterproof housing. here’s a link. it’s just to give you an idea but i’m not really endorsing this shop (i dont know them) http://www.wolfcamera.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchView?storeId=10101&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&keyword=waterproof
for underwater cameras, this might be helpful:
http://cameras.about.com/od/photographybyinterest/tp/underwater.htm
I would rather trust my memories to a good quality camera in the $300 price range than to some “Made In China” disposable camera that might work – or not – and cost you those special memories.
IMO you should consider investing in the Olympus Stylus 770 SW camera. Shockproof to a 5 foot drop, waterproof to 33 feet. This is a camera you can use for years to come and never have to worry about it.
A quick perusal of Yahoo! Shopping found it at Abes of Maine for $299.99, at Monitor Outlet, Inc. for $323.99, at Amazon.com Marketplace for $316.77.
Olympus offers several models of their SW line so you might want to do a comparison of the features and benefits of them before making a decision.
When you are comparing the price of the digital vs the disposable don’t forget to factor in the cost of the actual prints as well. The disposable will cost more just to develop even if you just get the negatives or a disc made.
Also how long are you going away for and figure out approximately how many pictures per day to hel you decide how many cameras you would need.
if you do go with the digital get a good memory card as well – one to hold enough pictures so you don’t need to worry about
downloading or deleting.
You can get 1 or 2 gigabyte cards quite reasonably.
Last thing I would consider is the future. Are you going to be taking a lot of pictures after the cruise? General and/or specific events? If not – does the digital seem worth it. Or perhaps if you have the digital you will be more inclined to take more pics.
Whatever you decide, have a great trip.