Diving Cameras buying guide

Want to capture the moment while diving underwater? Don't think it is possible? Diving cameras are here to prove you wrong.

The product allows you to capture the mesmerizing beauty of the underworld flora and fauna. They are easy to use and provide high clarity pictures.

However, you have to look into certain things before making an informed purchase. You have to look into the image quality, video features, white balance, size, weight, and whatnot.

Collecting the correct facts on all these features can become a tiresome task. A comprehensive buying guide provides you all the necessary information in a well-structured manner. You can quickly go through the pointers and funnel down the best product.

Let us start with the introduction to have a clear picture in mind and then move further into the guide.

What do you mean by a diving camera? What are the uses of the camera?

While wondering about the next topic to bring forth to you, we came across something very usable and precious. This life-changing small equipment will make you skip a heartbeat.

But before that, we have some questions for you! Don't you want to capture the illuminating jellyfish swimming inside or the dolphin playing with you underwater? Do you miss the coral reefs that you visited?

If your answer is yes, then you have made the right decision by landing on this page. Coming back to the topic, let's see what we have in treasure for you. The equipment which we are talking about is none other than diving cameras.

These cameras enable you to capture all these beautiful memories so that these can be cherished later.

You can shoot everything hidden underneath the blue body and relive the time you have already passed. These are waterproof and offer you full liberty to use them for shooting purposes without worrying about any damage.

Besides, these form an essential part of your life if you love to shoot and are passionate about vlogging. Listed below are some significant advantages of using these cameras.

1. Shoot your documentary

How do you think the marine documentaries shown on your television get shot? This is possible only through the use of these cameras. Using this, you can discover the unknown underwater.

2. Water sports

These cameras help you shoot the underwater scenarios of every water sport. Be it the swimming championship or the pool volleyball; these leave no stones unturned to capture these adrenaline-filled moments.

3. Exploration

If you love exploring different things and marine exploration is your favorite subject, these cameras are a must-have. You can study the lifestyle of the fish, their habits and habitat, and many more things.

4. Capture your moments

Marine animals, except a few, are adorable. Having a picture with them and then flaunting it had been difficult if these cameras weren't around. Thanks to the fast advancing technology, many of your dreams have come true.

Why should you read this buying guide before purchasing a diving camera?

The market is flooded with different kinds of cameras. Some are meant to be used for professional photography while some cater to everyday needs. Nowadays, even smartphones are equipped with impressive camera features that have made professional cameras take a backseat.

However, many professional photographers use these cameras because their efficiency cannot be matched by those installed in your smartphones.

This throws a big challenge at you to buy the best camera possible. This is a tedious task, but not now. To make the hunt much more comfortable, we have brought you this buying guide.

This guide offers you the answers to all the queries popping up at the back of your mind. You will find all the crucial features that you should look for while buying a camera. Also, you will see many other terms that you might not have heard of yet.

Hence, without any further ado, let's catch a glimpse of an underwater camera's critical features.

Types of cameras

To match your comfort and ease of usage, these cameras come in different types. You cannot rely on a single camera to shoot different things.

The different types of cameras are used for various purposes. This allows you to look for that particular type you are interested in, and this depends on the kind of activity you choose for.

Listed below are the different types of these cameras. Scan them inside out and then make a concrete decision.

1. Action Cameras

These have a fisheye lens, which means a small lens with high resolution and focus. Due to their increasing demand, a 360 degrees lens is installed so that everything can be captured with ease.

These can be used effortlessly and capture everything, starting from your dive till you come out of the water.

2. 2. Compact cameras

These cameras are loaded with tons of features. It depends on how much you can afford and what you want from these. These work on the principle of finding the ideal place and then start shooting.

If you want to be an underwater photographer, these form an excellent choice to start your work with. These offer you the essential features that you need while photography and also allow you to enhance your skills over time.

3. 3. Mirrorless camera

These form a bridge between the compact cameras and the DSLRs. These have large-sized sensors, better optics than others, and lenses that can be interchanged for a better view.

Using these, you will get access to high-quality images that aren't blurred and have sharp features. Though these are comparatively smaller than DSLRs, their efficiency is unbeatable.

4. 4. DSLR cameras

Nothing can be better than a DSLR camera to get professional photographs and show everyone your photography skills. Equipped with the best sensors, lenses, and optics, these rule the camera industry.

The only setback is their heavyweight. This poses a hindrance while using them underwater. Besides, DSLR can be used efficiently only by those who have 4 to 5 years of photography experience.

Things to deem about while selecting appropriate Diving Cameras

Size and weight

The size and weight of your underwater camera are significant factors that need to be brought into the light.

Since you will be spending most of the time underwater, you need to keep the camera as small and lightweight as possible to swim about freely. It should not hinder while moving or shooting.

The buoyancy of your camera and its maneuverability is affected by the weight and size of the camera. If it's heavy, you have to hold it with both hands to balance its weight and fight buoyancy. This will cause problems while swimming because both the hands will be equipped.

If that's too small, there might be chances that you may not get good pictures. This demands that you go for the perfect size. Diving cameras have the appropriate size and weight. These strike the right balance between both the parameters.

Neither are these too big or heavy nor too small and light. Besides, these don't affect your maneuverability and the camera's buoyancy. With these cameras in hand, you can have a great experience underwater, shooting every fish's movement and the different areas.

Underwater housing

The underwater housing is the outer covering of your camera. It protects your camera from any damage and enhances its durability.

While searching for suitable housing, you need to pay attention to the camera housing's vital features. Mentioned below are some factors that may affect your decision to purchase an underwater housing.

1. Maximum depth

Before investing in any housing, focus on the maximum depth it can travel up to. With an increase in depth, the water pressure also increases. This may damage the housing and then your camera too.

Whenever you opt for a camera housing, search for those that allow you to dive more than 300 feet.

Also, to keep your camera's housing safe, search if the housing that you have chosen has a leakage alerting alarm. This alarm alerts you regarding any leakage inside your camera and its housing.

2. Internal Components

You should always hunt for the underwater housing that consists of two variants of internal components. These include physical and electronic components. Let's see how these two differ.

1. Electronic internal component

These work very fast, but due to the increased speed, they can quickly get damaged.

2. Physical internal components

These do not respond fast like the electronic ones and can be very rigid to work with. The plus point of these is that they don't get damaged easily and work for an extended period.

3. Building material

The underwater camera housings are made of two materials. These are listed below with their advantages and disadvantages.

1. Polycarbonate

This is a high-quality plastic material that is lightweight and too cheap.

Disadvantage

Polycarbonate is not a durable material and is susceptible to damages and frequent fogging due to cold and moisture.

2. Aluminum

This is a very strong and durable material. It is incredibly reliable and offers smooth operation.

Disadvantage

The most significant disadvantage of this material is that it is quite expensive and cannot be afforded by many.

4. Accessory Ports

Many camera housing variants have spaces to accommodate many accessories like lights, lenses, floats, etc. These ports come in handy when you want to carry some additional equipment that you may need underwater.

Video

Diving cameras are used primarily for shooting videos and clicking pictures underwater. What's the use of these if they provide blurred photos and low-quality videos? Your entire investment will be a waste that you don't want.

These cameras, with regular improvisation and testing, have come up with the new models. These being affordable, provide you the best quality videos and photographs. You don't need to rely on video systems like camcorders or any other. Just grab this camera and start shooting.

You will get the finest and incredible quality picture that will tempt your eyes, and you can never get enough out of it. These also offer focus peaking and other advanced features like zebra stripes.

You can also search for other variants that offer 4k videos. These cameras do not cost much but shower you with the best features found only in high-end cameras.

White balance

When you go deep into the water, the colors fade away, and everything looks dark. Shooting in such a dark-colored area is very difficult. The natural colors' essence cannot be extracted, and the picture will also lose its life.

To get great videos and pictures that look natural and beautiful, white balance is essential. If you are not familiar with this word, don't worry! We are here for you.

A white balance is used to extract colors from. In simple words, if you have studied in your school, the seven colors of the rainbow, when mixed, forms a white color. The same principle is applied here, as well.

Diving cameras have this feature where they identify the area in the picture that is white. This area becomes a source to extract all the other necessary colors to color the dull image that your camera has caught underwater.

This color filling makes your picture look more realistic and lively. These cameras offer an accurate reading of that white area even when at a deep depth. Hence, your worries about getting dull pictures are eliminated.

Usability

A camera is all about easy-to-use buttons, good focus, clear picture with great color. All these govern the usability of any camera. If any of these is inoperative, your camera would be of no use.

Certain other features are also considered the white balance reading, functionality with the housing, and much more.

To invest in a reliable and good underwater camera, search for diving cameras. These cameras have controls that can be understood and accessed effortlessly.

Even while underwater, you don't have to face trouble while controlling your camera's focus, resolution, and other things.

Besides, these cameras give accurate white balance readings as stated above that make your pictures look more natural.

Also, check the compatibility between your camera and the housing you are going to use with it. Sometimes, due to the housing, the camera controls do not work correctly if they are not compatible. So, ensure that you check it before purchasing the housing.

Image quality

If you are investing in a camera, you expect it to pay off the investments made. After purchasing a high-quality camera, the main expectation is that it should deliver top-notch quality images with better focus and sharp features.

Diving Cameras are famous for their outstanding performance and image quality. Listed below are the factors which make them unique and stand apart.

1. Camera sensors

The sensors affect the image quality to a major extent. Opting for cameras with large sensors prove beneficial and perform better.

The image quality is constant even when adequate light is scarce in the surrounding. These offer greater range, and the images presented are incredible.

2. Lenses

The sharpness, distortion, and contrast are affected by the lens of your camera. The quality of the lens changes with brands. It depends on your preference and budget, how much you can afford, and what you want to use it for.

Ensure that the lens you opt for offers sharp pictures with good color contrast and great distortion. This will make your experience and memories more cherishable.

3. Lighting

Light fades away as the depth increases, and the marine life underneath looks dull. Don't get fooled by the footage that is shown on your television. They, too, use cameras like the one you are searching for.

There are caves down there and many beautifully colored fishes. You cannot miss them so bringing back memories becomes crucial. Since lighting there is not adequate, you have to bring extra equipment to fill the void. These add to your budget, and the weight is inevitable.

There is no way out, and you have to adjust according to the demands. For shooting underwater, unique lights are required. These are called strobes or artificial video lights. These are not too heavy and come at a reasonable price.

Performance

The camera you opt for should match your requirements in the best way. It should be able to do its job correctly and respond the way you want it to. Since a shooter is underwater, not many cameras can keep a stable performance and fail to fulfill the requirements.

By now, you must have known how versatile diving cameras are, and performance is no exception for these. The section below will let you see why these cameras stand out.

1. Autofocus

You get access to an excellent autofocusing system that doesn't require you to adjust the focus every time. You can continue swimming while the camera does its work. Even in low visibility, these cameras work great and provide you the desired results.

2. Burst Rates

Besides, these also have high burst rates or, in simple words, great speed. This feature helps you capture fast-moving objects like jellyfish or any other transparent, fast-moving body. After all, you don't want to miss a single glimpse of that beautiful aquatic life.

3. Battery life

The most important of all, battery life matters a lot when cameras are being used. It is the camera that provides power to your cameras to keep it working. If it dies, you will miss a lot of things.

Thanks to these water cameras, you get a long rechargeable battery life that takes less time to get charged.

Lens selection

The lenses of your camera influence the image quality and the final pictures. You don't need blurred pics, and to get crystal clear images, you need to opt for a camera with quality lenses.

Investing in diving cameras is necessary if you want to get good quality pictures at an affordable price. These can change lenses to offer you better images. These have features like a wide-angle field of view and a macro lens.

These have compatible underwater housings with lens ports. These ports help you in storing your lens' of different sizes and shapes. All the variants have unique ports to accommodate the suitable type of lens. Also, these have the zoom and focus rings.

The lens ports are made using glass or acrylic materials. These differ in weight, durability, and price. Glass being more durable, is heavy and quite expensive, while on the other hand, acrylic gets damaged soon because of its low durability and cost.

Another thing to consider is the shape of the lens' ports. If you want a wide-angle coverage, you should look for cameras with a dome-shaped port. If a macro lens fits your style of photography, ports with a flat shape are more desirable.

Strobes

The strobes are the artificial lights that help enhance your image's quality by throwing some light at it.

These work like the camera flash, which throws a perfect amount of light when the camera is used to take a picture while the light is inadequate. Due to the inefficiency of the earlier strobes, diving cameras make use of slave TTL strobes.

To use these strobes, you need to set your camera on the slave TTL mode and then click the picture. These enhance the lighting in the image and make your investment worthwhile.

Budget

The final price set by the camera manufacturer includes the cost of the lens, underwater housing, building material, strobes, etc. Along with that, the manufacturing price and craftsmanship are also taken into account.

This means that purchasing these cameras is an expensive affair, but it's not. The expense entirely is based on your preference and usage. If you opt for a few basic features, you will get hold of an affordable camera with incredible picture quality.

On the other hand, if you want to go for cameras with more features, these additional features will add up and make the purchase expensive.

Hence, opt for a camera that caters to your needs. If you have a flexible budget and want to add some more bells and whistles to your diving camera, you can opt for those equipped with them.

FAQs

1. Should I look into megapixels or sensor size?

Deem into sensor size while selecting a camera. Many salespeople may fool you with the megapixels, but the actual metric to look into is the sensor size.

2. Are diving cameras worth their value?

Yes, they allow you to capture beautiful pictures underwater without any unnecessary nuisance. They are highly portable and offer excellent clarity.

3. What is a safe depth range for a diving camera?

It depends on the model you are selecting. Different models have different ranges. Always stay in range while diving underwater, or else you will damage your camera.

Final Verdict

With all the information under your possession, what are you waiting for? Here in this guide, you will get all the information required to pin down the best camera.

The diving cameras allow you to click clear pictures underwater with full ease. Go through the pointers and make an informed decision.