Project 365 - Day 319 - Underwater camera

So I bought an underwater camera at the camera shop in Papeete for $2300. Not a bad camera,

and it takes really good shots! Okay, it is not April Fool's day, nor is it backwards

Friday - I didn't buy a new camera. I did, howerver, buy this product called DICAPAC.

Yeah, it has an unfortunate name, but what it does is allow you to put your camera in a

ziploc bag and bring it in the water with you. Really. That's what I did! No, seriously!!

This bag is made of a thick plastic, and some of it is clear. There are ports where you can

stick your fingers in to fire the shutter and to adjust the lens and so forth. There is a

hard plastic piece that goes in front of the lens so the pictures are resonably sharp. You

can see the back of the camera and adjust any setting on the camera as well through the soft

plastic. You can shoot through the viewfinder (I recommend auto-focus as the scuba mask and

extra plastic will not allow you to focus accurately so you'll have to rely on the camera to

make the decisions on what to focus on.

I took it snorkelling, and kept it at the top of the water, but it was completely submerged.

Letting most of the air out of the bag is a good idea, as it will allow you to hold it

underwater better.

Now, it is not as good as getting a real underwater lens, or putting your camera in one of

those $2500 cases, but it does the trick. It has a ziploc seal that is really good, and

then you roll the end of the ziploc down and velcro it closed. Then another roll and velcro

and you are set.

The thing that I have to remember is to set the ISO high, 1200 or 1600, as light dies

quickly underwater - I followed this one really cool fish around for a while and got lots of

dark pictuers, then when I adjusted the exposure they were pretty blurry.

But this shot is from the trip today. It's of the plantlife that is growing on one of the

piers of our overwater bungalow.