Which underwater camera to buy

You would have seen us talk about action cameras before when we reviewed the Paralenz. Compact cameras — essentially a point and shoot camera, compacts come with a huge range of features depending on how much money you want to spend.

While the cheaper ones can leave a lot to be desired, the top of the range models pack some incredible capabilities and sometimes rival dSLRs for a fraction of the price. These are a great place to start with underwater photography as they will allow you to grow your skills without being too overwhelming to start off with. Mirrorless cameras — these are a great middle ground between compacts and dSLRs — better optics, larger sensors, interchangeable lenses and great image quality, they are smaller than dSLRs but still produce professional grade photos.

They provide the best images as they have the best sensors, best lenses and all-round best performance and have very little lag between pressing the shutter button and capturing the shot. However, they are huge, they weigh a lot and the camera and housing will easily set you back a few thousand pounds.

If you can considering purchasing an external strobe at some point, you really need to be able to shoot in manual and have full control over exposure and how much ambient light enters the camera. And are they reasonably priced? What type of connections are available for external strobes?

Can you get wet lenses to fit this housing? Look at the closest focussing distant. This is usually around 5cm in compacts although some can get closer… Olympus TG5! Always good to have the option, especially if you plan on working on your images afterwards in Lightroom or Photoshop. Currently, all smartphone housings must be used with a video light and cannot be used with an external strobe. All smartphone housings can be used with multiple models of smartphone.

If you're unsure that your smartphone will work with a certain model, then please contact our knowledgeable sales staff at sales bluewaterphotostore. These are some of our top picks:. The build quality is outstanding and is packed with lots of awesome features. It has a built in vacuum pump and sensor which allows you to draw out air from the housing and check if there are leaks prior to diving. This gives you the peace of mind the your phone is safe inside.

There are also 2 options, basic and pro version with temperature and depth gauge. To enhance your shooting experience, wet lenses are compatible with the housing. Most important feature of the housing is that it is compatible with the lastest and most popular smart phones available in the market.

It built from polycarbonate, stainless steel, aluminum and optical grade glass. It can also withstand a beating as it is durable and robust. It is also very simple to setup and operate which makes your shooting experience wonderful with its l arge shutter lever and rear control buttons.

The Nautismart Smart Phone Housing is the most afforable and bang for the buck underwater housing for smart phones. It is made from polycarbonate material which makes it lightweight yet durable. Operation is a breeze with its easy.

It also features a 67mm thread attachment which is compatible with most wet lenses. With its clear back, it is capable of capturing underwater selfies!

Compatbile with both Android and iOS phones. Enter your keywords. My wishlist. Colors of the wrecks. Sri Lanka. Photo: Brent Durand. Wreck reefscape in Sri Lanka. Related "Best Underwater Camera" Articles:. Best Mirrorless Cameras - Underwater Best Beginner Underwater Cameras We make awesome trips possible! Educational Videos and Articles. This little camera can shoot the tiniest stuff in the ocean without the need for expensive diopters and accessory lenses.

The user no longer needs to switch modes via the Mode Dial. Now the user can just select the new AF mode from the Quick Menu, zoom in at least 1. The image quality of the Olympus TG-6 is still superb, with fine, sharp detail, especially when shooting macro. This ensures that the Olympus TG-6 will never drop below the designated shutter speed, providing the user with greater-than-ever before control over background exposure and the ability to freeze fast-moving subjects.

The Olympus TG-6 allows you to set faster shutter speeds than before, perfect for darker backgrounds, fast-moving subjects, and fast-action scenes. This makes it a hard camera to kill, and for those shooters who spend the majority of their time in a marine or otherwise hazardous-to-electronics environment, this is a major advantage that is unique among other current compact cameras in our roundup.

Shooting at higher f stops results in more depth of field, which was not possible with the Olympus TG-5 in microscope mode.

They have consistently been the go-to choice for both new underwater image makers and advanced shooters that are looking for a simple macro machine.

The Olympus TG-6 has some major improvements to the focus options and exposure control that completely changes how to shoot the camera over previous models, making it a lot easier to use and get even better results. Microscope Mode and new Super Macro focus options make it even easier than before to get insanely good super macro. Easily capture super macro in 4K video, something not available on previous generation.

Camera can live in aperture priority and shoot wide, macro, video, and photo with no reason to change modes. Still the ultimate blend between simple operation, easy-to-learn menus advanced settings, and great image quality.

The best choice for brand-new underwater shooters searching for a simple point-and-shoot that will grow with their skills. ConsAfter years of begging, still no manual mode. Key Info on the LXOur pick for Best Advanced Compact Camera, given its overall shooting versatility, controls, and video color Features an advanced SLR-like control set on a compact camera body Zoom range of lens makes it simple to swap between macro and wide angle accessory lenses without a port change Superb 4K 30p video with great color thanks to the accurate manual white balance at depth The stock lens of the Panasonic LX10 is perfect for fish portraits.

Thanks to the large sensor, image quality is excellent and comparable to other 1-inch sensor cameras. Where the Panasonic stands out is the highly customizable control set, accurate manual white balance, and 4K 30p video capability. The biggest advantage is being able to set up autofocus on the back of the camera function button 1 is our favorite for this and separate autofocus from the shutter. When equipped with a macro accessory lens, the Panasonic LX10 produces tight macro with sharp image detail.

Executing a manual white balance is a simple 3 button push and can be assigned one of 4 custom white balance banks making it easy to save different settings for shooting with video lights or at depth. This makes the Panasonic LX10 the only real choice for serious compact camera video shooters. The Panasonic LX10 excels in every area for a camera. Excellent image quality, 4K video, accurate white balance, and a control set that reminds us more of an SLR than a compact camera makes this the best advanced compact camera of the year.

If you are a stills shooter, a video shooter, or do both, this is our top pick. The Panasonic LX10 fires relatively quickly allowing me to capture the fish in the shot as they swim by. We love it for producing the best wide angle image quality and fastest shooting speed from our current roundup of compact cameras.

It captures 4K video at 30 frames per second and uses a stylish set of manual controls for a classic retro camera-style. The resulting photos are packed with sharp resolution and great dynamic range detail. In other words, it's not a "real camera". The main feature it lacks is the ability to trigger a flash aka strobe. Since it cannot trigger a flash, it will always be difficult to get true, bright, vivid colours in your underwater photos.

You cannot shoot true macro, you cannot zoom in for a nice fish portrait with blurry background and you really can't control much other than simply pressing the shutter button. Video is very different from photography in many ways. You don't need to trigger strobes, editing, capturing the right moment, holding the camera steady and composing is what it's all about and you can produce some really impressive videos with just your GoPro.

The GoPro is an amazing camera, but not for underwater photos. For videos? The best thing you can get for your underwater photos is a strobe. The best thing you can get for your underwater videos is a video light. When we go underwater, colours are lost. They are gone. The lightwaves don't reach and they get absorbed in the water, never to be seen again. This means you cannot bring them back with White Balance, Filters or any other tricks.

The only way to bring back the natural colours underwater is by introducing new, artificial light! In the form of a strobe or video light. Since video lights are still far weaker than strobes and cannot freeze motion, strobes are really the only way to go for photography! Triggering a strobe is easy — usually you use the camera's built in flash aka pop-up flash to send the signal via a fibre optic cable to the input of the strobe.

Any camera that has a flash can trigger a strobe. Leaving budget for a strobe or video light is more important, in our opinion, than getting a better camera, assuming your budget is limited and it always is.

If you are really just a beginner, then having TTL auto flash is useful, but you might quickly grow out of TTL so it does make sense to have a strobe that has manual output as well. Not crucial though. Some might say that they prefer using a video light aka constant light. That's fine, but remember that a strobe is times stronger than your average video light, and strobes help you freeze motion. So for photos, strobes are always much more useful and most importantly — it's easier to get good photos with a strobe than with a video light!

That said, just to add another option, there are now some video lights that incorporate a strobe like function. Also, some beginner photographers get better results initially with video lights than with stobes.

When using a strobe they don't see the results, and the impact of the extra lighting and backscatter, until after the shot has been taken.

Our advice? If you want to get serious about yout underwater photo taking, learn to use a strobe. It's not photography knowledge. It's not your camera or your strobe.

It's not where you dive. It's all about buoyancy control! When you completed your Open Water course your buoyancy control was bad. It would have improved a little when you went diving more. Eventually you got to a level where you thought you had pretty good buoyancy control and you were even proud of it. Then you tried diving with a camera! Taking photos underwater requires buoyancy control at an entirely different level.

Your goal is to reach the point where you can shoot a macro photo of a tiny blenny, without touching the reef, while swimming against the current. And get the eyes in focus!