Waterproof Protection For Taking Your Camera Underwater

By Randy Rushmore

Waterproof camera housings are a great piece of kit that allow you to take pictures in safety in very wet environments and event take your camera into a pool or into the sea. Different options are available both for amateur and professional photographers.

Waterproof camera housings are available for compact cameras, but also for the more advanced SLR models. Some underwater cases are only intended to be used for a single model of camera, others are more generic and can be put to use for whole product ranges.

Compact camera waterproof housings are quite cheap and have the added advantage that in most cases, they are fitted with a special refractor that increases the angle of your lens underwater, allowing you to take wild-angle pictures that would otherwise not be possible with such a camera.

As your compact camera will have a good zoom, this extra lens will allow you to take a wider spectrum of photos, and underwater a wide angle is also important because you can't take photos of faraway objects while submerged. In any case, the extra lens is easily removable.

While underwater casings for compact cameras are usually made of heat-shaped hard plastic, waterproof camera housings for SLRs are most commonly made of aluminium as they are intended to endure stronger water pressures. Joints and sealings are usually also extra hardened.

Other important elements of a quality waterproof camera housing for an SLR is that the optics before the lens are of high specification, and that you have full control of the electronics of your camera when it's inside your housing. Advanced SLR underwater cases also allow you to change lenses underwater.

When you buy waterproof camera housing, make sure that the maximum recommended depth that you can take the equipment to corresponds to the use that you will make. This is especially important when you intend to take diving photographs when scuba diving.

Generally, as an underwater photographer, you need to be sure that your equipment will be able to withstand strong demands, and that nothing will be ruined in the process. You can do this by having the right additional protective accessories, such as waterproof camera housing.

Not all camera makers are the same under this respect, though. You will find that getting waterproof camera housing and other watertight equipment is much easier for the major manufacturers such as Nikon and Canon, and more difficult for less known camera brands. - 30452

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