Yesterday evening I saw Thunderball on TV, a James Bond film from 1965. Lots of diving with a new gimmick for Bond, a Nikonos camera. Note the brand being blacked out. It made me wonder if this was the first underwatercamera in a film. Does anyone know an earlier example?

Edited September 28Sep 28 by Floris Bennema

That’s a Nikonos for sure. Like so many firsts in scuba, Jacques Cousteau and his collaborators developed the Calypso which were originally made in France before Nikon came on board, broadening the market. I’m sure there were other one-off creations, especially for film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calypso_(camera)

I was 10 when that movie was released and that and the Hans and Lotte Hass plus Cousteau stuff on TV was what got me wanting to scuba dive. Although there may have been homemade u/w cameras around, that Nikonos was the first I remember seeing in a movie.

2 hours ago, TimG said:

I was 10 when that movie was released and that and the Hans and Lotte Hass plus Cousteau stuff on TV was what got me wanting to scuba dive. Although there may have been homemade u/w cameras around, that Nikonos was the first I remember seeing in a movie.

It was all pretty magical, wasn't it? I looked forward to seeing every Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.