new Instructor needs advice on first camera

I am a freshly minted dive instructor looking to recoup the costs of all the courses I've just taken. One of the ways I want to do that is to start using a digital camera to take photos of classes for resale and also to teach an Underwater Photography specialty once I've practiced .... A LOT.

I'm basically looking for advice from any and all. Knowing what you know about UW photography, what do you think is the best, economical (remember the course costs...?) package I could put together. For now, I just want to stick to a consumer digital camera and a housing.

I'd appreciate any input at all. Thanks. :freak:

First of all, what agency, and where are you teaching?

Please read your standards. On most training dives, the instructor is not permitted to carry cameras and take photos.

Remember that first and foremost, you have a standard of duty of care for your students.

One of my instructor friends used to make money by taking photos of divers in Guam, and having the photos developed and ready to sell by the time they got back to the dock.

Thanks for the concern. I may not have been clear enough in explaining my situation...

Even though I'm new, I do know my standards well enough to know that I cannot take a camera with me during MY OWN classes. Not only is it against PADI standards (my agency), but it is dangerous.

I teach at a very busy dive centre in Honduras. On the days I'm NOT teaching, I was thinking of going down with other Instructors' classes and a camera to take pictures of their students for resale.

Any advice on camera setups is still very welcome.

Be careful, some agencies do not allow the instructor to divert his attention away from his class. I did this for many years then quit last year after it was published in one of the training letters.

Yes, that is exactly what my friend did, on open boat diving, he would go with his Nikonos V and 15 mm lens and take photos of the divers, never on courses.

I would suggest the Olympus 5050 with PT-015 housing for a consumer grade camera.

However, if you want to become a real camera pro (or at least look the part), you will probably be looking at the Nikon D100 or similar.

(This is also the reason why I let my Divemaster do all that type of work, he has a substantial investment in video housings and lights.)

A simple and rewarding budget camera is the minolta dimage x & marine case, less than £450. If you are diving somwhere clear then you might not even need the strobe immediatley. I bought one and liked it so much that I put this web site together.

http://freespace.virgin.net/s.free/egypthome.html or http://scuba-diving.tk