To anyone who used Film cameras underwater..

This is to anyone who pioneered/used film underwater stills or filmed video underwater ..

I Salute you!

just very well done! personally ive never tried it, although a lot of people at my work use disposable film snorkel cameras.. but i dont see the point in those.. good to sell i suppose holiday makers will be home before they get them developed...

I have a massive massive amount of respect to everyone who used them to make any decent photos, or even any in focus.

Credit where credit is due, and i feel like im standing on the shoulders of giants.

just so you know..

Gary

If you had a Nikonos V, the 15 mm lens and viewfinder, it was hard not to get good wide angle shots.

You did have to bracket though.

If you had a Nikonos V, the 15 mm lens and viewfinder, it was hard not to get good wide angle shots.

 

You did have to bracket though.

I used refer to that setup as the sawed off shotgun of underwater photography, compacted, easy to carry, and could shoot from hip and still nail your subject. But like film cameras, you were still governed by the rule of 35 frames when comes to how much you shoot. Unless of course you carried more than one camera and did your own bulk loading which might get you one or two extra frames per cassette.

Don't miss it at all, other than creating a clearer separation between who was good at their craft and who wasn't.

You only have two choices of camera types to use underwater, day or night: an inexpensive, disposable, waterproof camera or a waterproof housing for a standard compact or DSLR camera. The second option will obviously cost more than the first; however, any disposable camera has very limited optics and controls, which, in turn, limits the quality of photos you can take.

Used to love that moment when you unrolled the E6 processed film from the cartridge and held it up to the light for the first time. If you had gotten it right it was like looking through the crack of the door to Aladdin's cave. Bright colours and treasure!

Truly Manual Photography. Chemistry and Light.

Miss those days really.

My film experiences started with a Nikonos III, moved onto a V, upgraded to a n90s in Aquatica housing, upgraded to a F5 housed and shot with that primarily until 2007 when I moved to a D2x in housing. On land my last film shoot was only 2 months ago during a Colorado River raft expedition-Im now a complete convert with the D800 being what I consider the game changer for landscape above water work (we'll see about in water when I get my new housing from Aquatica).

what I'll miss about film- the ability to get quality sunbursts and good blue water renditions (still havent seen anything on digital that compares), the downtime between dives not spent looking at a computer screen,

what I won't miss- hassles at the airport trying to get film from home to location to home, having 40+ rolls of film to develop upon arriving home dog-tired, not really knowing for sure if you got that shot you think you got, the mind numbing calculations involved in doing anything with extension tubes or converters for super macro, getting the film back and discovering that some equipment malfunction along the way killed the results.