Beginner advice for a Maldives Trip

Taking photos in the water is very different than shooting on land. If you are "limited" to snorkelling, that adds another level of difficulty.

I guess what I'm saying is that the hardware you take will be the least of your problems.

Personally, I think I would opt for something like the Olympus TG 4. It's cheap, waterproof enough for snorkelling and can shoot RAW.

Yah .. I am more than aware that it's a very different environment for photography. I know I won't have anywhere near the time required to learn even 10% of the techniques needed for "proper" underwater work, which is why I want to make use of the limited time that I will have. Obviously I am very familiar with how my DSLR works, and I will have it with me anyway, but it seems all of the options that will allow me to take it underwater are much more expensive than the camera itself. Also, I think a point and shoot (either a dedicated UW one, or a case for my existing Lumix TZ70) will be more convenient to handle if I am only snorkeling.

The TG4 looks like a good shout though. And yes, RAW, I forgot about that. That's pretty much essential I think for me!

Thanks very much for the help,
Cheers, James

A friend of mine (who is an accomplished photographer, both above and below the surface) picked up a TG4 and a housing. He got some fantastic shots with it, so it might be just the ticket. If you're "just" snorkelling, then you wouldn't need the housing although I THINK that the housing allows you to add some wide angle wet lenses and so on.

"They" always say that the three most important tricks to getting great UW images are: (1) get close (2) stay low and (3) get even closer! That's where the snorkelling "challenge" becomes a factor, but no matter what you get, they'll be great images to have.

One other thing that just occurred to me, is that even if you can justify dropping a bundle of $$ to house your 70D, you may spend more time worrying about whether it's filling up full of water while you're finning around that you'll miss the the flock of mantas circling below while the humpback family swims past, almost (but no quite) blocking out the schooling hammerheads!. The joys of a P&S is that you can concentrate on what you're seeing and let the camera worry about getting a passable image. ;-)

Thanks again Stoo ...

It does sound like a purpose-built point and shoot might be the best option here. As you said, the less fiddling about I need to do, the more I can concentrate on what I'm looking at. Although, if I saw a school of hammerheads I'd be out of the water in a flash I think!! I saw some sample videos taking with this camera, and it does look pretty nice!

I'll do a bit more research on the subject, but this does seem like the best option. Are there any other good point and shoot alternatives, or is the Olympus the best option with RAW support?

Cheers, James

I believe it's the only one out there that shoots RAW and is waterproof out of the box, although I won't pretend to be an expert. I have been looking at one myself for those "kayaking-in-the-mangroves" outings I like to do in Belize. I've strapped my D7000/Aquatica to the thing and taken it, but it's a bit much to manhandle.

This probably goes without saying, but if you do pick up a camera, just be sure to give it a good soak in fresh water after each use. Salt will literally eat a camera...

Ahh, good shout, cleaning it each time makes sense!

Thanks for that! I'll continue investigating, but this seems the most promising option so far.

You've got time to get scuba certified by then...just saying...I find it much easier to shoot photos while diving on scuba vs snorkeling.

I had a great time in the Maldives last fall. It's a bit of a journey from the US, but worth it!

In honesty I would say if you don't have any UW experience or equipment and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity then I would just forget about photos and just enjoy the experience!

If it gives you the bug for UW photo then there will be many more opportunities in the future. The Maldives where the first place I ever dived, and I am glad I just enjoyed it and didn't worry about anything else

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I used a ewa-marine bag for snorkeling and for diving as well with my canon 7d. For snorkeling you just need some extra weight in the bag to compensate the air inside of it.

Bag was always dry, even after a dive down to 22m.

http://www.ewa-marine.com/index.php?id=93&L=1

Heheh .. it's true that I could probably get my diving certification done before I go. However, I'm in the middle of Madrid right now, which is essentially a desert .. not sure how easy dive-schools are to come by!

I am sure I will enjoy the experience, there is no doubt about that. But we're essentially "stuck" on a relatively small island for 8 days, and I'm not really one for spending hours sitting on a beach doing nothing. I know I will spend a lot of time in the water, and I know I'm going to see things that I wish I at least had the opportunity to try and take a photo of. If anything, I think I will probably enjoy it more as I will go out of my way looking for things to take photos of! With the amount that these 7 days will cost, I don't think there will be "many more opportunities" in the future .. unless the lottery goes my way!

I had looked at some of those underwater bag options. They looked a little bit "ghetto" to me, and I am not sure I would trust my camera + definitely not-cheap lenses inside it . Although having a first-hand review of them is very useful, so maybe worth a little more research. Although I get the feeling that dealing with that + snorkeling gear might be a bit cumbersome.

Thanks again for all the advice,
Cheers, James

The Olympus TG-4 is exactly the camera you should get - it has an easy learning curve before you get wet and is the best of the options available. The macro capability is awesome. As others have suggested the housing will allow you to attach wider angle lenses but I suggest you will get all you want from this little beauty without any add-on stuff. Like all small sensor units it can be a bit noisy (luminence noise) if you let it decide the ISO so I suggest using it in P mode with the iso set to 200 or 400 and if there is still noise then get rid of it in Lightroom or whatever you use.

Have fun the Maldives is a wonderful place and you will have the holiday of a lifetime - you can even learn to dive there!

Hi, here some examples taken when I have been to the maledives just doing snorkeing because I had a cold. A friend of mine is using the TG4 and with the quality of his pictures he is not that far away from pictures I got with a Oly OM-D E-M5 MarkII in an expensive Nauticam housing, 2 strobes and an external HDMI Monitor :-)

Plus he has one more advantage, he is carrying around 5 Kilogramm less weight and has no problems with the weight of his cabin baggage :-)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340172@N06/albums/72157666073789401

Kind regards,

Andreas

Awesome, thanks very much for the examples (not sure I'd hang around too long to take pictures of sharks!!)

And yes, the cabin baggage is an issue. It seems that the seaplane restrictions are quite low and I will have all of my "land-based" DSLR equipment with me also, so weight will be an issue for sure!

TG-4 is still winning for sure, although I read somewhere that RAW is only available with certain specific settings/modes?