What are divers looking out for

Hi,

i'm actually an industrial designer doing my final year design. i dived a few times in the region of malaysia in Pulau Aug and Perhentian. personally i took on this topic due to my disgust of camera maker trying to pass off something designed for land use to be used underwater. the ergonomics and condition of the two environment are of extreme difference, not to say the function(eg bigger viewfinder, the filtering out of red spectrum due to water ....)

so here i am trying to redesigned a underwater digital camera...one take you need not put on a housing...can be used on land and water and most importantly have all the features that you wished for (underwater). For example due to all the equipment you are carrying...u may not want another thing hanging ard you, diving is such fun and enjoyment and you dun seem to have enuff time diving ard not to say take pics (so something that helps u take pics?)....yup the list goes on and on. hope i can get feedbacks from you guys. it'll be a great help to my thesis.

ha wild ideas are welcome.

thankyou

Manual exposure mode.

Socket to attach sync cord for external strobe.

Separate dials to adjust shutter speed and aperture.

Wide angle zoom lens 16-50mm f/2.8 (35mm equivalent)

you posted this in the consumer digicam section so I assume you are not making a SLR. In which case you wont be using the viewfinder, compsing will be done with LCD. so viewfinder not so important but Large LCD that is easy to see even in bright light / glare.

it will need different flash mode with Slow Sync and Rear curtain sync

If you can get a chip that produces no low light digital noise, I'd be happier that a puppy with 6 peters.

Joe

Big easy to use dials and buttons with luminescent markings, compact overall dimensions, large, clear LCD info screen, not syled like a brick would be nice but is at the bottom of my list: make it work and work well first then look good.

Lightning fast AF, quick release handles, tray and strobe arms.

TTl flash (for those of us still with L-plates or for that "one shot only" moment)

Integral clip to attach easily to BCD.

Hows that for starters?

I'll add: No shutter lag, good optics, good battery life, full manual option, raw format, small housing (it’s a P&S so I want it small as possible).

Hey pple,

Thank you for your replies and time taken to answer my questions. Ur feedbacks are very useful to me. Yup i agreed with most of the problem that you are facing as i find it applies to me as well.

actually i came up with 2 concepts so far...one a very practical solution and the other one a totally new experience of capturing memories.

The first is a camera that is ur mask. So it's always ready. You never worry abt missing a shot anymore. Viewfinder is in the mask itself too so u save up one batt. It is detachable so it functions as a normal camera when u r not diiving.

The second concept aims at taking down all ur precious memories of dive. I personcally have a lot of nice pics of seneries etc....but somehow they r not really my memories. Real memories like how some funny things happened out of no where and you find so amuse by it that you dun take out ur cam and take record. Yup my concept is this camera that "float" above u ,taking down pic of u at regular interval. you do not have to worry abt taking pic anymore. Just enjoy ur dive. As we are talking abt digital camera here wastage of shots will not be a problem. It functions as a normal camera if u really wanted to take some specific shot as well.

2 very interesting concepts, I particularly like the idea of being able to image the whole dive experience.

I suspect the mask concept is limited by optics technology though. Always good to have ideas with no preconceptions.

Cheers

Peter S.

One other thing is write-time with RAW format. (ie time between photos) That isn't a problem with DSLRs but it is with prosumer models.

Interesting mask concept. Now if you could project the digital viewfinder in front of the mask, control settings with your eye movement and capture with a remote button on your BC...heh.