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Carolyn Ong

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is a magnet for divers, so as I boarded the dive boat last Christmas for six days of exploring along the outer reef, I thought I was well armed with the hardware necessary to capture the wonder and beauty of the world's largest reef system.

I thought I was prepared, but I could have done better. I was venturing into new territory - underwater photography.

My first experience with an underwater camera was Sealife's Reefmaster. I rented it from a dive resort while diving in the Philippines and liked the results.

At first, I was a little nervous about handling the camera underwater because I was still a novice diver, but the Reefmaster proved an easy working partner.

So before heading off to Australia, I picked up a Sealife Reefmaster Maxx for about HK$2,000 in Singapore, where diving equipment is generally about 25 per cent cheaper than in Hong Kong.

The Reefmaster, however, is really only a cheap automatic camera protected in a costly waterproof casing. I picked the Reefmaster Maxx because I liked the handling better than the popular cameras from rival Sea & Sea.

The Reefmaster also is the camera of choice for most underwater photography instructors, because it is a good, easy camera to start with.

The other alternative I had was to bid online for a cheap housing from Ikelite, a well-known maker of underwater photography gear. These often go for as little as US$16. A friend bought one in a photography store for HK$1,500, including a camera.

The basic Ikelite housing can handle depths of 30 metres to 35 metres before the pressure would cause it to stop working. The Reefmaster still works at 50 metres.

However, without good strobe lights, you are unlikely to get good pictures at that depth. Even in the Great Barrier Reef, where the waters are crystal-clear, little light reaches the deeper reefs.

The best pictures are taken between 10 metres and 20 metres, where there is plenty of light.

The pictures from the six exhilarating days of diving were good. I used 14 rolls of 36-exposure film. Developing the pictures cost me about A$160 (about HK$640) and would have cost more had I developed them in Hong Kong.

Obviously, I did not get 500 great pictures. About 70 per cent were good, which I was informed by a dive instructor who teaches underwater photography was a good rate. The friend who bought the basic Ikelite now regrets it because the camera performs best when it is really close to the surface - seven metres or less.

However, for my next plunge into the ocean depths, I will be armed with a digital camera or a digital video camera.

If you have a digital camera already, it should be easy to find a compatible housing.

Digital cameras have stronger built-in flash and a handy rear display.

Ikelite has the widest range of digital camera housing. Check out www.ikelite.com to find a compatible waterproof casing for your camera. The company has two distributors in Hong Kong and the prices they charge are the same as those listed on the Web site, excluding shipping charges. The site also has sample pictures taken from the Sony Mavica series so you will get an idea of the quality.

The underwater housing for the Olympus Camedia series is the same whether you own the 4.1-megapixel 4040Z or the three-megapixel 3000Z.

It costs about US$730 and the housing also allows underwater photos to be taken with the built-in strobe of the camera, but an optional DS series strobe placed farther from the lens improves the photographs by reducing the illumination of particles suspended in the water. It can operate safely to 60 metres. Check out oceanbrite.com and www.uwimaging.com.

Olympus in Europe and Japan also makes its own underwater housing for its Camedia series of digital cameras. You can buy them from Broadway in Times Square for about HK$3,000. Two Sony digital cameras - the PSC-1 and PSC-5 - also come with an underwater housing option. However, the housing from Sony and Olympus operate only to about 30 metres.

Many digital cameras allow 30 seconds or longer of video clips and that is a great feature to capture the ferocity of shark-feeding or the grace of a turtle in the water.

These are all affordable options for the amateur underwater photographer who wants to take some decent pictures to show friends of the unbelievable beauty underwater.

Got a gadget idea? Drop Carolyn a line at carolyn@scmp.com



Digitals win out when it comes to capturing mysteries of the deep