Carry underwater cameras

[Weston]

Hi everyone,

I have just acquired a housing for my camera. I'm a newbie in this UW photography stuff and there's one aspect that has been troubling me.

How should one carry the camera underwater?

In the few dives I have made I've carried it in my wrist. But, what if something happens and I need to use both hands? In this case the camera may became a problem. I'm thinking somehow locking it to my BCD, in such a way that I can always let it go, and get it back when necessary, maybe a retractor.

Any thoughts?

ps. first set of pictures has been aweeeeeeeeful this takes alot more practice then I thought.

[FreediveWI]

I always just tied a brass snap bolt onto my camera system. I would clip itoff to one of my shoulder D-rings if not in use. For wreck/tech diving I always held it in my hands and had my HID light head mounted to the strobe. That way my dive light always shone on what I wanted to shoot. This works out really well when swimming through a wreck.

For freediving I just carry the camera, but have a wrist lanyard and a hand strap so I don't loose it and can maunvere it around with ease. I also have a mount on my speargun so I can carry it along with me on all my dives.

I always like to avoid retractors as they are more gimmick than anything. A good bolt-snap and a wrist lanyard always did the trick for any kind of diving that I have ever done. I actually have been able to clip off extra cameras just like stage bottles while on trips- one set up for macro with dual strobes while the other camera had a wide angle lens and no strobes. It allows you to be ready for anything.

Jon

[dfreeman]

I have been using a "telephone cord" retractor that can be clipped short. I added a carabiner for clipping it to may BCD. See picture.

This allows me to clip it close and short while doing other tasks, such as getting into the water on an ice dive, swimming against the current, sharing air and such. The cord can then be unclipped and the camera used at arms length. You can drop it (kind of a bungy jump) and retrieve it using the cord. Do not need to have a wrist strap.

This system has worked for me for over 100 photo dives. It keeps the camera where I want it.

I am sure that this violates several DIR rules and I have once again confirmed my status as a stroke. Let the corrections begin.

Doug

[FreediveWI]

I don't know that there is a DIR way to rig a camera, although I would use a bolt snap or a locking carabiner for wreck diving instead of a sucide clip or a non-locking carabiner for safety sake- but that has nothing to do with DIR and is fairly standard practice in the wreck diving community.

I choose the simple bolt snap because it is small and pretty strong. Since I don't have lots of extra stuff attached to it I can carry multiple cameras, stage bottles, monopods, scooters, canister lights, tape measures, and whatever else I drag with me to shoot pictures underwater- depending upon what I am doing.

The wrist lanyard is for freediving only, although I now have a perfected camera mount on my speargun that I should post some pictures of.

My father-in-law just has his video housing mounted onto his Gavin scooter. As long as the scooter is clipped off to his scooter ring, on his backplate, he has his camera, and his ride , tied to him. He also uses the plastic phone cord for non-scooter dives, but I don't trust the plastic clips when it comes to my cameras. YMMV

Jon

[DRE]

I assume your camera housing is positively bouyant - if so, what worked for me in OW (not inside a wreck or cave) is to just clip the camera to the arse D-ring, the camera floats out of the way and is no hassle. Otherwise (as in temporarily clipping it off) I just use the simple boltsnap and clipped it off to the left chest D-ring and pushed it undneath my arm, where it would float up and behind me. If you have a housing that's slightly negative, the scooter -ring seems to work fine as well as temporary clip-off spot - otherwise use the left chest D-ring again.

D

[drifter1430]

I installed one of those phone cord type lanyard clips on my camera years ago after reading about a professional photographer being bumped by a whale shark and dropping his expensive camera into the deep abyss. I clip it to my shoulder D-ring where it hangs out of the way. What I have found doing this, by the way, is that the lanyard (still clipped together) is the perfect length for most of my shooting. In fact in hundreds of dives I can't remember ever unclipping it and using the cord option. The few times I've had to hand my camera through a tight spot I unclipped it totally and handed it off. Maybe on my new camera I'll just use a short solid lanyard of some kind.

Jon, do you know if Jerry picks up any interference or vibration on the video having the camera mounted directly to the scooter?