Equipment For Great White Shark Cage Dive????

As someone who loves photography, above or below water, I'm going to say take more than one camera! Probably not at the same time, but if you have the boat for the day you may have plenty of opportunities to see shark, take videos of sharks and take stills of sharks. Why not take the opportunity?

Last year several of my friends went on a shark dive in Roatan (non-caged). Since I'd already done that, i did not go, but I loaned one of my cameras to a friend who is not a photographer and who'd never shot underwater before. The camera was a Canon s95 in a Canon housing. (Total cost new, under $500).

His shots are blue, because he was 70 feet down with no flash. You won't have that issue, though you will want sun. Just so you see what a first-timer can do with a point-n-shoot, have a look here: http://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2015/misc/index23.html

The shark dive pics start at the bottom of that page.

I've got a Gopro, Canon point-n-shoots in Canon housings, a Sony RX100 II in a Nauticam housing (most other shots on the link above were taken with the Sony and dual strobes) and a Nikon D810 in a Nauticam housing.

I'd find a way to get that Gopro in the cage, perhaps clamped to a bar and at least somewhat showing you.   Use it for video, not stills.  (Sucks for stills).   On the other hand, I'd love to see a video taken with a Gopro on a selfie stick as a GWS is about to eat it!

For still shots, I'd get a Canon point-n-shoot with matching housing.   Best bang for the buck and pretty good quality.  Generally you can get a new camera and housing for $400-500.

Should you do this, you will likely be more interested in the shark than figuring out the camera, but here are some tips.

1. Always use a strap to tether the camera to your right wrist.  (Shutter button operated with right wrist).    Same with Gopro - tether it as a backup to avoid losing it.

2. If you use the flash, also use the included diffuser.   If in less than 15 feet of water in sunlight, you won't need the flash, except possibly for fill.  (Note: The Canon s120 will not pop up its flash automatically.  You have to move a switch on the side).

3. Whatever setting you have, you want a decent minimum shutter speed.   Don't let it drop to 1/30th.   I'd start with shutter priority and 1/200th or so.   Set this on the surface and (hopefully) check it once in the water to be sure it hasn't changed.   Review your shots between dives carefully to see if you need to adjust settings.

4. Set your LCD brightness to the max so you can see the screen underwater.   However, trust your histogram then, not the LCD for brightness as it can make everything look overexposed.

5. Go into the water with a fully-charged battery...

6. If you have only one camera, and it's a point-n-shoot, remember to take some videos as well as stills.

I can see the point of not trying to do photography on the first cage dive as it may be quite overwhelming.  But if it IS that exciting, wouldn't you want to have some shots from the experience?   You could perhaps let another diver use the camera while you get oriented, if more than one diver is in the cage.