Equipment For Great White Shark Cage Dive????

CG_Photography wrote:

We are doing a great white cage dive in South Africa soon. I am an experienced dry land photographer (see web site below), and a certified diver, but have not yet tried underwater photography. I am trying to decide between keeping the shark dive simple with the GoPros, or renting some underwater housing for my higher end Canon gear.

Also, since the cage is near the surface, do I really need to rent and learn how to use underwater strobes, or will the surface light be adequate? We have rented the boat for the day so I will have adequate time in the cage, and will not have other people in at the same time.

If you have a Canon SLR and a good wide angle lens, especially the 14mm, I would suggest that you borrow or rent a housing with a dome port and a single strobe.

Since you will have the cage all day you will have the opportunity to take a lot of photos. The extra wide lens will be great at the distance you will be working if the boat operator is chumming the water. If you have the sun overhead or in your face you will need the strobe for detail when the shark approaches the cage.

Before you go on the trip practice installing the camera in the housing and operating it and see if you can dive in a pool to check everything out underwater and take some test photos.

When you get into the water the first thing to do is turn the housing around and look inside it carefully to see if there is any leakage. If there is, just send it back up to the surface. If you close the housing carefully and keep the o ring properly greased you will not have leakage.

Worst case: If operating the housed Canon gets to be too much (unlikely) just drop the housing on the floor of the cage and enjoy the experience.

With a housing you will have the opportunity for some great photos.