Equipment For Great White Shark Cage Dive????

Hello all, I need some advice...

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. What do you all recommend? 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.

Advice appreciated, thanks

A GoPro will probably the easiest option which will also give you the time to enjoy this amazing experience without being to busy fiddling with gear.

Mkfb8 wrote:

A GoPro will probably the easiest option which will also give you the time to enjoy this amazing experience without being to busy fiddling with gear.

Indeed, especially when you are not used to UW-photography, it can be very challenging to get good images from a camera, even for experienced photographer. Also, when in the very shallow water like a shark cage it can be difficult to read the screen, and I would not advice to use the eyepiece with a great white circling around.

I understand your dilemma. Had the same reflections about taking my stuff to Tenerife (wetsuit, flippers et takes up a lot of space). Thought to snorkel for my first time in the Atlantic without camera. I broke down and took everything. There was even a dive shop with a better wetsuit for the cold water locally.

But since I have already 6 years of snorkeling UW photography under my belt, you really might want to start with the simplest setup and enjoy the experience (like stated above). IF in a cage you do not need to care about your orientation so much (I have no clue), you still might want to rent a housing.

Regards

CG_Photography wrote:

Hello all, I need some advice...

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. What do you all recommend? 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.

Advice appreciated, thanks

Keep it as simple as possible. Forget DSLR or anything fancy. You will be quite overwhelmed (i promise) and dealing with camera (any) is the last thing you want to do.

Diving for over 25 years and shooting underwater for over 10 years. Handling camera underwater for me is the same as on land. Nevertheless while on an hour long 90 foot deep shark dive in Fiji (no cage) I was pretty nervous and excited screwing up a lot of shots (forgot this and forgot that).

GoPro or something like a cheap UW camera (Fuji XP ___) will do just fine. Keep in mind what these will be just snapshots for your memories and friends to see. Enjoy the experience. I do not think that the world is waiting for another image of a great white.

Just a bull shark...10 feet away

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.

You sir, look like a guy who likes to enjoy life enjoyed your website.

Thanks all for the good advice so far; I am still interested in other opinions. Does everyone agree that if I did rent a housing, strobes are unnecessary at shallow depth?

Strobes - first, if in a cage, I'd think dual strobes on arms would really get in the way.   And why have dual strobes if not putting them on arms?

Second, IF the sun is out, you won't need strobes.    But you could always try some shots with the camera's strobe on, through a diffuser.    Should bring out detail in the shadows.

This shot was taken in shallow water with a Canon s95 in a Canon housing, no strobe:

If you don't have sun, you'll want a camera with good high ISO performance.

To be honest, while I love seeing shark pics, I think a more interesting pic would be to see the diver as well as a shark.   Can you clamp your Gopro to the cage such that it captures the inside of the cage and part of the outside?   I would like to see the diver reacting to a close shark approach probably more than the shark's approach alone.

So - Gopro to catch the scene, stills camera to catch the sharks.