Please Help an Ignorant Beginner

I am going to  a trip to Desroches island in April where snorkeling is supposed to be good. I know nothing about underwater photography, and I am pretty confused about the gear, and shocked at the prices. I currently have the Nikon D850, Canon EOS-RP, and Sony A7rIV. I need an affordable housing primarily for snorkeling PLUS the necessary/essential  gear only for an absolute novice. I know  Meikon produces affordable housings but none for the cameras I have.

Any alternative affordable housings primarily for snorkeling ??, and what about the essential extras (eg, strobes) ?? Please help

The cameras you listed are somewhat high end, especially the Riv.  I'd be cautious about taking them underwater.  I've used the Seafrogs/Meikon cases for a6500, a7rii and a7riii - they worked fine after a little adjustment of the controls.

You could consider buying a used a6xxx for use in a Seafrogs Salted line housing, assuming you want the image quality, as opposed to a simple water-proof camera with no housing suitable for snorkeling.

If you're within the usual snorkeling depth, you could count on ambient light, do without strobes, and count on post-processing for color adjustment.  Or you could get a small strobe or two (Sea&Sea YS-03, for example) to work in TTL mode with the pop-up flash of the a6xxx.  Of course, you'd have to deal with the increased gear load of the strobes, mounting tray, batteries, chargers, and fiberoptic cables.  Then there's the learning curve of strobe placement for macro and so-called wide angle subjects, which would require some perseverance.

hatem95 wrote:

I am going to a trip to Desroches island in April where snorkeling is supposed to be good. I know nothing about underwater photography, and I am pretty confused about the gear, and shocked at the prices. I currently have the Nikon D850, Canon EOS-RP, and Sony A7rIV. I need an affordable housing primarily for snorkeling PLUS the necessary/essential gear only for an absolute novice. I know Meikon produces affordable housings but none for the cameras I have.

Any alternative affordable housings primarily for snorkeling ??, and what about the essential extras (eg, strobes) ?? Please help

Hi Hatem,

It depends on how serious you are in going UW...

For occasional snorkeling (and even for much more), a separate compact camera like Olympus TG will be best.

Only when you are seriously interested (also in scuba diving) it makes sense to put Sony A7IV or D850 in an underwater case. This is much bulkier and soon you will want all the required acessoirs and will have a very big and heavy "rig". I personally would refrain from putting my expensive camera in a cheap plastic housing like Meikon (without vacuum system) and expose it to the risk of flooding. I use Nauticam (some other manufacturers, e.g. Subal, are also good).

These two books are highly recommended for beginners and will give you advise, already on what to buy:

https://www.amazon.de/Underwater-Photography-Masterclass-Alex-Mustard/dp/1781452229

https://www.amazon.de/Underwater-Photographer-Martin-Edge/dp/0240521641/ref=pd_sim_14_6/262-0114385-5201170?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0240521641&pd_rd_r=2c6a786d-38fd-4bf4-9057-0066ea191ec5&pd_rd_w=VJ2do&pd_rd_wg=LUMa6&pf_rd_p=ce989a94-1218-4e00-bce3-c2af8895305e&pf_rd_r=VH1KDQXS7G0T1A9JW5ZW&psc=1&refRID=VH1KDQXS7G0T1A9JW5ZW

(a new edition of the book of Martin Edge will come out this year)

Wolfgang

Thank you for all the answers. In fact I destroyed the Minolta Dimage 7 and another Canon years ago in cheap underwater housings in Marsa Alam Egypt. Will probably use my old Gopro