From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

Using an underwater bag to protect your camera

From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

Using an underwater bag to protect your camera

- We're kicking off Photo Gear Weekly with a little bit of fun by the water. I'm here in Central Park in New York City, and I have a really cool accessory here, an underwater bag for my digital SLR. This is actually a very affordable solution for underwater photography, or not even going into the water, even if you're near the water, keeping that camera a little bit safe. This is a very affordable solution, this is around about $300 for a digital SLR. There are models for mirrorless cameras, smaller cameras, for around about $200. Very inexpensive, especially compared to a proper underwater housing for a digital SLR, which can easily cost you several thousand dollars. The process of using this bag is actually very straightforward. We have an adapter ring that goes onto my lens just like a filter would, and that allows me to snap it into place with this optical glass on the front of the bag, and then we've got the bag itself, of course, and we seal it up with a few screws there. There's even a bit of foam inside, so yes, it actually floats, even with a digital SLR inside. And because it's optical glass, we're able to get very good quality images underwater or even above water. So again, I'll use this when I'm going snorkeling or swimming, just want to have a little bit of fun exploring around underwater, capturing some underwater photos or video, but even when I'm getting really close to the water, maybe playing in the surf to photograph some shells or whatnot, getting into the rocks or tidepools, this'll help make sure that my camera stays dry. And I can indeed make use of the bag while I'm underwater. I've got a little spot here where I can insert a finger so that I can operate the shutter. It can be a little bit tricky to operate the other buttons and knobs on the camera because of course the camera is inside of this bag, so I generally try to preset everything, set to a manual mode, dial in my exposure, my overall camera settings, so that all I really need is to be able to perhaps make use of back button focus, or I can to some extent manually focus. That too can be a little bit of a challenge, or zooming the lens can be a little bit of a challenge. But taking pictures is very easy thanks to this little finger hole that enables me to get right onto the shutter for the camera itself. So again, a very affordable solution if you want to have some fun with underwater photography, especially if you're just getting started with underwater or photographing near the coast. A great way to do that without spending a lot of money.

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