Underwater Camera

For our cruise, I have planned a couple excursions at the ports of call. Since we will be going to the Carribean, it is logical to have a good chunck of water activities. One of those activities is snorkeling. Then, it occurred to me that we don't have an underwater camera. I don’t plan to be a professional photographer for National Geographic magazine.. But I would still like to have the ability to take some pictures underwater while we are swimming with the Stingrays.

So I started searching for our options. Basically, you can go two ways. One is to get a waterproof housing to protect our current digital camera. Now with this option, there are a cheap way and a right way. The cheap way is universal waterproof case. For less than $30 you can get a DiCAPac WP-500 Underwater Waterproof Digital Camera Housing Case. I have never used one but I have read a lot of horror stories about it. Plus, Mr. Rojo said.. why don't we just use the Ziploc if we are gonna buy this! Point taken.. Next!

Next option for the housing is to buy brand specific housing that make for your camera. For our case, Sony has a Marine pack for our camera. But... yes.. there is a 'but'. Ready.. Sony MPKTHE Marine Pack for the DSC-T Series Digital Cameras costs $199.. Ouch!!! With that much money I think I'm better off buying a new digital camera. Plus, Mr. Rojo said it didn’t actually list the model of our camera.

Hence, we moved on to our 2nd option. Getting a waterproof digital camera. There are several choices to pick from. I started to feel overwhelmed. But we have narrowed down our choices quickly by budget.

The first choice is Olympus Stylus 850SW 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver) for the price range around $260-270. It's a better alternative than a Sony Marine pack. The nice thing about the Olympus is that it allows video recording for a wee bit of 10 seconds.. Hey.. 10 seconds is a good chunk of time underwater I might say. :) Also this won't be a choice for a serious diver. It will only go up to 10 feet deep. But for us, we just want something for the snorkeling. I mean if Mr. Rojo decides he wants to take up on Scuba diving then I will be happy to oblige to a better camera.. shhhhhh

The second choice is actually another Olympus. Olympus Stylus 1030SW 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Wide Angle Zoom (Silver) has bigger resolution and can go down deeper. With slightly higher price, I am still thinking about it. So it's the tough decision that needs to be made soon. We are running out of time if we want to order it online.. By the way… This is the camera that Mr. Rojo is jockeying for. I guess this is his way of buying a high tech device for the trip. And no Mr. Rojo, you still can’t get those high tech infrared goggles…