Those high power, all everything, expensive cameras are what we drool over when looking to purchase a underwater digital camera. The problem is that many of us can’t afford $800 or greater to plunk down for the purchase. There is a solution.

You can buy a camera for less than $150 that does a great job of recording our undersea exploits. Let’s take a look at the top three brands.

The Nikon CoolPix L series

Nikon is world renowned for quality. The CoolPix series have great color, fantastic optics, and are simple cameras to use. These models are very small, fitting easily in your pocket. They use SD (memory) cards and AA batteries (alkaline, rechargeable, etc.) making them easy and practical. Both of these items can be purchased at many stores, from department to specialty stores.

Fantasea, a maker of underwater housing for digital cameras has a very sturdy and tight housing available for the Coolpix L2 adn L3. It is the FL-3 Underwater Camera Housing. It gives you full control over all of the functions of the camera and can be taken down to 130 feet. Fantasea has the exclusive feature of proving flood insurance in case of a leak for replacement of the camera. That is a lot of confidence in the performance of their housing. Caveat…it is not cheap.

Canon PowerShot A

Canon is also well known for their cameras. The Powershot series provides excellent color, great optics and have many additional features. They also use SD cards and AA batteries. Their slightly larger size normally means they have a larger zoom, aperture, and screen.

The Canon has an underwater camera housing available at Amazon. The manufacturer also offers housings directly. The Amazon offer certainly isn’t as sturdy and tight as the (or as expensive) Fantasea so don’t think you are getting a bargain here. You get what you pay for. This housing is only good down to 30 feet. Keep in mind that this is a generic housing or one size fits all.

Kodak C series

Kodak has been a name which always represented quality photography film, and their quality has crossed over in the digital age. The colors are always beautiful and their cameras simple and elegant to use, they also take SD cards and AA batteries.

The Kodak C series are good cameras but there don’t seem to be any specialized housings available. The housings that are available fall into the generic category and offer some functionality. Ikelite does offer a generic housing that does seem to be built well and offers a tight, waterproof environment. It is a complete enclosure with handles that promise easy use. Check it out here.

Underwater photography has changed significantly over the last two decades due primarily to advances in technology. In the nineties we saw cameras hit the market that had water resistant lenses followed by waterproof cameras that allowed the amateur photographer to shoot undersea marine life. By the year 2000 we saw a quantum shift in the paradigm of photography when everthing started to go digital.

What did this mean? It meant that the hobby photographer could take pictures (and sometimes really good pictures), get an immediate result, an not be tied to film development and waiting for the outcome. Part of the fun of using the latest underwater digital cameras is that the operational programming is so good for the new advance features that it makes the cameras easy to use and to get great results. Features such as long battery life, enhanced flash photography, automatically adjustable f-stop and exposure times make using them a breeze.

Underwater photography is now a singular segment warranting its own special techniques, equipment and group of professionals. Apart from naturalists and botanists studying underwater plant species and animal-life, even historians studying wrecks and anthropologists studying life-forms and people giving birth underwater etc are groups that have interest in underwater snapshots besides of course, scientists and biologists who photograph and study marine life.

To make sure your underwater photographs turn out well, remember these things:

Chose a basic digital camera that is designed to used underwater. Don’t cover your dry land digital camera with plastic and expect it to perform underwater.  Underwater cameras come equipped with special parts that prevent it from getting damaged even when submerged in murky waters and still manage to give good shots in limited natural light, depending on their quality.

Follow the operation manual of the camera for the best results. Don’t be one of those that avoids the manual and them complains about how poorly the camera performed (because you didn’t know what you are doing).

Always remember that the deeper you go into the waters, the poorer light conditions you will have to face, so learn the techniques of underwater photography as best as you can to be able to use white (natural) light or some type of artificial ones to counter this issue.

You can avoid using zoom feature when taking shots underwater and turn off flash wherever possible so the quality of photos is higher and not blurry, which is what it tends to be when flash is used underwater. Always study the warranty information before you put your camera in potentially damaging conditions.  The warranty will spell out the conditions for use and for claims against the manufacturer.

If you have the opportunity it is a good idea to submerge the camera at the store where it was purchased to check for leaks. This way you can avoid going on that special trip and finding out that your camera doesn’t work.