What kind of digital camera do I need for shooting underwater?

What kind of digital camera do I need for shooting underwater?

Mark Comon (Vice President, Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) gives expert video advice on: What kind of digital camera do I need if I'm a novice shooter?; What kind of digital camera do I need for shooting sports?; What kind of digital camera do I need for shooting portraits? and more...

To shoot pictures underwater, if you really mean scuba diving or skin diving, it takes a special breed of camera. Most underwater photographers use a regular camera in a waterproof housing, or underwater housing. It's a great way to photograph underwater. For most of us, when we think of underwater photography, it's sailing, a little skin diving, a little pool, maybe some fishing and things like that, and there are a couple of cameras on the market that will do that for you with no housing. Olympus and Pentax currently make a camera that you can actually dip in the water, or go swimming with, that are really kind of cool, that aren't these big, huge, funky things. But for true underwater photography, if you're a skin diver or scuba diver, you're going to end up with a fairly big camera with an underwater housing to get the pictures that you really want.