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Many people these days use digital photography to capture the underwater world.  We are always overawed by the world deep beneath high seas as it has largely been an unknown element. Bringing vacation pictures home to your friends or selling them as professionals has been a time honored tradition and now we can bring the underwater world home through the use of digital photography.

You can have a lot of options when selecting underwater camera. You have the highly expensive professional cameras and the one time slightly effective versions.  Knowing which camera will work for you is very important.  You must look for a good housing. Underwater photography requires you to protect your camera from the harmful effects of water. So you will have to purchase housing with seals to eliminate the water. It must match the dimensions of your digital camera.  In fact, most companies will sell the housing for the cameras you have.

Let us look at the 35mm cameras.  Such cameras  are entry level, offering nothing more than point and shoot.  You must ensure that such a camera has a filter to cover up for absence of color inside high seas water.  These cameras will not filter out the particles you find floating along in the water on a poor visible day. These cameras offer poor visibility, 100 feet at the most.  I would not use this type for anything below 80 feet. You would not want to loose pictures because the housing failed under pressure.  While this is not common, it is a concern for most photographers.

The more professional cameras are larger with a huge lens to let light in as well as have filters to help bring clarity to any photograph.  Quite obviously these cameras are costly.  Digital cameras are the best way to take underwater photographs because you can make sure you have the desired affects before leaving the seen.  Of course, most underwater life will not hang around for a second shot, but coral reefs and the animals that inhabit them may remain.  

 Most underwater cameras will also have a flash. It is best to take an underwater photography course before delving too far in your hobby.  Sometimes the flash will help you with the photographs, but other times it will wash the subject out and ruin the print.  You can also use underwater cameras when you are snorkeling.  Some flashes are built in to the camera while others are external.  The external flashes can be a stick with a little light bulb on top.

Care must be taken to protect your camera and flash from batteries when storing, simply take them out as the batteries can die quickly.  This is mostly for the cameras that use double AA batteries.  You will enjoy the world you captured on your camera once you get back from vacation. Do remember that Underwater digital photography calls for better skills than normal simple photography due to the lighting conditions. You are in for a great treat whenever you capture those mesmerizing moments of the world deep below after you have mastered the art.