Surfing and Surface
Watersports
When photographing or filming surface water-sports, telephoto
shots taken from a point of safety are often less involving than
those taken by a photographer in the water. Consequently, equipment
used in this application is usually similar to that used by underwater
photographers, but with different lens and lighting requirements.
If you want to use an existing camera, you can use either a hard
housing, or a flexible (e.g., ewa-marine) housing; depending
on the degree of battering the equipment is likely to receive
and the ability of the housing to accommodate the lenses you
wish to use.
One important point to watch in selecting equipment is that the
available lenses or lens-port configurations are capable of focusing
in air. If you are only interested in using point & shoot
cameras, compact, or digital compact cameras, there should be
no problem provided that the housing is fitted with a plane-glass
or plastic lens-port (which is almost always the case). Note
however, that some camcorder housings are fitted with underwater
correction ports, which may or may not focus in air. If this
point is not clear in the information provided, please contact
Cameras Underwater or the supplier from whom you intend to purchase
the equipment. Note also that wide-angle lenses and wide-angle
adapters for Sea & Sea cameras and for Nikonos do not focus
in air, but the standard and longer lenses do. A normal SLR lens
behind a flat port will focus in air, but to avoid internal reflections
when working in bright sunlight, it is advisable to ink-out any
white markings around the front of the lens with a black felt-tip
pen. A normal lens behind a dome-port will also focus in air,
provided that any recommended diopter lens is not fitted, but
due to differences in optical path-length between the centre
and the edges of the dome, there may be a small reduction in
optical resolution. Underwater photographers also do not normally
use lenses of long focal length, but some SLR housing manufacturers
(e.g., Ikelite) do make suitable lens ports. It is important
to make sure that a port is available before buying a particular
camera lens. Additional lighting is not normally required, but
for stills photography, underwater strobes (flash guns) can be
used for fill-in flash. |
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