"Hey," I said to a dive buddy the other day, "You never showed me the slides from your trip to Mexico last summer."

"They didn't turn out that great," he replied, playing down the pictures.

"Wadda you mean? What's wrong with them? What happened? Poor Vis?"

"Oh, I set something up wrong on the Aquatica. Whole batch came out underexposed."

"The whole week?"

"Yep."

Kinda makes you say “Ouch!” But it is an all too familiar story. You are at a remote resort. They’ve got no E6 or you spent your last nickel getting there and you are not about to pay the exorbitant processing prices on your maxed out VISA. So you wing it the whole week with no feedback on how you’re doing. And you get home with a batch of black slides that are best used for viewing the solar eclipse (Not a safe thing to do by the way, no matter how dark the slide.)

So that brings me to digital. I built up a new set of cheap strobes last January and took them with my digital down to Mexico. I fired that first underwater shot of the week and there it was, that black LCD display. I canceled the processing shot. Oh yeah, I forgot to turn on the strobes. Duhhh! Let’s try frame one again. Welcome to the world of digital. It has its advantages.

Instant Feedback

OK that was a bad example. I would have eventually seen that the strobes weren’t firing. But you get my point. Instant feedback. Watch the picture quality climb right through the roof on the first couple of dives because you know how your doing -- before you are done with the dive. Now there is a few gotchas here. LCD viewing angle can have a deceptive effect on exposure feedback, so get your eyeballs calibrated to your LCD. Also the LCDs today do not yet provide that critical feedback on focus unless you’re way off the mark. And don’t forget what percentage of your picture is actually shown on the LCD. But hey, its more than you get with film. The advantage is instant feedback.

LCD Framing

The LCD viewfinder is a critical part of the underwater digital setup. Sure, you can do without it, (and many cameras do), but if you’ve got it, you will do better. As my buddy cranes his neck and bumps his mask against his Aquatica he is complaining again to himself about how I frame the shot.

It goes like this. The camera is held close. The fish approaches. It’s in the frame. But the thumb does not stray to the zoom. My long arms telescope out (I’m 6’ 9”). Flash! The fish is mine, filling the frame. Never once does the eye stray from the LCD. The advantage is LCD Framing.

More Fun

I’ve never claimed that digital photos from the current or next generation of digicams are better than film. We’ve got a long ways to go and many problems to overcome. But for me, shooting digital is more fun, more gratifying. Instant gratification is an accusation I have a hard time denying. I guess that’s my generation. But I call it fun. The advantage is more fun.

More Sharing

How many of the old time underwater photo hobbyists have a closet full of slides that nobody ever sees. While they can haul them out and give the occasional slide show or get them enlarged or digitized onto CD, those of us shooting digital are already there. Sure, I have a few 8 x 10s from ofoto hanging around the house that look rather nice. But putting them on the web really gets your pictures out there. Have you seen all the free photo-sharing sites on the internet? Underwater photos promote the magic of SCUBA. And the more divers there are, the more valuable diving becomes and the safer the reefs and creatures of the ocean are for future generations. That takes me to my next point, but the advantage here is more sharing.

More Environmentally Friendly

OK, I’ve not done my homework here, but there is a pretty good chance that digital photography is better for the environment. I used to work in the lithography industry, and you would not believe the cocktail of chemicals and gallons of water needed to process film. With digital, your only use of this process for enlargements. I’ve got only half a dozen so far.

Remember that Alkalines and NiCads just don’t cut it for power-hungry digitals. Lucky for us the replacement technology, Nickel Metal Hydride works better, lasts longer and is better for the environment. When will the US battery industry stop feeding consumers the older, dirtier and much more profitable technologies, in favor of this cheaper, longer lasting and more environmentally friendly technology? It’s up to you, the consumers.

Did I leave anything out? Digitals are not for the professional photographer (yet). But for us amatures they have their advantages. If you are happy doing your slide shows over the web and keeping your enlargements at 8 x 10 or 11 x 14, then digital might be for you. Try it out.

Next Time: We’re Not There Yet: The Underwater Digital Wish List