Underwater Photography

This coming Saturday and Sunday I will be diving in a nearby lake to become a certified recreational diver. The lake is supposedly one of the clearest lakes in the area, so I figured 'what the heck' I'll bring along an underwater camera (the disposable kind) from Wal*Mart to document my trip underwater.

Now, I know the quality isn't going to be as good as, say, a Rebel XT, but what kind of quality are we talking here? It said the film speed is 800. With my short experience with film, the grain size in 400 film is kinda bad... The biggest I made my prints was 8x10.

So, do you think this cheap camera will suffice?


Thanks,
Jordan

I used one when I was about 10 years old. From what I could remember they weren't thrilling, but I liked the novelty. I think the one I took in a swimming pool came out alright on a 4 x 6.

I've found recently that an ISO 400 consumer film is not even worth shooting with. It makes 4 x 6 that are okay, but would definitely show grain at anything larger. full sunlight might be reasonable, but a dark cloudy evening, too much grain showing.

A lot of these digicams (I think Canon does this) have waterproof things that go over the entire camera. You wouldn't be risking your dSLR if you have a cheap alternative.

Or you could use a clear glass jar. Manually set the focus, use a 10-sec timer.... The distortion of the glass would be kinda cool.

So... Um. Hmm. Will my pictures turn out alright? We're only going to be at 30 feet or so...

If it's full sunlight, and you said the water is clear, then I think it will be okay for 4 x 6's to show friends. ISO 800 consumer film is very grainy, but I've gotten okay photos for web pages (pic of my cousin skateboarding). If you scan them, resize bicubic for web, then you won't be able to see the grain and the bright sunlight helps for sure. But I wouldn't go larger than 400 x 600.