Every year we produce many photos below the surface of the sea. Underwater photography is somewhat complicated and this is one reason that we use only highly professional equipment.

This type of equipment allows us to produce images of any subject ranging from tiny crustaceans to large mammals, as well as other divers, turtles, and colossal shipwrecks.

Casper working with macro photography. We use two flash units in order to distribute light in the best way. As the photo might suggest underwater photography can be rather technical.

We use two different systems when we are working below the surface. They are both relatively expensive, the major difference between them is their weight.

 
1. Nikon D300 i Sea&Sea MDX-D300

The lightest system that we use under water is based on the Nikons D300 camera housing. This is protected by an aluminium housing from Sea&Sea which is highly effective at keeping out any water. It is possible to access all features of the camera by activating buttons that have been conducted through the specially designed housing. This allows you to use auto focus under water, change the ISO value, setting the white balance manually, choose between single shot or continuous exposure; well actually to do all the things you would normally do when shooting on dry land. 

                      The D300 in front of an underwater housing before it is installed.

... and this is what it look like inside the housing. You need to mount a so-called port on the housing, the exaxt type of port depends on the lens you are using for your dive. The port shown above is suited for wide-angle lenses in the 12-24mm range.
 

2. Nikon D2X i Subal ND2

We sometimes use a Nikon D2X camera inside a waterproof box (also called an ND2) made by the Subal company. This housing is made from aluminium and we are able to control every button on the camera although we are working on the bottom of the sea. This piece of equipment is water resistant even at depths of 70 meters.
 

By now, we have produced underwater photos in more than 16 different countries and our work constantly dependents on our equipment working correctly. There are few colours below the surface of the sea. Consequently, you need to use flash if you want to capture colours in your photos. We use flash units manufactured by the German company Subtronic and the Japanese company Sea&Sea.

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