Review of the Snap Sights
Sports Waterproof Flash Camera

Underwater cameras for SCUBA usage tend to be expensive and complex. If you have been diving for a number of years, you have probably acquired a camera by now. But to those new to SCUBA, wrestling with spending money on a camera or life support seems unfair. While we will probably purchase a quality camera in the future, as new divers this was not a first year purchase. We wanted to take some photos of our dives and figured to use waterproof disposable cameras. We had used a Kodak disposable camera some years previously while snorkeling and it had worked reasonably. Unfortunately, all of the disposables we looked at had very restricted depth ratings. As all of the disposables we found at home were depth limited, we decided to delay purchasing until we got to Florida in the hopes of finding one with a greater depth rating.

While we were in the dive shop in Tarpon Springs, we saw a reloadable underwater camera for sale for $20. The camera came with a housing, 800 speed film and flash and was rated for 95 feet/28 meters. We decided to give it a try.

The Snap Sights Waterproof Flash Camera consists of a small 35mm camera with fixed focus 28mm lens. There is an integrated flash unit. For underwater use the camera is placed inside a clear plastic, waterproof housing. The housing has controls for the shutter, film winding, and flash activation. A flip up framing window is provided. The housing is opened by using a flat metal "key", provided, to pry back four tabs that hold the yellow snap-on base to the clear upper housing. Care must be taken not to over bend these tabs (the manual states that water resistance is only guaranteed for the first roll of film, so I would assume that eventually the tabs will fail.). The base contains an o-ring grove and o-ring. No mention of keeping the o-ring clean was made in the instructions. After shooting the first roll, I returned to the scuba shop and purchased some o-ring grease and cleaned and lubed the o-ring.. This far we have used it for 9 rolls of film at depths to 75 feet with no leaks.

Loading the camera is simple, but be sure to use fast film (800 came with the camera.) I note that the film sometimes doesn't engage the take-up sprocket if too much leader is inserted. Given that the camera will be placed in the housing, I recommend that once loaded, the film rewind handle be turned in the rewind direction until some snugness can be felt (if you feel the film come loose from the sprocket, stop. If you continue you will wind the film all the way into the cassette.) Next advance the film. If the film has properly engaged the sprocket, the film rewind handle will turn a bit. If not, open the camera and try again. This way you will know that the film is properly loaded.

After loading the film, replace the flash battery. The camera uses a single AA battery. I have no idea how many flashes the battery is good for. Replacement is good insurance. Note when replacing the battery that there is a small slide switch under the lens. The instructions were vague on the purpose of this switch. Turns out that, when viewed from the front, the left most position turns off the flash and covers the lens. The middle position opens the lens and places the flash under control of the flash button. The right most position leaves the flash on full time. Be sure to leave the flash in the middle position.

With the film loaded, a new battery installed and the under lens switch in the middle position you are ready to load the camera into the housing. Holding the housing and camera upside down, insert the camera into the clear plastic housing. Check that the teeth on the film advance engage the teeth on the housing advance knob. If they don't just wiggle the camera a bit. Then snap on the housing base. Now look at the front of the housing and make sure that the flash knob is set to the off position.

In the water, the first thing you will notice is that the camera floats. If you use the lanyard to attach the camera to your BC, be sure to use a lower d-ring, otherwise the camera will be floating around your neck, and you will have to locate it each time by feel (I am going to try using a length of bungee to attach the camera to a low d-ring and still be able to bring it to my eye for usage.)

Underwater the camera is fairly easy to use. Since the flash is on axis, there is the potential for a lot of backscatter and red-eye (note the catfish above.) In areas where the water is clear the flash works reasonably well. Focus is fixed and seems a bit long for underwater usage. I would estimate that best close focus underwater is at 5 to 6 feet (2 meters.) The high (numeric) f of the lens, however helps a bit in closer situations, by increasing the depth of field.

Underwater photography has concerns that are not common to normal photography. One of them is backscatter, the tendency for minute particles suspended in the water to reflect light from a flash back toward the camera. Serious underwater photographers have a host of tricks to reduce backscatter, but the most important it to get closer. Unfortunately, with a fixed focus lens this is only moderately successful. Compounding the backscatter problem is the fact that the lens in this camera produces "poor bokeh" Without getting too technical what this means is that out of focus foreground objects produce donut shaped images with most of their light in a ring. Images with poor bokeh, particularly in the foreground, tend not to be visually appealing. While the subject of bokeh may of academic interest to most terrestrial photographers, in underwater shots, there are often small bits of material, or bubbles, floating between the lens and the subject. As an object situated ½ way between the lens and the subject will reflect 4 times as much light back to the camera as the subject, using flash in less than very clear water tends to result in photos with a lot of ghostly donuts obscuring the subject. I found that in most cases it was better to put up with dim, green/blue, pictures than to use the flash. A good presentation of bokeh can be found at http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/bokeh.htm

For those you are not familiar with wide angle and telephoto as it relates to 35mm photography, lenses are rated by focal length. A "normal" lens has a focal length of 45-58 mm. The term "normal" relates to the fact that the camera will capture a scene that has roughly the same included angle as the human eye. A wide angle is a lens that captures a wider field and a telephoto captures a narrower field. As a wide angle captures a wider field, the individual items within that field will appear smaller than if taken with a normal lens. Wide angle lenses are generally in the 35mm (moderate) to 18mm (fisheye) range. A telephoto lens takes in a narrower view than a normal lens and produces images with larger than normal lens size. Telephoto lenses range from 85-110mm (moderate/portrait) to 1000mm and larger. Basically divide the focal length by 50 to get the magnification, thus a 300mm lens provides a 6x magnification. There is little use for telephotos underwater. Wide angles, on the other hand, have a lot of advantages over normal lenses in UW photography. They are less critical of focusing, which makes it easier to get sharp images of moving subjects. They generally focus closer, which allows one to reduce the amount of backscatter. Their ability to reduce image size allows one a choice of getting very close to fill the frame or to incorporate a larger area. A moderate wide angle lens of 35mm focal length used indoors may allow you to get a shot of a small family. For larger family gatherings, a wider lens is often necessary, the 28mm is fairly standard.

You will remember from your training that light is bent at air water interfaces and that the result is that things appear closer and larger underwater. This effects lenses also. The 28mm lens on this camera produce images that, to my eye, appear to have been taken with something closer to a 35mm lens. If you are saving your money for a digital keep this in mind. Digital sensors are smaller than 35mm film, therefor their equivalent wide angle, normal, telephoto mm sizes will also be smaller. Read the literature, often the equivalent 35mm focal length will be provided. You will note that most of the moderately priced digitals have a wide angle setting that is no wider than an equivalent 35mm. This is because their light sensors can not accept light that strikes them at high angles, as film can. For this reason most manufacturers limit the wide angle capability of their digital cameras (Digital SLRs are the exception as they use large sensors, but we are getting into the $1000+ range.) When you factor in the magnification factor of water, don't be surprised if most digital UW cameras end up providing "normal" rather than wide angle fields of view. Maybe you want to put off getting that UW digital a while longer?

In addition to the normal viewer, there is a fold-up frame on the housing. Given the fact that I would not be carefully composing pictures with this camera, I found them both functional, but tended to stick with the viewer.

Producing stunning photographs underwater requires a lot of skill and specialized equipment. Even so, when conditions warrant, this camera is capable of producing some very nice shots. All in all this is a good camera for the money.