Land cameras are primarily designed to take photos on, well… land, yet many manufacturers promote land cameras shoved into a housing as the solution for divers.

On land you generally have all the time in the world to take photos and as your subjects are often people they will understand when you ask them to pose and say “cheese”. Fish and other fast moving marine creatures are often less co-operative. This is just one of the major considerations when choosing your underwater camera.
Importantly you need to consider your investment as more than just a camera, you need to be able to expand into a total camera system. Sea & Sea is the world’s leading underwater photo specialist, they have considered all the critical elements listed below in their design of underwater camera systems.
The key things you should consider are:
• Ability to capture subjects of fast moving marine life
• Ability to take shots of large subjects at close range
• Ability to get close enough to capture small subjects
• Ability to adapt accessories to properly light the subject
• Ability to enlarge image without significant loss of quality
• High quality housing with deep depth rating and easy to use

Ability to capture fast moving marine life Shutter lag is the time taken between pushing the button to capture an image and when the photo is taken. Often the shutter lag on a land cameras is so slow that you will be lucky to capture the tail of your subject as it swims by. The DX8000G has the worlds shortest shutter lag in its class of only 0.12 sec so you will capture more of the action with a DX8000G. The DX860G also has a shorter shutter lag compared to other cameras in its class.

Ability to take shots of large subjects at close range The further you are from your subject, the more water you have between you and your subject. Water absorbs light and as there is particle in the water the further away from your subject you get the more the image will deteriorate, often having reduced colour and/ or particle matter showing up in the image.
A wide angle lens opens up the angle of vision allowing you to get closer to the subject while still fitting the full subject in the image. A wide angle lens is a critical accessory that can be fitted to all Sea & Sea digital cameras.

Ability to get close enough to capture small subjects In order to get a full size image of small subjects you need to get close. But in order to focus many cameras require a significant distance from the subject which means the subject will appear very small in the picture. While this image can be enhanced and cropped on a computer, image quality will be significantly degraded if enlarged to a true size. By shooting with an advanced macro lens, the likes of which is built into Sea & Sea cameras, which focus down to as little as 1 cm on some models. You will get sharp, clear images. That means that you capture more detail.

Ability to adapt accessories to properly light the subject On land a small flash is all that is generally required to light your subject, even at night. However, because the water absorbs the light from your flash as well as surrounding light you need more powerful lighting systems, these are called strobes.
External strobes not only have more power, they also allow creative decisions to be made about lighting direction and shadows as they can be pointed in different directions. Serious photographers may have two strobes for even more light and control.
Control over a good lighting system is the key to making the ordinary photograph extraordinary underwater. While most cheap digital camera housings have no provision for external strobes, Sea & Sea produce cameras and housings designed specifically for use underwater and they have the widest available selection of digital ready strobes. In short, there is a Sea & Sea lighting solution to suit all budgets and needs.

Ability to enlarge image without significant loss of quality Now its time to talk about mega pixels, just about every ad for cameras talks about megapixels as though it were the most important subject yet few people really know what it means.
A digital image is essentially a number of dots, mega pixels is essentially a measurement of the number of dots per square centimetre. It will be almost impossible to pick the difference between a standard size photo from a two-three megapixel camera compared to say an 8 megapixel camera. However, as you start to blow the image up the dots essentially move further apart, eventually the shot looks “grainy” and loses definition. If you want to mount a large image on your wall you will want to consider a camera with in excess of 5 megapixels.

High quality housing with deep depth rating and easy to use Sea & Sea housings are rated deeper than many other housings available, are made from high quality poly carbonates for more strength and have easy to use labelled buttons to avoid confusion.

Advanced features Once you become more proficient you will want even more control over your image creation. That is where the DX8000G comes into its own.
The lens aperture refers to the opening of the lens to take the photo. Most digital cameras have an automatic aperture setting, the DX8000G has a special control that allows either automatic or manual control of aperture setting to create special effects.