A remarkable,

compact tool for

watersports shooters

In the last post, I indicated that I’d be using the Bonica Snapper dive camera for shooting while on Sodeb’O this coming week. Well, the camera arrived on Friday and I’ve been going through the box and all the stuff that is included in the full kit…. along with the screw-on wide angle lens for the water housing.

Wow!, this is a really remarkable package for the suggested retail price, much less for what it typically goes for after a routine discount at the dive outlets that sell the system. There’s a handheld HD camera with a fold-out screen, a silicone “glove” that fits tightly over the camera along with a snap-on screen cover. The silicone slip cover protects the camera in watery environments such as rain, the kind of spray you’d encounter on a fast moving boat, etc. It is not meant to be a dive housing for taking the camera underwater.

The actual underwater housing is pretty sweet. It’s an injection molded polycarbonate two piece shell with an integrated o-ring in one half of the housing to give it a full waterproof seal against the elements. The housing is held together with three hefty cam clips that provide an equal pressure closure system around the perimeter of the o-ringed seam. The housing is rated to 180 feet underwater, so it will be good for a huge number of dive applications, as well as for whitewater boating, sailing, power boating and surfing/boogie boarding.

If there is time, I’m excited about the potential of getting in the water in La Trinite-sur-Mer and shoot Sodeb’O from a water level perspective. I used to do a lot of split screen effect shots of surfers back in the 80′s with my water housing equipped Nikon stills equipment. This is a technique in which the camera is held right at the surface with the water level in the middle of the focusing screen. It can be tricky to get really good images because you have to account for water clarity, exposure balancing for the two envionments and a well compose and framed image. A really well done image shows what is happening below the surface, as well as what is going on above in the same frame. Of course, you can over do it, like any specialized technique imagery. Too many of the same thing and the effect loses its value as an attention getter.

I’m looking forward to shooting in HD video for this blog as well as Youtube postings and also capture stills from the 5 meg still shooting capability.

I’m going to have to spend a good part of tomorrow getting tight on the camera functions, so they are natural parts of my photography moevments. It’s not an overly complex camera to learn, but this shooting gig is too important to have to fiddle with camera settings and controls while risking a lost shot.

I’ll write a full, photography review of the Bonica when I get back from France.

 Chris Ostlind

Lunada Design