New FREE Handbooks Now Available: Choosing an UW Camera & Housing - Tips for Shooting Video

We just published a NEW FREE Handbook for those wanting to get their feet "wet" with Underwater Photography. Titled "Choosing an Underwater Camera & Housing", it goes over basic things to look for for on both cameras and housings. Basic camera parts and their importance for underwater photography, classes of cameras, basic system configuration, housing considerations and materials, accessories and much more are covered.

We also just finished our FREE " Video Tips for UW Photographers Handbook". Loads of great advice for those starting out, or for still photographers wanting try shooting video! Cameras, tips, techniques and settings will help you make the plunge into trying out that video button on your camera.

See our Resource Center for many more Handbooks, articles, trip reports, spec charts and reviews! 

Adam Kent Featured Photographer

Optical Ocean Sales' Adam Kent is one of the featured photographers in the March/April edition of PNW Diver. Adam is our sales Associate and Shipping Manager.

Here's some excerpts:
"I currently live in Northgate Seattle, but grew up in Lake Stevens. I have been diving for 11 years now and have been doing underwater photography for 8 years. My love of diving has brought me from an Open Water Certified Diver to an Assistant Instructor for PADI, with the intentions of becoming an Instructor at some point in the future.

I started from taking photos with a cheap disposable underwater film camera during my family vacations. Some of my favorite dive sites around here are the Mulkiteo T-dock, Keystone Jetty, Edmonds Underwater state Park, and the Edmonds Oil Dock when it was still around. There are so many dive sites in the Seattle area that I would love to dive if only I had enough time. Some things that I have learned over the years is to keep trying no matter what, when you first start out don’t be afraid to ask for help from others, and keep taking photos no matter how critical your inner voice is.
Recently I have shot with the E-PL7, E-M1, E-M5 camera using Olympus housings and the Sony A-7 with a Nauticam housing. With these set ups I shot with 2 Sea & Sea YS-D1’s, or the Olympus ULF-3 with the Fix Neo 1200, and a Light and Motion 800 for my lighting set ups.

Adam doing some camera testing.

Some of the best and worst decisions that I have seen others make with their set ups have been related to their lighting choices. At Optical Ocean Sales we have never had someone come back to us saying that we have sold them too much light power. We figure out what people are planning on shooting or what they are planning on taking video of and then recommend the best lighting set up for their needs. Ranging from setting up a beginner with the TG-3 camera and housing with a YS-03 lighting package to a pro/amateur videographer with the Gates Housings for the Sony AX100 with two Kelden 8X Video lights"

Setting Up the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Camera for Underwater Photography

The very popular Olympus OM-D E-M1 is a highly customizable camera allowing for many personal preferences and considerations for underwater use. We've published basic set up instructions with a step-by-step method of preparing your EM-1 to go into a housing and take photos underwater. Our Setting Up the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Camera for Underwater Photography article is online in the Articles section of our Resource Center.

How to set the EVF switch, Bringing up the Super Control Panel, Flash settings, White Balance, Focus Settings, use of Modes and other starting settings are shown.

We hope you enjoy this guide article! If you have additions you'd like to make to it, please email us, or post as comments so we may review and update the article.

New Handbooks on Underwater Photography Available

Two NEW FREE Handbooks join our Basics of Better UW Photography Series and are now in our Resource Center. These downloadable Acrobat files are easy-to-read with lots of photos and illustrations to help you gain basic skills and understanding of their subjects.

The first new handbook is titled Photographing Animals and includes tips, tricks and help on getting great photos of underwater critters! How to improve your Luck, Skill, Knowledge, and Patience in taking underwater animal photos are just some of the areas shown and discussed.

The second new Handbook is one everybody can use. Called Strobe Positioning it goes over most aspects of using artificial strobe lighting underwater in photography. The Handbook discusses light theory and equipment. It shows how, why and where to use both one and two strobes in macro and wide angle photos. This new guide includes many illustrations done by our own Margo Cavis and is a great resource for new and old underwater photographers.

Please download and share these free Handbooks with your dive buddies today!