There are many underwater cameras available to the scuba diver. They range in price from one hundred to thousands. First decide what your need in an underwater camera. Are you just snorkeling in six feet of water and taking pictures of your friends? Or, are you cave diving at two hundred feet for “National Geographic” magazine?

There are two choices of cameras: digital or traditional film. If you are going with film, your options are limited. You can put a throw away camera in a bag or you can buy a big bulky housing for your single lens traditional camera in order to prevent damage. You can also choose to go digital.

As with any digital camera, mega-pixel size should be your first consideration. Over the years they have gotten less expensive for more pixels. If you want an eight-by-ten photograph of good quality you need at least five mega-pixels. You can now buy this rather inexpensively. It is a good choice if you are going to crop or enlarge an image.

The deeper in the water you go, the more the cameras cost. Get your camera for lower depth than you plan on diving to just to be safe. Insure the camera if you can. After all, it is a big investment.

For children you can buy a five mega-pixel mask mounted camera for one hundred dollars. These are great for shallow water. For the same hundred dollars you can pick up a five mega-pixel underwater VuPoint Solutions camera that is good to fifty feet. For a hundred and fifty dollars more you can get seven mega-pixels with a Intova IC-700 and take it to 180 feet. For a thousand dollars you can get that ten mega-pixel camera, the Sea and Sea DX-1G, submerge it down to 180 feet and take some incredible pictures.