Protect your camera by taking precautions with its camera housing.

Bill Doster

Underwater cameras are precious to photographers, and caring for that investment is crucial. Here are our tips for testing a camera housing before taking it diving.

1. Assemble your housing to make sure you’ve got all the parts and that everything fits correctly. Put your camera in the housing to ensure that all the control buttons are operating correctly and nothing is misaligned.

2. Test accessories, such as focus lights, strobes and wet lenses, to ensure that everything is working. Make sure your strobes are properly connected to your housing’s bulkheads, and take a test shot to double check that they are firing and properly synced with your camera.

3. Take out the camera and set up your housing with the proper predive maintenance. This includes completely submerging your housing to check for any leaks. Especially cautious photographers might even take an empty housing on the first dive.

4. Familiarize yourself with all the controls; you should be comfortable operating the system before you ever enter the water. Being distracted by your underwater camera often means you will miss the shot, and it can even be dangerous.

5. Test your settings by taking photos indoors or in your backyard (keep in mind that focusing will be easier on land). Take as many practice shots as you need to feel completely comfortable.

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