I don't have an underwater camera. That must be fascinating getting to take underwater shots as well.
The learning curve is steep. On top of gear preparation, ensuring a proper seal on the camera housing, everything is also moving, you are always worried about white balance, and you need to be concerned with strobe power and having good buoyancy control.
Camera: Olympus PEN EPL-2. Superfast focus, and a micro 4/3 sensor (18 mm × 13.5 mm) which is only surpassed by a full 35 mm SLR (36×24 mm). 45 mm and 100 mm lenses that I decide on depending what I want to photograph.
Tray and arms: Ultralight. Good durable equipment. You need the arms to position your flashes out from the camera so that light is not coming head on to your subject
, otherwise particles in the water will all reflect directly back to the lens, ruining your shot.
Strobes: Inon S2000 S-TTL and a fill strobe, an Ikelite Substrobe DS51. The Inon is perfect for the Olympus which has a preflash to judge exposure. The Inon has super fast circuitry that follows the camera's flash profile for a proper exposure. The Ikelite does not respond to the pre-flash so as a fill strobe I set it for low power.
Housing: Olympus housing for the PEN. I spend a lot of time maintaining O-rings. I am fastidious, as a particle on a sealing surface will flood the housing and ruin your camera. It allows me to work all of the camera functions.
And, you need to know the functions, cold, because while trying to be still and frame the shot, you may need to make adjustments. Once you overcome the initial frustration of snapping a lot of fish butts, getting good shots becomes easier.
Here is a fun shot. My spouse swimming into a school of Bigeye Scad that stretched for at least a 1/4 mile (about 1500 feet) along the reef.
