My first underwater photography with Olympus TG7

I’ve been a photographer on land for almost 10 years now, and I’m finally doing it underwater. I started diving 3 years ago in Tulamben, Bali. Tulamben is a heaven for diving, where you can do different types of diving. I got my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water certification in Tulamben. The main reason is cost. Getting certification and doing a fun dive in Tulamben is the cheapest. Because of the shore dive, it can cut a lot of costs. While other dive sites, like Menjangan, Nusa Penida, Padang Bai, Amed, are boat dives.

I usually use a GoPro 12 to capture photos and videos. I accumulated around 20+ dive logs until I was sure that I had good buoyancy and I want to upgrade my camera. GoPro is good for video, but very bad for photos. Although I love taking videos, my background is in photography. I will always have the urge to take a photo. For me, taking video is a bonus. Then I rented a camera, the Olympus TG7 and do a fun dive. I fell in love immediately.

Olympus TG7 is a waterproof compact camera, used by a lot of divers. Of course, it’s always better to use a mirrorless or full-frame camera because it gives you more freedom. But if you ever dive and take a picture, you know how hard it is to check your buoyancy, strobe, current, your surroundings, and also focus on the subject. It’s basically multi-tasking underwater. I also never use flash/strobe/torch in land photography because I always use natural light. So using a strobe is a new skill to learn for me. Someone told me that underwater photography is like bringing the studio light underwater, and I think it’s very true.

After renting the OM TG7, I made up my mind.

I am doing underwater photography.

Here’s my current setup:

• Olympus TG7
• Seafrogs Polycarbonate housing
• Dual Hand Tray Xadventurer Aluminium Adjustable Arm TR06
• Orca Torch D700

Why don’t I just buy a housing for my current camera? I have a Fujifilm X-T2 that I use for my travel and landscape photography. There are many reasons why I chose a compact camera and the cheapest housing for the camera. And here’s why:

• OM TG7 is a compact camera that’s good for macro, without any additional lens. While I’m already good with buoyancy, there are a lot of tiny details that I’m still not used to when taking pictures underwater. Going with a compact camera is a good choice for me to get used to just taking pictures underwater. Without thinking about the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, yet.
• OM TG7 is a waterproof camera down to 15 meters. So if there’s a leak in the housing, the camera will still be okay. And I already know what kind of photography I want to do. I love corals, and corals mostly live near the surface because they need sunlight. So I’m not going to do more than 30-meter type of diving with the camera. And if I used my Fujifilm camera, I gotta say I’m pretty scared, because if there’s a leak, that camera is done. I cannot afford to lose that camera because of sentimental value, and it’s my only mirrorless camera for now. I would rather just buy a new camera that’s tough (that’s literally the name of the Olympus camera, by the way) and cheap enough for a start.
• The tray is probably the only thing that I splurge a bit on when I have the option to get a cheaper one. Because the tray can be extended for a bigger camera, and I can use it again.
• The torch that I bought is mostly for macro, not good for wide. Due to budget constraints, I can dive in Tulamben more (around Rp850.000/2 dives) than Nusa Penida (Rp3.000.000/3 dives). I know I need to practice my photography a lot, and diving in Tulamben is the most reasonable option for me. And in Tulamben, there’s more macro (muck diving) than megafauna. My consideration is that I will dive more in Tulamben, and I know the creatures are mostly small, so I bought the torch for macro.

Do I have a plan to upgrade? Oh yes. I’ve been wanting to switch to Sony from Fujifilm, because I want to do more wildlife photography and the full-frame sensor is a huge difference. But Sony’s lenses are much more expensive than Fujifilm’s, so I’m trying to strategically time my purchase. And once I move to Sony, I want to make sure that I can use it for underwater photography too. The most expensive gonna be the housing and each type has different housing. It’s probably gonna be Sony a7cii or a7V. I don’t know if I want to gradually upgrade (so I buy a7cii first, then in several years upgrade to a7V) or just go straight to the great camera. So many considerations, and by many I mean budget. Because the type of camera determines the housing later on.

Anyway, enough of me yapping about my setup. Here are the pictures that I took from my first dive with my setup:

See you in my next post!