I purchased my first underwater camera in December 2003. This was an Olympus C5050 compact camera and I was forced to replace it eight months later after failing to correctly fit the underwater housing’s o-rings.

My Olympus C5060 compact camera fared better than its predecessor and was only “retired” in June 2006 when I purchased my present camera, a Nikon D200 digital SLR.

I found the transition from a compact camera to a digital SLR far from easy and must thank Steve Warren of Ocean Optics, London as well as Alex Mustard and Martin Edge for their patience and advice.

I am fairly careless so my SLR is housed in a robust Subal ND20 housing and I also use two Inon Z-240 strobes held by Inon arms. I have found Inon strobes to be very reliable and I prefer to have two strobes rather than one as I consider this gives me more lighting options.