It is hard to imagine that the world used to rely on film. Photographers, on land and below the surface, were forced to shoot scores of ‘frames’ to get the perfect shot. Imagine being limited to either 24 or 36 shots, and horror of horrors, having to wait days or even weeks before seeing the results. I remember film, I remember developing my own and the cost and trouble involved in buying and storing chemicals, and the inevitable disappointment in having spent ages on an image, which then reveals itself to be mediocre at best. To see where we came from, let’s have a look at a few of the cameras that changed the way folk like me capture images underwater. The early days of DIY Nowadays, anyone can take images underwater, you can even get good quality housings for smartphones. Imagine a time when camera housings were hand made. >
I came across this beauty in a museum in Yorkshire, England. Made in the 1950s by a chap named Geoffrey Willey, it contained a modified 16mm cine camera. Nikonos A decade later, Nikon developed the Calypso camera (originally a Jacques Cousteau design) and thus began the Nikonos series of 35mm film cameras. Just about every pro used them. Film buffs will recall Sean Connery sporting one of these in Dr No. The Nikonos cameras were considered a triumph. They had lenses specifically designed for underwater use and were supported with countless accessories from flash guns to viewfinders that matched the range of lenses on offer.


By Morio – photo taken by Morio, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46428077