{"id":17042,"date":"2009-02-27T09:08:02","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T09:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwphoto.onpressidium.com\/book\/underwater-photography-total-cost-equipment\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T06:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T06:57:14","slug":"underwater-photography-total-cost-equipment","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/www.uwphotographyguide.com\/book\/underwater-photography-guide\/underwater-photography-equipment\/underwater-photography-total-cost-equipment\/","title":{"rendered":"Checklist and Cost of Equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here is a short equipment checking you can use, when you are purchasing a new underwater photography system, covering the basics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Camera body<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Macro + wide angle lens<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Flat port + dome port<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Port extension, zoom gear, and diopter (if its required) for the WA lens<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Port caps &amp; housing cap (if they are not already included, check with your camera shop)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Dome port cover, dome port share (may be included)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>2 single sync cords or 1 &#8220;Y&#8221; sync cord, unless you are using fiber optics to fire your strobes. Then you will need 2 fiber optic cables<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>2 strobes, make sure they include diffusers<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>4 arms, ball and joint clamps, and necessary connectors &amp; adapters<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Focus light + focus light accessories (additional clamp and small arm may be needed)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Optional TTL converter<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Storm case or pelican case for travel<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Backups as your budget allows, if you will travel alot&nbsp; (sync cords and strobes are usually the 1st backups purchased)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>NiMH rechargable Batteries and chargers for everything. Make sure your chargers are 110\/220 volts.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Lens cleaning kit (air blower, blower-brush, lens paper, lens cleaner)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>A couple memory cards, 8 gig cards work well, Sandisk extreme have a good reputation<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> &nbsp; <\/p>\n<h2>Underwater Photography Costs<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at the approximate cost of some UW camera systems in the USA, as of early 2009.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some sample systems we might purchase:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><span>(used) <\/span>Canon A570 + canon housing + Inon strobe + fiber optic cable + arm<strong> $800-$900<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>(used) Canon G9 + <a href=\"\/ikelite-underwater-camera-housings\">Ikelite housing<\/a> + inon z240 strobe + sync cord + arm + stacked macro lenses <strong>$1200<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>(new) Nikon D90 + ikelite housing + macro lens, macro port, 2 ike ds-51 <strong>$3500<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>(new) Nikon D300 + S&amp;S housing + 2 lenses, ports, 2 inon z240 <strong>$5000-$6000<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>(new) Nikon D300s + Subal housing + 2 lenses, ports, 2 ike ds-160 <strong>$10,000<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Further Reading<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"\/underwater-photography-packing-and-insurance\">Underwater photography packing list and flood insurance<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/underwater-photography-destinations\">Best locations for underwater photography<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/underwater-photography-equipment\">Underwater photography equipment<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/underwater-photography-equipment-photos\">Underwater equipment photos of complete setups<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17041,"parent":16716,"menu_order":-4,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"vocabulary_11":[],"vocabulary_3":[],"vocabulary_5":[],"vocabulary_9":[],"vocabulary_6":[],"vocabulary_10":[],"vocabulary_13":[],"vocabulary_16":[],"vocabulary_4":[],"vocabulary_14":[],"vocabulary_15":[],"vocabulary_7":[],"vocabulary_1":[],"vocabulary_12":[],"vocabulary_2":[],"vocabulary_17":[],"vocabulary_18":[],"vocabulary_8":[],"class_list":["post-17042","book","type-book","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Checklist and Cost of Equipment - Underwater Photography 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