Most of my underwater videos are shot with either a GoPro Hero 6 Black or Hero 4 Silver. All of my underwater photographs have been captured with either a SeaLife DC1400 or DC2000.
On a recent trip to the Red Sea, diving off the coast of Egypt, I opted to shoot more video using my SeaLife DC2000. My typical underwater camera configuration consists of a Sealife camera with a GoPro in the cold-shoe and (2) 2500 lumen video lights. You can see a picture of my setup here and here.
The Sealife DC2000 is basically a point-and-shoot camera. It’s appealing to unprofessional divers and snorkelers for several reasons. For under $700, you are purchasing a camera that is waterproof up to 60ft / 18m, and it includes a separate underwater housing which is waterproof up to 200ft / 60m. The underwater housing is also included in the package price.
Sealife licenses a Sony 1” type back-illuminated 20MP image sensor for the DC2000. It is very similar to the technology in Sony’s RX compact camera line. The camera is packed with the power you would expect in most compact cameras, including ultra-fast shutter speeds, multiple shooting modes (land and underwater), continuous burst shooting, color correction filters, white balance controls, manual shutter and aperture control, autofocus, macro focus, and image stabilization. Also, for underwater shooting, the housing features large piano keys for easy control. There are a few more features that I have not listed, but can be found on Sealife’s website.
There is also the ability to shoot in JPEG and RAW (Adobe .dng) imaging formats, which is a great starting point for the amateur photographer. The RAW format allows for almost endless editing possibilities. The DC200 can also capture 1080p video at 60fps.
Underwater Video Shots on the Sealife DC2000
During a night dive, we observed a Spanish Dancer, aka Dorid Nudibranch, slithering across the bottom of the reef. Spanish Dancers are very large Nudibranch. They can grow up to 3-4ft. Spanish Dancers are most active during the night. This Nudibranch was at least 2-3 ft long.
One of the coolest moments during my trip was observing a Flatworm. It’s very rare to see a Flatworm freely swimming along the reef. I was with a group of divers, and we were exploring a few caverns off the coast of St. John’s reef in Egypt. Cavern diving is not that exciting to me. I prefer to see marine life. So, I broke off from my buddy team and did some solo diving on the outside of the cavern. You never really know what you’re going to see in the open ocean, and this was my lucky day.
You can find more of the most recent images on my Instagram page.
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