I ended up buying a GoPro instead of an underwater camera

When I went to the Maldives this March, I wore goggles and spent all my time peering into the ocean, observing the fish in the shallows (they were all white!).

I couldn't exactly stick my mirrorless camera into the water (I almost dropped it into the ocean and it nearly got submerged, but I managed to save it. My phone, however, did get submerged...), so I did my best to snap photos with my phone without being able to see the screen.

Or so I thought.

I opened the folder, excited that I might have taken about 20 shots, only to find there were only about 8, and almost nothing was visible in them. What was I even trying to do?

I was so shocked that I just deleted them, so I have nothing to upload here 😭

I had been considering an underwater camera for a while and had looked at them on Amazon and elsewhere, but the reviews weren't very good, so I was wondering if they were any good.

I thought about renting one, but since I usually want to take photos when I'm abroad, renting is a high hurdle. I thought, since I can buy an underwater camera for tens of thousands of yen, why not just buy one? But I was still concerned about the reputation. Especially that it's bad.

In the midst of this, I discovered that I could actually buy an older model GoPro for a low price, and I thought a used GoPro 11 Black would be fine. It was about 30,000 yen.

However, after watching the video below, I decided to buy the 12 Black. It was very easy to understand and helpful.

The deciding factors were definitely the longer recording time and the ability to attach a tripod directly.

In the end, I bought a new one on Qoo10 for about 40,000 yen.

I bought it with a card that has shopping insurance. Also, I have separate shopping insurance, so even if it breaks, it should be covered.

Surprisingly, once I bought the batteries (two genuine ones plus a charger) and a micro SD card, it ended up costing about 20,000 yen more, so those planning to buy one should be careful about going over budget.

A selfie stick is probably also essential. I decided to use a strange octopus-like stick I had at home.

The stick I was planning to buy was said to be 80g, and since I had a stick that was about the same weight and served the same purpose, I'll try using that instead.

I haven't used it to shoot anything yet, and since it can shoot at a much wider angle than a DSLR, I don't think it's compatible with the subjects I want to photograph.

However, this time I really want to capture photos of fish underwater.

I'm not going to the Maldives anytime soon, but I am going to Shizuoka, so I wonder if I'll be able to photograph fish underwater there.

There's no real punchline, but if you're thinking about buying an underwater camera, how about an action camera?
That was the gist of it.

You can buy them surprisingly cheaply, but be careful about the cost of accessories!