Subaquatica!

Oh yes!

Doesnt it look just killer...

Finally an underwatercamera that I can reload and shoot another roll of film with.

Ever since me and some friends used some single-use Kodak underwatercameras and were quite pleased with results produced by said cameras, I have been digging underwatercameras more and more. So to own and use one has been on my cravelist for a while now. Not that I will be going under the water much, but when shooting surfing from up close and personal and in the water and such, the camera needs to be quite watertight as well.

I was eyeing this camera for a while now. As it was for sale at a cool little local photographyshop around here. But I didn't have the money to buy it sooner. Not because this little machine was expensive or overpriced, just I was broke, as usual.

The camera is a 'Mako shark' camera produced by a company called Healthways who do diving equipment. It was produced in the 1950's. The camrea is very simple with a fixed focus and one shutter speed*

The cool thing about this camera is that it basically is a plastic underwaterhousing with the inside of a Kodak brownie. So it uses the no longer existing 620 film format. Luckily you can use 120 rollfilm in this camera without a problem! I love 120, so thats what I really like about this thing. That and the 'Jacques Cousteau' look offcourse.

I could have easily opt for the option of a more modern, automatic, more sturdy 35mm format subaquatic camera like the Minolata Weathermatic or Canon Prima AS-1, and no doubt in the future I will pick one of those up as well, but for now I had to catch this gem before it ended up al unused in some collectors display cabinet.

I will post some images from this Mako machine as soon as possible. That is if the camera wont flood. I have heard some stories about them being prone to flooding behaviour. First have to go shoot a surfsession. Offcourse now there is even less money for a filmscanner, so no filmshots yet. Just digitals.

*I don't have a clue yet about the aperture of this little camera or about its shutterspeed (its quicker than I can count). If anyone does, please let me know.