6 Must-have Underwater Photography Accessories
Every photographer you ask will have a slightly different bag of essential underwater photography accessories and spare items with them at all times.
I often find myself misplacing essential tools when I am rushing to set up my equipment.
It’s always a good idea to have a few spare and backup items around so that you can still use your camera if something goes missing, especially if you travel for your photography!
Here are my top recommendations for essential underwater photography accessories to keep on hand at all times.
1. Batteries
The most important spare piece of kit is batteries. I always try to have a spare charged camera battery and spare AAs for my strobes. That means I can always change the batteries instantly instead of having to wait for them to recharge.
This way, you won’t miss any of the action, and if you ever do forget to turn on a charger, you’ll hopefully still have a spare battery with some charge.
Top Tip: Keep things charging! I like to leave my spare batteries on charge when on an underwater photography trip. As soon as I have a surface interval during my dives, I can swap onto freshly charged batteries and continue shooting imagery without the fear of running out of charge.
The last thing you want is perfect weather or conditions and no charge in any of your batteries!
Another essential spare battery for underwater photographers with leak detectors in their underwater housing is the small button battery needed for the leak detector and vacuum system.
These tiny batteries can be tricky to find in a rush and are often only available in hardware stores.
My Nauticam housing uses a CR2450 in the leak detector, and I always have a spare packet of two, just in case they run out when I’m out on a shoot. Conveniently, this same battery is used in my Nauticam flash trigger.
Like the leak detector, this system starts to flash red before it dies completely, so you should have some warning before it stops working entirely. But I always change these batteries at the first sign of the red light to avoid a failure underwater.
You’ll only make the mistake of diving underwater on a low battery once; it’s very frustrating when a dead battery ruins your photography trip, and underwater, there is nothing you can do about it!
Camera Battery: £50–100 per unit
Rechargeable AAs: £10–20 for a pack of 4
CR2450 (housing/flash battery): £5–10 for a pack of 2
2. Underwater housing grease
My next essential is for underwater photography housings: an underwater photographer can never have too much O-ring grease. There are a few types available, depending on the item and brand.
Personally, I need two types of O-ring grease to keep my camera functioning: a tube of Nauticam grease for my housing and ports, and another tube of silicone grease for my Inon strobes.
Every time I open my camera housing, I clean and re-grease my O-rings, so you need to be conservative with the tube of grease if you want it to last more than a few months of regular diving.
I’d always recommend having a couple of spare tubes of grease in your kit bag, as you never know when you might need it.
Top Tip: Be aware that not all manufacturers recommend silicone grease, so I would steer away from buying a generic pot of grease and make sure you buy the one recommended by your camera housing, strobes, or video light manufacturer. If you use the wrong type of grease, the O-ring can swell or become damaged. Better safe than sorry with these kinds of things!
Underwater Housing Grease (Nauticam): £15–20 per tube
Strobe Grease (Inon/Sea&Sea): £5–10 per tube
Read more: Underwater Camera Housing – A Guide to Choosing, Using and Care
3. Cleaning tools
Cleaning tools should be an essential part of your kit bag, especially a good quality lens cloth or two. Most camera and lens manufacturers have a branded lens cloth available to buy, and so do many underwater housing manufacturers.
A lens cloth will keep your lenses and dome ports clean and allow you to maintain the glass or acrylic in pristine condition.
The last thing you want is a giant smudge on the lens or housing port, especially if you don’t notice until you’re about to jump in the water—or even worse, when you’re already underwater!
If you’re a photographer who’s always on the move, you can find lens cloths available as keychains. This is a great design, as you always have a way to keep those lenses clean even on the go!
Just remember to keep your cloth clean and dry, as any particles or debris on the cloth can damage your lenses. Be mindful of how your cloth is stored and keep it clean.
Microfibre Lens Cloth: £5–20
4. Arms and clamps
Slightly more experienced underwater photographers will start to add essential accessories such as video lights, strobes, or even spotting lights to their cameras. But many forget that with these light sources, you also need a way of attaching them to your camera housing.
That’s where arms and clamps come in handy. I think most underwater photographers agree you can never have too many arms and clamps! They are available in a range of sizes and combinations, allowing you to choose the best setup to suit your equipment.
For macro photography, you won’t need huge arms – small-sized arms and a clamp on either side allow a good range of movement. If you’re doing wide-angle photography, then you’ll need those lights much further away from your camera.
In this instance, you may need long arms, perhaps even two for each light, and the necessary clamps to connect them. The price of arms and clamps can add up quite quickly, so figure out what you need before buying too many of the wrong size!
Top Tip: Consider adding foam floats to this list! Adding all of these extra arms to your camera will increase the weight in and out of the water. If you find that your hands and wrists are aching from the weight of the camera, then maybe it’s time to invest in some floats.
Floats are available in a few forms, but the most common are float arms (solid arms filled with air) and foam floats that can be added to your existing arms.
The foam floats are my preferred choice, as you can add or remove foam depending on the weight of your camera and lenses. For example, a macro setup is generally heavier than a wide-angle dome port setup.
Read more: Top Tips to Improve Your Underwater Macro Images
5. Dust blower
My next essential is an air or dust blower. Sometimes dust and debris can be stubborn on your lens, but you don’t want to use a lens cloth as you risk an accidental scratch.
In these situations, a dust blower is a good option as you can quickly blow air into your camera housing, dome port, and lenses to remove the dust particles.
If you ever leave your underwater housing open, it will inevitably end up with a few dust specks inside, and air is the best way to get rid of them.
There is a slightly more technical and heavy-duty version of the air blower available for scuba divers; this unit attaches to the end of your inflator hose (LPI) with a push connection and allows you to blow compressed air.
I wouldn’t recommend using this inside an underwater housing or on the camera itself. However, it is an excellent way to air-dry your sealed underwater housing after a dive – just be sure to wash the salt off first.
Dust Blower: £10–20
Air Blower (LPI): £15–50
Read more: How to Clean Your Camera’s Lens
6. UV lights and colour-correcting filters
One final essential is something to spark creativity in your underwater imagery! Accessories are a great way to be more creative with your underwater photos.
Have you ever considered a pop of colour in your work? If so, why not delve into the world of biofluorescence with a UV video light or UV filters for your strobes, allowing you to see the fluorescent, alien world beneath our oceans.
If you haven’t yet used video lights or strobes, consider colour-correction filters for your camera. Magic Filters offers a range of colour-correcting red, pink, and orange filters to correct the colour of the water at varying depths.
You can also buy these red filters for GoPro, action cameras, and most phone housings – a great way to quickly improve your underwater images without the addition of extra lighting!
If you’re feeling super creative, you could try some coloured gels or filters. These colour-changing gels can be used in combination with your lights to create colourful backdrops in your images or add a flare of colour to a relatively dull subject.
The possibilities are endless, but the fun comes from trying something new!
Read more: An Underwater Photographer’s Guide to Colour Photography
In conclusion
There are many essential accessories out there to streamline your equipment setup and cleaning, and maybe even spark some creativity.
I’d always recommend keeping all of your essential kit and spares in a sealable box or bag so that everything is in one place and stays clean!
