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The Diffuser
Notice the removable translucent piece of plastic known as the diffuser. This offers flexibility especially if you need to take pictures out of the water like when you're on the boat. The main function of the diffuser is to prevent particles in the water from reflecting the light--produced by the flash unit--directly back to the camera.

The essential controls
If you're a leisure scuba diver, the last thing you'll want is to toy around too much with camera settings, particularly since you still have all your gauges as well as your buddy to keep an eye on. Therefore, manual control over aperture and shutter isn't all that important. This is true, especially if you want to take pictures of moving fishes instead of the "stagnating" vegetation. Hence, you'll find yourself mainly toggling through the white balance and flash options. Beyond that, the rest will simply be composing and snapping (shutter and zoom).

The design of the controls on the WP-DC800 is generally ok. To compensate for the larger width, the push-pull lever for the zoom is angled intuitively towards the edge to allow for easier reach. The shutter button is located close to the edge so there's no problem getting to it. However, the design does not allow you to half-press very well at all.

 

 
 

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The lens sleeve
The little piece of rubber tubing located in the shell may seem simple but it fulfills a very important purpose. If this gasket is not maintained or missing, you'll have plenty of headaches taking pictures underwater. The temperature of the water lowers as you go deeper. As cameras are made of electronics, heat will be produced when in operation. Therefore, the air in the casing will be heated and thus may condense in the interior of the shell, resulting in blurred images. What the lens sleeve does is to isolate that particular portion from the heat sources in the camera. This way condensation will not occur at the most important part of the case--where the lens is facing--and you'll be able to capture usable images. Canon goes one step further and provides anti-fog liquid for use. All you need to do wipe the internal of the casing with this solution.

The catch
The only mechanism preventing your expensive digital camera from becoming a useless chunk of metal is the catch on the waterproof case. If the catch is too loose, you'll run the risk of accidentally flipping open the shell underwater. If it's too hard to open you may break some of the plastic parts on the casing. After careful examination, we decided that Canon's implementation is actually pretty good. But do keep a look-out for people not familiar with the catch, who may try to pry open the case with brute force. The Japanese manufacturer does not provide warranty for its camera accessories, so breaking the catch will render you about S$400 short in your change.

Here are some sample images taken with the Digital IXUS 400 at various depths.

As you can see, printing thumbnails of these images can and will be a very nice addition to your dive log. The pictures above have been edited slightly with Photoshop to add in the reds that you lose at depth. We'll be bringing that guide to you in an upcoming article soon. So stay tuned.