Diary of a Deckhand

I walk into the dusty community centre and am faced with a circle of brown school chairs all facing inwards. The harsh fluorescent lights above buzz and hum, the only other sound a gentle cough from someone already seated and the thumps of my own footsteps.

I take a seat and look into the expectant faces. I know what I have to say, and I know me admitting my problem is the first step towards a cure.

I clear my throat, take a deep breath and the words seem to rush out all at one.

“My name is Helen, and I’m a camera addict”

Ok ok, sorry, but I have just spent money I seriously cannot afford on a new camera. Imagine my horror at examining the housing (the waterproof case for diving) for my beloved Olympus C-7070 and finding hairline cracks all around one corner, no doubt caused by an impact with the floor. This means that at the greatly increased pressure while diving, it could leak, which would probably cause me to leak too.

Drowning one of your favourite possessions in seawater is not high on my list of things to do, so I started to look for a solution. Things that were open to me, on my rather limited (read non-existent) budget were:

Get a replacement camera the same as the one I have now
Get a new camera and housing
Get a second hand camera and housing

Looking through the 1001 things I could buy on fleabay as accessories for my camera, only one or two of them ever seem to come up for sale. Looking at how much they sell for, it soon became clear to buy a new housing and a second hand camera would cost a fair chunk of my hard earned. So I looked at the other options. No cameras came within the budget for the new setup, so second hand it was.

A friend of mine was selling her Olympus SP 350, plus housing made by a very reputable company. After a quick check, I asked if she still had it available. Hooooo yeah, I am now the proud owner of aforementioned camera plus Ikelite housing which is even rated to go deeper than my current one 40m (131 feet) versus 60m (197 feet), the same depth to which I am qualified to dive to.

All I can hope for is that I get on with is just as well as my old one.