Using the Olympus Tough TG-5 for Scientific Diving

My name is Rosalie and I am a third year marine biology student. My project is titled “Investigating the photosynthetic threshold of active radiation on coral community composition” and I carried out my research whilst in Egypt. To carry out this project we were scuba diving on the Abu Sauatir reef and laid transects at depth increments of 3m, 6m, 9m and 12m. We then took photographs every metre along the transect using an Olympus Tough TG-5 attached to a camera rig. The rig comprised of a torch, depth gauge and a 50cm extendable pole. Then a photosynthetic light logger was placed at points along the transect to record light readings.

The Olympus TG-5 has a depth limit of 15m without housing so it was suitable for this project. The TG-5 has a variety of modes including four underwater modes, making underwater photography easier. This camera is light and compact making it ideal to carry around while SCUBA diving. The photographs obtained from the transects have been a good quality making photo analysis more simple and quicker. Here is an example of the photo quadrats I will be analysing;

Below are some of my favourite photos I have taken using the TG-5;

I'd like to sincerely thank Olympus for their very kind donation of the Tough TG-5 to the expedition, without which I wouldn't be able to take such high quality photos which have made analysis of quadrats much simpler!