Now you can shoot great underwater pictures with a camera that doesn’t require you to hold it.  Liquid Image has a line of dive and snorkel masks that feature an integrated camera and their latest is one that does both stills and video. 

The Liquid Image HD320 is part of their scuba series and is a high definition, waterproof, 5 mega pixel digital camera you wear on your head since it’s built into a quality scuba mask.  Just line up the image with the crosshairs on the lenses and shoot.  LED lights inside the mask’s viewing area indicate if it’s in still camera or video mode and you can take pictures or get video and audio by pressing a button on the outside of the mask.  (Not sure what that underwater audio would sound like – maybe bubbles?)

The series offers a large and medium mask skirt in a soft, transparent grey silicone for different sized faces.  The Scuba Series HD 320 is good to 115 feet of depth.  The HD320 features an internal memory of 64 MB but you can upgrade it with a SD/SDHC card up to 32 GB which will hold over 36,000 images or 16 hours of video.  The lens is fixed and the sensitivity is ISO 100-200.  It has attachments for optional side lights to help you light the subject in the murky depths and there is a choice of optional filters as well. 

You can use four AAA alkaline batteries that will provide enough power for 500 stills or 16 minutes of video.  Lithium batteries will give you 2000 stills and 2 hours of video so the extra expense for those batteries might be worth it. 

The DiveCam isn’t much heavier than a regular mask, weighing in around 13 ounces or just shy of a pound and that includes the batteries.  You can find the HD320 at various online sources for $250.