The complete checklist for dive photography travel: 50 must-check items organised by category, printable, designed to be ticked the night before.
In the Maldives, 2018. I open my camera bag on the first morning and reach for my memory cards. I left them on my desk in Brussels. Two days of travel, six planned dives in one of the best underwater photography destinations in the world, and zero memory cards.
The dive centre had an old 8 GB card to sell. 8 GB in RAW is around 200 photos. Safe to say I shot very selectively those first two days.
Since then, I travel with a checklist. Not in my head - on paper, that I actually tick.
Here is the complete version, tested on a dozen dive photography trips. Organised into 8 categories for speed. Print it, tick it, never skip it.
!Organised open dive photography travel bag with gear sorted by category
!Empty housing immersion test in a sink: standard pre-trip procedure
Fill a basin or sink with 30-50 cm of water. Close the housing empty (no camera). Submerge for 30 minutes. Remove and open: the interior must be perfectly dry. If the slightest trace of moisture appears, inspect every O-ring and repeat the test. Never leave without doing this.
The last item is the most important. It feels redundant. It is not redundant.
!Final check of dive photography luggage: printed checklist on a closed bag
The checklist covers gear forgetting. It does not cover fatigue, poor judgment underwater, or decisions made under pressure to "not miss the shot." Those aspects are addressed in the AquaExposure underwater photography training - including a module on managing divided attention between photography and safety.
To complete the pre-departure organisation, the save-a-dive kit guide and the cabin vs hold luggage guide cover the two other pillars of equipment preparation.
Good trip. And don't forget the memory cards.
AquaExposure receives no affiliate commission on any gear mentioned in this article.
Ideally 5 days before: that leaves time to order a missing accessory or get equipment serviced. Final verification happens 48 hours before, and one last check 2 hours before leaving the house.
No - a single checklist organised by category is more efficient. Dive and photo gear travel together, airline rules apply to both, and packing the bag must anticipate both needs at once.
The underwater housing, lithium batteries and primary camera travel in cabin luggage (never check lithium batteries). Arms, trays, heavy wet lenses and non-fragile accessories can go in a hard-shell checked case.
Rule of three: at least as many cards as planned dive days. For 10 days, 10 cards minimum. Shooting RAW, one action-heavy dive can easily fill 64 GB. Also bring an external hard drive for daily backups.
Essential. Battery chargers, housing accessories and cameras all use different plugs. A universal multi-country adapter usually does the job, but in Indonesia or the Maldives, power can be unstable - a surge-protected power strip is real insurance.
The physical card is always the reference. But a photo of the card and the last page of your dive log on your phone saves the situation if the card is lost. Some centres also accept PADI or SSI apps directly.
Empty immersion test 24 hours before departure: close the housing without the camera, submerge it under 50 cm of water for 30 minutes. Open and inspect: the interior must be perfectly dry. If any trace of moisture appears, inspect every O-ring and repeat the test. Never leave without this test.
