René Seindal

It can be a bit difficult shooting pictures when you’re sitting in your kayak, especially if there’s a bit of action around you, and it can be impractical having the camera dangling around your wrist when paddling or manoeuvring.

Fortunately, there are other ways to attach a camera on a kayak.

I have found some cheap suction cup camera mounts at actioncameras.co.uk and it works quite well. It can handle a weight of up to 3 kg, so the 155 g of my camera is no problem.

At times it can be difficult to get the suction cup to stick to the kayak. Most of the surface of the kayak is curved, and plastic kayaks often have a slightly rough surface which gives the suction cup a weaker grip, but once it is correct attached it can take quite a deal.

I have used mine in both wind and waves and it almost always stays put. Actually, it seems to stick better if it gets a bit of water every once in a while, but unfortunately the waves have a tendency to leave droplets on the lens.

Needless to say, always attach both camera and mount with strings or wires to the kayak. They can break lose and they can also come apart. I have seen both.

Finally, an example of the kind of pictures you can get by using an automatic shooting mode and a suction cup camera mount on the kayak:

If you want to take photos from your kayak, you’ll want a waterproof camera that’s easy to operate. I certainly wouldn’t recommend taking you expensive SLR

I have search a bit on the net, and apparently there are only two producers of simple waterproof digital cameras: Pentax and Olympus.

Pentax Optio W10

A 6 Mpixel camera, image size is 2816×2112 pixels. It has 3x optical zoom.

Waterproof until a depth of 1,5m for up to 30 minutes.

It can also record video in 640×480 pixels at 30 fps, e.g., almost TV quality.This is the camera I have.

Pentax Optio W20

A newer version of the Option W10, now 7 Mpixel, image size is up to 3072×2304 pixels. It has 3x optical zoom.

It is waterproof up to a depth of 1,5m for up to 30 minutes.

It can also record video in 640×480 pixels at 30 fps, e.g., almost TV quality.

Olympus µ 720SW

This is a 7 Mpixel camera, image size up to 3072 x 2304 pixels. It has 3x optical zoom.

It is waterproof up to a depth of 3m and can withstand a fall from a height of up to 1.5m.

It records video in 640×480 pixels at 15 fps.

Olympus µ 725 SW

A newver version of the Olympus µ 720SW. It is a 7 Mpixel camera with 3x optical zoom.

It is waterproof up to a depth of 5m, can withstand a fall from a height of up to 1.5m.

It records video in 640×480 pixels at 15 fps.