Hi everyone, Happy Thanksgiving!! I will be getting the 1030sw for our upcoming first trip to Bonaire, 72 days and counting!! I will not have any time to play around with it before my trip, so I was wondering if anyone has it if you can give me some pointers about such things as the ease of caring for it between snorkeling trips, what is the best setting to use while snorkeling and also for our very first night snorkel,what will ensure the best photos? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Also for a week's vacation(Boo Hiss) how many batteries do you think I will need? This will primarily be just for water photos, have a bigger cannon for land shots! Thank you so much for any help, I am truly thankful for all the help I have received on this forum for our first Bonaire trip you all rock!!

Hi Susan there has been some discussions about the 1030 in the past so you should do a search. I'm pretty sure someone recently came back with pictures from that camera. One issue I do remember is a concern about flooding when you stay in the water to long. Here's one earlier discussion.

Few thoughts for you:

1) the camera has an underwater mode that you can use.
2) don't forget to take movies
3) try the sports mode so that the camera will take multiple shots in burst mode. That way when the fish turns or swims back you will have multiple shots to pick from.
4) The camera comes with a re-chargeable battery, but for mine I purchased a second battery that I switch out each time.
5) I have no help on night shots
6) take lots of shots, and delete the bad ones; review them on a computer each day and you will be able to improve your shots.

Have fun!

Susan, If you aren't using rechargeable batteries, please be sure you take your used batteries back home with you for disposal.