The first camera was the size of a room. The camera obscura had a small hole in one wall. Light rays passed through the hole and projected an inverted image onto the opposite wall. The next advancement was the camera lucida. It was small enough to lug around. It captured an image much the same way, through a hole in one side. The image was projected onto paper and an artist traced over it. The first known photograph, "View from the Window at Gras", was taken in 1826 and required an eight- hour exposure time. In 1888 George Eastman revolutionized photography with his Kodak No. 1 camera: "You push the button and we do the rest." Then Cousteau took to water with the Calypso. This is about where Joe Liburdi came in.

Joe Liburdi is a pioneer in the sport of underwater photography. His first camera was a Nikonos I. The year was 1966. He learned by doing. For more than 40 years Joe Liburdi has been learning how to take ever more technically proficient and provocative pictures of the underwater world and sharing with others what he has learned. And now he is here for you.

In those 40 years underwater photographic equipment evolved into highly sophisticated and efficient machines. But the last five years have seen dramatic changes few expected. Digital.

The future has arrived sooner than most of us anticipated. Digital imaging has caught on bigtime. We said film would reign supreme for at least another 10 years. We said film would coexist with digital. We said we wouldn't switch. We were wrong on all counts. We switched and we're glad we did and it appears that divers are more excited about digital than they ever were about film. And it's time for us to teach it.

Never before have divers embraced an imaging technology with such zeal. And that's a good thing. The problem is, there are so many cameras to choose from. It's really confusing. Which digital camera to buy? How to use it? How to use it well? How to put the images into the computer? And then what?

Contact Joe to learn the answers to thsese questions and more today!