No. Many trips welcome compact cameras with a wet lens and one strobe. Workshops will say what they expect. What matters more is your buoyancy: if you cannot hover, you cannot shoot.

Macro or wide angle destinations?

Muck diving in Indonesia and the Philippines for macro. Walls, mantas, and sharks in the Red Sea, Maldives, and Socorro for wide angle. Some trips do both with a lens change at the surface interval.

On workshop trips, yes: a pro reviews your images nightly and dives with you. On photo-friendly trips, you get the pace and the spotters but not the instruction. Read which one you are booking.

Underwater Photography Dive Trips and Workshops

You want a guide who points at the pygmy seahorse and then gets out of your frame. Long, slow dives, a camera table with charging and rinse, and a boat where nobody complains that you spent 40 minutes on one rock.