Underwater photographic kit?

I'm not convinced there is a more expensive combination of hobbys than photography and diving.

A decent SLR setup (housing, 2 strobes, decent lens, dslr) is going to set you back £3500+ at a minimum. It will also take over your dives.

I'd suggest getting used to a compact camera first (without strobe then with) before deciding whether to house the SLR. You can get good results with a compact and u/w photography isn't for everyone. Some people prefer a compact to the difficult lugging a big SLR case around (and on a RIB getting battered). In strong currents or other dive conditions managing the bulk of a DSLR can rapidly become a pain in the neck whereas a clipped off compact is much easier and can instantly free both hands.

I'd avoid the G10 as it has noise issues at ISO400. Underwater light is at a premium so you really dont want that.

Im currently using a Canon A620 (with CHDK hack to get RAW mode. I wouldnt TOUCH an u/w camera that doesn't have RAW as its even more essential there than on the surface). Even Canons own housing (rated to 40m) works nicely down to 65m and i havent tried deeper. Its also a cheap 2nd hand camera so if it dies £50 on ebay and i can have another one so im not TOO paranoid about flooding.

I was going to get an Ikelite housing for my 450D christmas time but the plumetting pound exchange rate meant the housing price went up by £500 in a month and now i cant justify that money :(

In summary, try a compact first. And make sure it does RAW.
 
Hi Wail I hope you don't mind me jumping in with my experience too

Firstly, scanning through I can't see if anyone has recommended speaking to Stev at Ocean Optics http://www.oceanoptics.co.uk/ an absolutely fantastic fella who is more than happy to give you advice and more advice rather than trying to sell you what he has in stock - I find him invaluable!

I started off with a P&S but very quickly got fed up with the shutter delay - you know how skittish fishies can be and I managed to get bazillions of shots of their tails etc! ;D I then managed (I'm still not convinced I didn't do it on purpose ;)) to flood my Fuji so I jumped to a DSLR

So now I use a Canon 400D in an Hugyfot housing as my basics. http://www.sealifethroughthelens.com/page18.htm

Hugyfot because my hands are too small for may housings and I never liked the idea of the Ike box, there must be a reason they are so much cheaper than most of the makes out on the market?? I know someone who has flooded 2 ikelite housings but similarly I know a number of people who swear by them.

With my hugy I can exchange some of the ports with different lenses too so for example for my 60mm macro I just take off the extension ring from the port that fits my 100mm macro, similary that extension port can also be used for my 10 - 22mm mini dome, unfortuantely the big dome for the Tokina 10 - 17 is a cost in it's own right!!

Like Simon says, look at the package as a whole

In my very humble opinion if you are going to go down the DSLR route, regardless of where you dive tropical or UK you NEED at least one strobe to get the colour back in your shots - only exception to this I guess would be if you never go deeper than 5m!

I'm a massive fan of the INON z240 and have two of them - they have a multitude of manual power settings that allow you to get the effect you want (DoF etc) in the camera and still light the subject well

It's still very much work in progress for me but if yu're itnerested in my particular journey have a look at www.sealifethroughthelens.com


On a totally different subject - how's the diving in Saudi? Not a place we see advertised much over here! I grew up in Oman though and that's opening up for diving big time now so am hoping to get out there this year or next ;D
 
Tazzie,

Thank you for jumping in, and for all the wonderful information you've given me there.

I am doing as much reading on this subject as I possibly can. It's a totally new matter for me, and I want to get up to speed asap, as I am planning to go back to Saudi soon and I am hoping to get the kit to take back with me.

As of today I am out touring the UK so I will not get much time to focus on this subject, though I have a lot of material being sent to me for me to read when I get back .. and I will give Stev a call early next week for sure :thumbs:

Many have given me good heads-up pointers here, and it seems this has helped me focus my mind on exactly which way to go ... mind you, I've totally ruled out P&S, for many reasons.

1. I've always hated P&S, shutter lag being one of the reasons that I never got to like them.

2. I need a D300 for wildlife, the crop factor is something I'm missing now that I got the D700. So, there is no point in getting a P&S for underwater, which I am sure I will outgrow quickly, and a D300.

3. I don't like the "small" size of P&S. I find bigger bodies easier to hold and keep stable.


That said, I am not sure if I want to use the D300 or the D700 for underwater shoots? The D700 has the outstanding high ISO image quality, which may come in useful; and being a full-frame sensor means wide-angle lenses are really wide .... very nice for underwater. On the flip-side, the D300 should be more than suitable and is about 1/2 the price.

Funny you mention the quality of Ikelite. I never seem to understand how come they are so much cheaper than the rest of the cases ... and they are about 1/2 the price of the next one up. Next week I will need to start and get more involved with the couple of underwater photography forums and see what I can dig-up.

Yes, I am looking for the whole package, as has been advised here; and this has been my plan initially. Only I didn't expect it to be this expensive. If I go with the D300, a case, a couple of strobes, a couple of ports, and the cables, brackets and spare O rings and bulbs .. I am looking at getting close to £5,000! That is way more than I anticipated.

I will surely be taking a good look at your site; the more I can read on this matter, the more questions I will have .. so I hope you don't mind me coming back and asking you.

Again, thank you for the post, the links and Ocean Optics.
 
not sure if this has been posted:

but this compact:Olympus 725SW Digital Camera
is apparently waterproof to a depth of 5m on it's own!
 
p1tse said:
not sure if this has been posted:

but this compact:Olympus 725SW Digital Camera
is apparently waterproof to a depth of 5m on it's own!
Click to expand...

Indeed. In fact i worked with a guy that owned one. It died at 2m so he got it replaced. This one died at 4m depth. He gave up :)

Really these things are splash proof and maybe swimming proof but not a lot more.
 
p1tse said:
not sure if this has been posted:

but this compact:Olympus 725SW Digital Camera
is apparently waterproof to a depth of 5m on it's own!
Click to expand...


Thank you :), but I am really looking for something that can do down to 40m ~ 60m.
 
scooby00 said:
Nice website and pictures Tazzie :clap:
Click to expand...

Thanks Scooby :)

Wail said:
Tazzie,

Thank you for jumping in, and for all the wonderful information you've given me there.

I am doing as much reading on this subject as I possibly can. It's a totally new matter for me, and I want to get up to speed asap, as I am planning to go back to Saudi soon and I am hoping to get the kit to take back with me.

As of today I am out touring the UK so I will not get much time to focus on this subject, though I have a lot of material being sent to me for me to read when I get back .. and I will give Stev a call early next week for sure :thumbs:

Many have given me good heads-up pointers here, and it seems this has helped me focus my mind on exactly which way to go ... mind you, I've totally ruled out P&S, for many reasons.

1. I've always hated P&S, shutter lag being one of the reasons that I never got to like them.

2. I need a D300 for wildlife, the crop factor is something I'm missing now that I got the D700. So, there is no point in getting a P&S for underwater, which I am sure I will outgrow quickly, and a D300.

3. I don't like the "small" size of P&S. I find bigger bodies easier to hold and keep stable.


That said, I am not sure if I want to use the D300 or the D700 for underwater shoots? The D700 has the outstanding high ISO image quality, which may come in useful; and being a full-frame sensor means wide-angle lenses are really wide .... very nice for underwater. On the flip-side, the D300 should be more than suitable and is about 1/2 the price.
Click to expand...

I have been mentored by Martin Edge http://www.edgeunderwaterphotography.co.uk/ he uses a D300 in a Subal housing as does Shannon Conway http://www.underwaterphotography.com.au/index.htm those guys are both amazing photographers so if it's good enough for them...

Talking of which, if you're in the UK at the moment it might be worth your while arranging some time with Martin albeing without camera - he's a fantastic mentor and would be able to give you another POV on how to start up an underwater rig - his number is on his website, tell him I've recommended you

Funny you mention the quality of Ikelite. I never seem to understand how come they are so much cheaper than the rest of the cases ... and they are about 1/2 the price of the next one up. Next week I will need to start and get more involved with the couple of underwater photography forums and see what I can dig-up.
Click to expand...

From my limited understanding, and Tim may be able to set me right on this, Ikelite use a standard box for all their housings and drill the controls for each different camera. Other manufacturers machine each housing for each camera hence the reason they are more expensive but also possibly better quality / fit.

Yes, I am looking for the whole package, as has been advised here; and this has been my plan initially. Only I didn't expect it to be this expensive. If I go with the D300, a case, a couple of strobes, a couple of ports, and the cables, brackets and spare O rings and bulbs .. I am looking at getting close to £5,000! That is way more than I anticipated.
Click to expand...

If you can get a whle set up fr £5000 you're doing well, most housings and strobes (well the hugyfot and the inons) all come with extra Orings so don't worry about that, as to bulbs, I've not had to change one yet...

I will surely be taking a good look at your site; the more I can read on this matter, the more questions I will have .. so I hope you don't mind me coming back and asking you.

Again, thank you for the post, the links and Ocean Optics.
Click to expand...

I don't mind at all, it's a lonely job getting into underwater photography, all your non camera buddies leave you! ;)
 
gnirtS said:
Indeed. In fact i worked with a guy that owned one. It died at 2m so he got it replaced. This one died at 4m depth. He gave up :)

Really these things are splash proof and maybe swimming proof but not a lot more.
Click to expand...

fair enough

i guess good for fun then, for people shots underwater
 
scooby00 said:
True .. and get fed up waiting for you :wave:
Click to expand...

Aint that the truth - fortunately there are a good bunch of UK underwater photographers found on www.digigreen.net who dive all the time, unfortunately we're a little spread out though. Other than that over here it's solo diving if I want to take my camera so usually shallow shore diving but that's still good fun.

Overseas I'm finding really tricky, I spent 6 weeks in oz last year and apart from one day in Adelaide I didn't get any decent photo dives in at all which was really disappointing.

Still, we live and learn! (and continue loosing buddies ;))

Luckily Martin Edge organises great photographer trips abroad with all photographers together, same ocean diving buddy system that works fantastically and the learn rate is massive, especially in post diving beer time ;)

I'm trying to persuade my buddy Andy, who's a great land photographer to get a housing, not sure I'm getting anywhere though! :thinking: *waves to Andy* ;)
 
Tazzie said:
I'm trying to persuade my buddy Andy, who's a great land photographer to get a housing, not sure I'm getting anywhere though! :thinking: *waves to Andy* ;)
Click to expand...
:wave:

LOL... keep trying. You're going to have to try quite hard to get me to take my lovely 5D underwater though :). The problem is my other option would be to put my old 10D in a housing and I'm quite hesitant to spend over a grand on a housing for such an old camera body.

I've had an eye out for a second hand 10D housing but nothing so far I'm afraid.

Andy.
 
Tazzie,

Thank you so much for that post, sorry I wasn't able to read it sooner as I've been out of town on a small tour :).

I've checked the sites you've posted, and tried to find Martin's phone number, but couldn't from his site. I wonder if it's ok with you to PM me the number, as I would like to give him a call and see what I can arrange.

As it so happens, Saudi Arabia offers great diving spots and shooting opportunity; especially as I have lots of buddies who have modeled for me in the past and whom I've convinced to get them into diving ;). I figure I will be OK with buddies, locations, and underwater models :p ... all I need is the equipment, time and skills.

To my advantage, I have a swimming pool at home, back in Saudi, where I can practice my skills before taking my equipment into the sea. As it seems from Martin's courses, he does pool training .. but I am sure nothing comes close to testing everything out in the open sea.

Again, thank you for the post and I hope you can PM me Martin's contact number.
 
scooby00 said:
True .. and get fed up waiting for you :wave:
Click to expand...

Fed up, cold and then bitch about you to everyone else when back on the boat. Or they just b****r off and leave you (which is fine by me!)

Only thing worse than that i think are 2 photographers together. Then everything takes HOURS.

I've heard very good things about Martin Edge courses - when i can get my SLR housed im tempted to go on one. His book ("The underwater photographer") is also excellent.
 
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