Coolpix 7900 and Ikelite Housing

[DrSteve]

Hi Guys!

Don't tell the Oly guys I am here...I just killed my Oly 5050 and with them not being available anymore it is likely that DEPP will let me replace it with a similar camera. On the Oly side it is the c7070. But recently, I saw the Coolpix 7900 with Ikelite Housing available for about 650:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=371018&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=380983&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
It has an underwater setting (for whatever that is worth) like the c7070 and it may force a higher f stop on telephoto than the 7070 (but I am not sure). The other thing that looks good is the Ikelite housing seems to have fewer knobs and buttons which makes me think the camera operation might be a bit easier than the Oly?

Any thoughts? (Thanks!)

[OE2X]

I have a 7900 and have been using for a couple of months. I had to buy a Nikon housing from Japan as Ikelite didn't have one out yet.

Pros:
1.It's small and easy to clip off in a pocket or on a D-ring. Out of the housing it fits nicely into shirt pocket.

2. At 7 megs raw it yields excellent pictures that are good enough for a double page spread in a book or magazine.

3. It doesn't eat batteries. While I have an extra battery and change it out between dives, I can easily get a hundred raw images and leave it on for the whole dive of 60 - 90 minutes.

4. Using a 1 gig card is great. You can shoot all weekend without downloading it.

5. Seems to very durable. I've dropped it from waist height and it has worked just fine.


Cons:
1.One of the issues with the Nikon housing is that the flash diffuser is set behind the lens too far. This means that on really close macro shots you have vignetting on the lower left side of the picture. It needs to be modified, but thus far I've been too lazy. The modification doesn't seem to be very hard.

2. The focus can be off in macro. Perhaps it's my technique, but I find it to be hit or miss.

3. I find it slow to focus and then shoot. This is particularly agrivating at times to me. Once it has focused, though the recycle time on the flash is excellent.

4. While a slaved flash works well, it unbalances the camera and I developed hand fatigue by the end of the dive with my right hand which I use to shoot with. My left hand controls buoyancy and my can light.

Conclusion:
I like this little camera. Since I'm a professional photographer topside, I generally don't like to bring my work with me. This camera is not a bad little P&S, but frankly I think there are better out there. My friend Uncle Pug has a Fuji that I want to try out. He has been getting great shots with it. We will see if it's me or the camera.

Hope this helps.

[DrSteve]

Thanks! I took a look at an independant review and I wasn't convinced the Nikon would offer anything the Oly c7070 doesn't offer as well (and since I already own a c5050...) Although I do prefer the look of the Ikelite housing over the Oly housing. I did look into the Fuji, but was turned off by the 6MP (at least last time I looked), the extra 1MP would be nice and give the ability to crop a bit more and still get a decent 8x10.

[OE2X]

I'm not sure that I would worry about the extra meg to be honest with you. I have seen amazing results with a 5 meg camera that was shot in raw. The prints were cropped and then blown up to 20"x 24". Frankly they looked like they had been shot on film. For 8x10, 11x14 or 16x20 a 6 meg camera will do just fine.

As you may have seen in another thread I just bought a Nikon D2X for professional use above water. Last year I had three billboards done by clients so I needed to go with the 12.5 meg raw files. So I do believe that bigger is better. In this case though there are more important factors.

I think what you need to be more concerned with is how fast the camera focuses especially in macro. Battery life is another factor. I also like having a large screen to check my photos while underwater. Lastly the camera and housing shouldn't be too big.

Get in touch with Uncle Pug. I know he researched it and he went from I believe a 5050 to the Fuji F10. I'm impressed enough to want one.

Check out these links for the F10.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/F10/F10DATA.HTM

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/F10/F10A.HTM

[ssra30]

I have a 7900 and have been using for a couple of months. I had to buy a Nikon housing from Japan as Ikelite didn't have one out yet.


3. I find it slow to focus and then shoot. This is particularly agrivating at times to me. Once it has focused, though the recycle time on the flash is excellent.

.
OE2X, did you compare the focus speed with any other PnS? Knowing that you use Nikon F5 prior, it will be hard to compare. No PnS will focus anywhere near the speed of SLR, even older relatively slow focus lenses like the 70-180mm macro still focus much faster than my old C5050, especially in low light situation.

Macro focus might be a bit off here and there. I found that with PnS, I always wanted to move in closer and often will exceed the minimum focusing distance. It is also hard to judge proper focus through LCD monitor as the resolution is not very good. One reason I eventually switched to SLR!

As far as adding slave strobe and hand fatigue goes, I found lots of bicep curls help!
Trying to hold my SLR setup with dual strobes one hand for more than a couple of minutes would be almost impossible 6 months ago, now with little exercise, my hand is a lot steadier :D

[OE2X]

As to the focus speed I knew from past experience that a PnS would be very different from a pro model. Frankly my expectations still aren't very high for them. I do want try out Pug's F10 though. Looking over the specs it seems that it is much faster than my 7900.

You know prior to digital - I never looked at camera specs. The most I ever did was to test lenses for sharpness and color shift. While I still test for sharpness, with Photoshop the color shift is no problem. Bits, bytes, white balance, down load speed,program updates on and on. I've become a techno nerd. Boy do I feel old. Almost makes me want to pick one of my Leica range finders and shoot some black and white film. Does anyone develop that any more?:D

[DrSteve]

I'm not sure that I would worry about the extra meg to be honest with you. I have seen amazing results with a 5 meg camera that was shot in raw.

I have as well from the 5050. Anyway I will check out the Fuji, of course memory card type and price and availability of the housing will also come into play. But I will check :)

[Uncle Pug]

I didn't have an Oly 5050... it was a Pentax Optio S50 and apart from zipping through batteries when cold (underwater) and the glacially slow auto focus and with a lot of shutter lag I really liked the pictures I was able to take with it.

If you look in my gallery at the Red Irish Lord's you will see one picture where I have zoomed in to 100% and cropped to show the eyes in the eggs. I can zoom in even more and still get a great picture.

I replaced it with the Fuji F10 because of the battery life and focus issues. The F10 will last for several one hour + dives using the flash and LCD scrreen turned on. It is much faster to focus and once focused there is no noticable shutter lag. The LCD is very large and takes up most of the back of the camera... there is no optical viewfinder. The camera is truly PnS with minimal manual control so if you like to be the photographer instead of the picturesnapper then it would not be a good choice.

As for megapixels.... the Optio was only 5 megs and I'm not sure the 7 megs of the 7900 produce a better picture... and from the review and lab tests that I saw the 6 meg Fuji beat out the top four 7 meg PnS cameras.

I bought the Fuji f10 for $325 and the Fuji UW housing for $135 from 17th St Photo. A 1 gig xD memory card was <$100.

[DrSteve]

As for megapixels.... the Optio was only 5 megs and I'm not sure the 7 megs of the 7900 produce a better picture... and from the review and lab tests that I saw the 6 meg Fuji beat out the top four 7 meg PnS cameras.

I bought the Fuji f10 for $325 and the Fuji UW housing for $135 from 17th St Photo. A 1 gig xD memory card was <$100.

The shutter lag is a very good feature of the Fuji for sure. I did some more research into the Nikon 7900 and I'm not convinced it offers me any advantages over any other camera. I do think the Oly c7070 has an edge over the Fuji as I already have the memory cards, I'm familiar with the Oly menus etc. It also offers A and S modes in addition to auto and M. *wanders away pondering* I'll think more when I get the cheque through, afterall there will be a newer generation by then!

[geraldp]

I too was looking at the 7900. The price for the 7900 looks pretty good - $316 at Digital Photo.com, plus $195 for the housing. Thanks OE2X for the review. That's good to know about the flash diffuser not being quite right. It looks like there's a 7900 housing by Fantasea that's $50 cheaper than the Nikon housing, and one by Ikelite thats about $65 more. The Ikelite housing is rated to 200 feet, vs the 130' for the other two.

So OE2X what external strobe are you using?

I couldn't find any real specs on the shutter lag of the 7900. One review said it was "fast". It seemed pretty fast when I played with it at the camera shop - especially compared to my 6 year-old Nikon CoolPix 880 p&s, anyway.

I was looking at the 7900 only because I'm used to the Nikon OS in my CoolPix 880 (which I do NOT have a housing for). I'd have to change over from CF memory to SD memory though. Going from 3MP to 7MP would require me to get a bigger memory anyway, so that's not as much of an issue.

So we have a strong plug for the Fuji F10 as an alternative, and the Olympus c7070 is another option. In fact the c7070 has a 4x extra wide angle lens that the others don't have (although it is a bigger sized camera). Does anybody have any experience with the Canon PowerShot SD500?

Thanks,

Jerry

[Wolverine]

Well, the good thing about the Oly 7070 over the Fuji is the ability to grow with the skill level. I was using CP4300 before and did not realize that having substantial manual control over the camera was important till I switched over to the 7070. As Uncle Pug says, if you just want a picture-taker, a Fuji will probably work well. But if you want a camera that allows you to play more with aperture and shutter speed as well as exposure, then an Oly (or even the higher end Canons) might be a better choice. Also, the modes menu in the Oly does significantly reduce task loading underwater.

Now all I need is another strobe......:D

[Uncle Pug]

You know... I'm still not convinced that the Fuji is giving me as good a pictures as the Pentax Optio s50! Of course there is a world of difference between shooting in the cold clear water of wintertime Port Hardy and the whale broth of summertime Puget Sound.

Still... what I have been getting lately are too many pictures without backscatter... instead the Fuji focused on the particulate in the water and the subject is a blur in the background! Probably not the camera's fault but it is frustrating.

The main thing I have really liked about the Fuji over the Pentax is the incredible battery life.

[geraldp]

Spent a bunch of time at the camera store Saturday looking at the Nikon 7900, Olympus 7070, and Canon SD500 (they didn't carry the Fuji F10). These are all 7 mp point&shoots. I really liked the Olympus. The 4X optical zoom, 27mm wide angle, and the hotshoe for a flash were big selling points that the others didn't have. What I didn't realize was that it also has both shutter priority and aperature priority features, which the others don't have (thanks Wolverine). On top of that it will take external lenses & filters (like my Nikon 880 does), so I can get a 3X or wide-angle external lens for above water photography. It's main drawback for me is that it's considerably larger than the others. A minor drawback is that the 7070's LCD display is slightly smaller. I kind of dismissed the Canon fairly quickly because it was too small for my hand, and it was a full $100 more over the Nikon. It also has less manual controls than the others. The Nikon, while very small at least has a handhold that fits pretty well. The small size is a nice feature, as OE2X says. It'll fit nicely into a bellows pocket below water, and in a shirt pocket above.

U.P. I know what you mean... diving at Redondo Beach (WA) yesterday the vis was 5'. It was like diving in a salad soup. I left my little Bonica Snapper film camera in my pocket.

Jerry

[Sue-ba]

I replaced it with the Fuji F10 because of the battery life and focus issues. The F10 will last for several one hour + dives using the flash and LCD scrreen turned on. It is much faster to focus and once focused there is no noticable shutter lag. The LCD is very large and takes up most of the back of the camera... there is no optical viewfinder. The camera is truly PnS with minimal manual control so if you like to be the photographer instead of the picturesnapper then it would not be a good choice.

As for megapixels.... the Optio was only 5 megs and I'm not sure the 7 megs of the 7900 produce a better picture... and from the review and lab tests that I saw the 6 meg Fuji beat out the top four 7 meg PnS cameras.

I bought the Fuji f10 for $325 and the Fuji UW housing for $135 from 17th St Photo. A 1 gig xD memory card was <$100.

..........at 17th street. I have been trying to sort out which camera to buy and was leaning toward the Nikon 7900. This thread intoduced me to the Fuji and it is what I have been looking for.

Typically we dive as a family (7) in warm clear water. We like to pass around the camera getting candid shots of the family members and the occasional "wow" shot of wildlife or the reef, wreck, etc. This setup should fit our bill very well.

One thing I also liked about the F10/Fuji housing is the overall price/value. If we ever flooded this system out it wouldn't be the end of the world. When I was exploring using some housings with some of my existing SLRs the thought of loosing one of them to a flood was more than I would consider besides the $1k cost of the housing.

Thanks again to SB and its good members.

Good Diving,

Suz

[Uncle Pug]

Hope it lives up to your expectations and my recommendations. I've been getting along better with it and getting some good pics even with the lousy viz here right now. Here is a picture from a dive a couple of days ago... no photoshop... just as it came from the camera.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/921/medium/Warbonnent-Fuji-F10.jpg