Strobe or Wide Angle Lens--Which to buy first for Great Lakes shipwreck photography?

[lakeeriewreckdiver]

After four years of diving I have finally purchased a camera and housing to capture some photos of the amazing wrecks we have here in the Great Lakes. I went with the Olympus e-pm1 bundle because the price was within my budget and it seems like a good starter camera. At any rate, I am looking to add either the wide angle lens and port or possibly get a strobe package(getting both are not in my budget at the moment. My focus will be on wrecks so should I opt for the strobes to give me more light on many of the 80-130' deep wrecks I will be diving or should I get the wide angle lens so I can be closer to the wreck and depend on whatever ambient light that is available. Any thoughts?

 

[fish149]

Buy the wide angle first then the strobe. I will admit that the strobe would be the most beneficial single piece but If you don't buy the glass first then you prob will never buy it.

 

[JackConnick]

You definitely want to consider some strobes before anything else. Underwater, 'it's all about light'; remember you aren't capturing the subjects, you're capturing the light reflecting off them. At the depth you're talking about it's pretty dark, there's not as much ambient light as you think. The PM1 is a good camera, but it's not as good as some of the newer cameras at capturing low light shots.

I would consider buying a couple of Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobes, even if you buy them one at a time. Then add the Oly 9-18 and Zen Pen dome to your system.

Something like this:

 

[c-fstb]

I also bought the E-PM1 package and am very pleased with it. Let me add that I'm a life long Nikon SLR guy and had never even given Olympus a second look until this deal came up. I quickly added to my order a YS-01 strobe, tray and arm, then realizing that I'm more of a big picture kind of guy, I knew I needed a fisheye. So of course I also needed a dome port. I went with the Panasonic 8mm Lumix fisheye & Precision dome port. None of this was in the budget, but I have no regrets (but allot of great pics), as I have a complete starter set for the same price as a housing for an SLR. I then spent a day with an instructor at Cathy Church's photo school during a recent Cayman trip. Based on this limited experience, I would recommend you find room in your budget for a fisheye and port first. Any pics that show the scale of a wreck while conveying a sense of mystery and adventure (my favorite) are going to be shot with ambient light with perhaps a diver or two helping to highlight parts of it with their lights. The fisheye will be best for this. Strobes will be useful as you explore the wreck in detail. But as already mentioned if you don't buy the fisheye first you might not later, whereas you'll certainly want to add a strobe or two later. Now I've never had the opportunity to dive the great lakes, but if they're anything like the lakes out here, you might be challenged for ambient light at the depths you're planning. Either way its gonna cost you more money The underwaterphotoguide.com has some great articles on ambient light photography as well a wreck photography. Good luck and have fun!

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[Interceptor121]

A couple of ambient light in dark deep water with a Canon S95 and fisheye wet lens


Bianca C Bow by Interceptor121, on Flickr


Shake'Em Upper Deck by Interceptor121, on Flickr

Strobes and a fisheye can be useful for close focus wide angle like this

Hole in the Wall by Interceptor121, on Flickr


Stavronikita Mast by Interceptor121, on Flickr

Ideally you want to get two strobes and a fisheye lens however if you need to prioritise I would suggest you first get a fisheye lens so that you can shoot ambient light shots that can still be very nice and then add the strobes when you have funds

If you only had the strobe you would have no field of view to get close and actually use the strobe power. If there is no great fish life and you can't do fish portraits or close ups a strobe on its own is wasted

 

[Jack Hammer]

Go with the wide angle first. It will allow much more of the wreck into the frame. There is more ambient light than most people realize at those depths.

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[lakeeriewreckdiver]

Ideally you want to get two strobes and a fisheye lens however if you need to prioritise I would suggest you first get a fisheye lens so that you can shoot ambient light shots that can still be very nice and then add the strobes when you have funds

If you only had the strobe you would have no field of view to get close and actually use the strobe power. If there is no great fish life and you can't do fish portraits or close ups a strobe on its own is wasted

Great images and thanks so much for sharing. That's kind of what I was thinking as the strobe isn't going to help me much if I have to be so far away to get the wreck in view, but now for photographing shipwrecks would you want a fisheye lens? Won't that distort the lines of ship? In the first image the curve of the ship seems exaggerated...is that just it's shape or is that from the fisheye?

 

[Interceptor121]

Great images and thanks so much for sharing. That's kind of what I was thinking as the strobe isn't going to help me much if I have to be so far away to get the wreck in view, but now for photographing shipwrecks would you want a fisheye lens? Won't that distort the lines of ship? In the first image the curve of the ship seems exaggerated...is that just it's shape or is that from the fisheye?

Yes it is distorted that is the whole idea?
With a rectilinear lens you can get max 120 degrees diagonal and that would be insufficient for most uses
There are ways to straighten the image using tools but nobody bothers as the distortion is accepted for most
I don't correct anything unless there are vertical lines too obvious

 

[dive!]

I went with the Olympus e-pm1 bundle because the price was within my budget and it seems like a good starter camera. At any rate, I am looking to add either the wide angle lens and port or possibly get a strobe package...

Great topic! I just purchased an Olympus E-PL5 and had a very similiar quandary. Thank you for all the great responses. Sounds like the consensus is buy the wide angle lense and fish eye port first.

 

[bladephotog]

I would recommend a wide angle first as well. You can get some great ambient light shots here in the lakes. But it's difficult to shoot without one.

You can shoot some detail shots on our wrecks such as deadeyes and capstans etc without a wide angle but there is not nearly as much to shoot without a wide as in warm water locations. You can get some awesome, haunting shots of wreck by getting down and shooting up, silhouetting the wreck against the relatively brighter water. Or by getting up above the wreck a bit and shooting down the length depending on the wreck.

People tend to really love ambient light wreck photography so thats where I would start.

Also, it might be easier to get used to managing a camera underwater without the bulk of a set of strobes. They add a lot to the task loading. Good luck!

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