What is the current state of UW cameras?

[topjake]

[

This interests me. Do you know what housings are available for the D70?

Dougk, if you could post some bad photos, it would make us amateurs feel a lot better about some of our efforts.

here are a few:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2dslr_d70.html
http://www.seaandsea.com/

and available soon

http://www.usanexus.com/images/NexusD70.html

 

[vladimir]

Thanks a lot.

 

[underwaterclown]

I'm also new to underwater photography. I bought their SL560 Pro Dive Camera Set. It is a 3.2MP camera which can be used on land. Still perfecting my skills.
Check them out at http://www.sealife-cameras.com/
Cheers

 

[jumsted65]

Hey DougK,

If you wish to learn from MY mistakes
I'm a fairly OK photographer who, after 10 years of diving, decided to invest in an underwater system. My preference would have been to house an SLR. At the same time, I love the convenience/cost of digital. The 4-5 mp digitals provide more than ample resolution for me. I found one, a coolpix 4300, that supposedly would operate in full manual mode with a Fantasea housing. It does. What I didn't realize was that manual mode gives the choice of f2.8 and f7.6 only. Still, I had a blast with it recently and got some really cool shots. Over 3 days I was able to take about 800 exposures. Most of them were so underexposed I thought the camera was broken. But, thanks to photoshop, some of them turned out ok, and the good ones are really, really good. No matter how good you are, there's gonna be a learning curve. That much film and processing for a few pics, IMHO, wasn't worth it. That's why I'd go digital. And I'd go SLR for the full control. If you want something less expensive, the canon/olympus/whatever camera in a little plastic box will produce surprisingly good results.

Check out Ikelite. Their housings and strobes are good and in the affordable range. Light & Motion and Subal make great housings. Check out digideep.com for a good database of which housings fit which cameras.

Happy diving!

 

[f3nikon]

For 35mm film it's Action finder, Action finder. Nikon F3,F4,F5 and Canon F-1n. Buy a used housing for these, there is not much rocket science to UW housings. save your money. Manual flash and lots of bracketing!

I am switching to digitial, Nikon D100, D2. My Nikon lens (55,105macro,15,20,28wide) all fit these new cameras. Still manual flash and a little less bracketing, due to instant feedback. But more pictures per dive!

 

[icyman]

I am switching to digitial, Nikon D100, D2. My Nikon lens (55,105macro,15,20,28wide) all fit these new cameras. Still manual flash and a little less bracketing, due to instant feedback. But more pictures per dive!

You think the D100 is a good camera?

 

[f3nikon]

You think the D100 is a good camera?

In my case yes, all my lens are Nikon, good camera for the money. D100 has been around for a couple of years, so most of the bugs are likely to be corrected. I tried the new D70 on land I guess this would also work well UW. Prefer the D100(Japan made) over the D70(Thailand made). D2s are an overkill for underwater, why do you need a rugged body in an UW housing?

former
US Navy brat

 

[ChrisA]

To all list members: I am a professional photographer that just learned to dive. I just don't have any underwater cameras! I was familiar with the Nikonus system about 10 years ago but understand it has be discontunued.

What options are out there these days that would provide high-quality photos, film or digital? I don't want to spend a fortune -- as diving equp. cost a lot already -- but would give photos that would please a professional level shooter.

I have seen ads for Sea and Something cameras, but have no hands on experience with them. What is the best these days, the worst, etc? Are housing better than UW cameras?

I used a disposable underwater camera on a dive in Mexico and don't find it to be of good enough quality.

Many thanks for any comments.

You say " photos that would please a professional" then I assume you mean "publication quality". I think the question is easy to answer. Ask yourself if you are hapy with the results of an $85 35mm point and shoot land camera. Well if you put a waterproof housing on that camera and took it diving the results will be about the same. Same question about a concomer grade 2 megapixel digital camera. If you like or dislike it on land you will have the same opinion of it inderwater. The bottom line is that I doubt your preferences will sudenly change when you go under water.

Seriously, you will want control of the light and that means strobe(s) UW strobes are not cheap. I suspect you will want either film or a higher end digital camera. It's easy to recomend a top line SLR in a housing but you can get into $10K real fast

As you know your eye, sense of composition,design and color is far more importent then the equipment.

If you are a profesional then you can actually make use of some cameras that casual point and shooters could not. Because you know an f-stop from an ISO number you could buy an old manual film camera like the Nikonos II, put a strob on it and set the f-stop based on guide number and distance, shoot E6 maybe Velvia and have pro quality work for a couple hundred bucks. Run the slide through a drum scanner andhave publishable files.

 

[fdog]

Doug, just ran across this post.

I gave a quick call to NPS, and they have Nikonos V's with 15mm lenses. Cheap way to try it out.

All the best, James