Here I am in 2007 having owned a Nikon D70 since they came out and looking with lust at the D300 (can't afford the D3!) and yet on dive trips I continue to take my Nikonos V, Nikonos 15mm 2.8 lens and macro lens extensions kit with Ikelite SS200 strobe (and a supplemental Sea&Sea YS90 slave strobe) and I keep getting great results.
I did have some issues this year and last when my Ikelite acted up, then on this trip stopped working a couple days in and the Sea&Sea just wasn't able to fill the frame with my 15mm so the results were disappointing, (and then it seemed like my Sea&Sea was also inconsistent in output even doing macro!); but this was a maintenance issue and the thought of housing an SLR, the cost (I have three kids under the age of five and I'm not rich) & the complexity gives me the willies! Sort of lustful "gadget" willies, but it makes me nervous nonetheless.
I do love my D70, the ability to shoot and shoot and get great results, but I can carry my whole UW shooting outfit in a small Ikelite case, arms and all and if it floods, I can pick up a new V for a song on Fleabay. If a housed d300 floods I'm out $2k.
Still, the problems I had on this trip brought into sharp relief the primary advantages of digital. The ability to review and adjust settings while still on a dive. Right now I can't even review and adjust on a whole liveaboard trip if there's no E6 lab on board! The ability to shoot and shoot with a large memory card and no film or developing cost -- I'd love it! Now before a trip I have to think how much I'll shoot on a trip and buy accordingly. A trip with a lot of shooting opportunities can cost $200-300 just for film and developing! And that's just scanning slides when done!
But the fact is that at this point I'm not going to house my D70, I'll sell it in favor of one of the new D300s (or wait for the budget version) and then there's the new lenses. I'm using an Nikon 18-35 and a Sigma 28-300, neither of which are optimal for the kind of UW shooting I do. I'd have to buy at least the Sigma 10-20mm and a Macro, possibly Nikon or Sigma to do what I'm doing now and even then, there is simply no lens, IMHO, that matches the Nikonos 15mm underwater.
Add a housing of almost any quality and we're talking $5000 minimal; for a good machined aluminum housing we're talking closer to $7k or higher. And I'm just not at all interested in point-and-shoots and their housed systems. Sure, I've seen some nice shots coming from some small digitals and Olympus has offered some nice sets over the years, mostly macro, but to get true wide-angle AND macro with quality that matches 35mm film, my feeling is that you either have to house a DSLR or stick with a Nikonos V. Am I wrong about that? I'd love to see a way into film-quality digital without the $5 investment!
So for now and maybe for another year or two, I'll get my SS200 fixed, send my V to Southern Nikonos for a checkup and keep buying Provia 100F online until I either start making a LOT more money or unless I find a really cheap used D200 housing and camera somewhere, but then, I'm not really an eBay kind of guy where digital cameras are concerned . . . the fact is that given the one-to-two OW dive trips I make each year, it just isn't cost-effective to go to a housed DSLR yet. It'd have to be a "gotta have it" purchase. I could spend $600 a year in film and developing for ten years before I'd break even on a housed DSLR . . . and after five I'd want the latest digital, guaranteed!
Just Venting,
JoeL
I did have some issues this year and last when my Ikelite acted up, then on this trip stopped working a couple days in and the Sea&Sea just wasn't able to fill the frame with my 15mm so the results were disappointing, (and then it seemed like my Sea&Sea was also inconsistent in output even doing macro!); but this was a maintenance issue and the thought of housing an SLR, the cost (I have three kids under the age of five and I'm not rich) & the complexity gives me the willies! Sort of lustful "gadget" willies, but it makes me nervous nonetheless.
I do love my D70, the ability to shoot and shoot and get great results, but I can carry my whole UW shooting outfit in a small Ikelite case, arms and all and if it floods, I can pick up a new V for a song on Fleabay. If a housed d300 floods I'm out $2k.
Still, the problems I had on this trip brought into sharp relief the primary advantages of digital. The ability to review and adjust settings while still on a dive. Right now I can't even review and adjust on a whole liveaboard trip if there's no E6 lab on board! The ability to shoot and shoot with a large memory card and no film or developing cost -- I'd love it! Now before a trip I have to think how much I'll shoot on a trip and buy accordingly. A trip with a lot of shooting opportunities can cost $200-300 just for film and developing! And that's just scanning slides when done!
But the fact is that at this point I'm not going to house my D70, I'll sell it in favor of one of the new D300s (or wait for the budget version) and then there's the new lenses. I'm using an Nikon 18-35 and a Sigma 28-300, neither of which are optimal for the kind of UW shooting I do. I'd have to buy at least the Sigma 10-20mm and a Macro, possibly Nikon or Sigma to do what I'm doing now and even then, there is simply no lens, IMHO, that matches the Nikonos 15mm underwater.
Add a housing of almost any quality and we're talking $5000 minimal; for a good machined aluminum housing we're talking closer to $7k or higher. And I'm just not at all interested in point-and-shoots and their housed systems. Sure, I've seen some nice shots coming from some small digitals and Olympus has offered some nice sets over the years, mostly macro, but to get true wide-angle AND macro with quality that matches 35mm film, my feeling is that you either have to house a DSLR or stick with a Nikonos V. Am I wrong about that? I'd love to see a way into film-quality digital without the $5 investment!
So for now and maybe for another year or two, I'll get my SS200 fixed, send my V to Southern Nikonos for a checkup and keep buying Provia 100F online until I either start making a LOT more money or unless I find a really cheap used D200 housing and camera somewhere, but then, I'm not really an eBay kind of guy where digital cameras are concerned . . . the fact is that given the one-to-two OW dive trips I make each year, it just isn't cost-effective to go to a housed DSLR yet. It'd have to be a "gotta have it" purchase. I could spend $600 a year in film and developing for ten years before I'd break even on a housed DSLR . . . and after five I'd want the latest digital, guaranteed!
Just Venting,
JoeL