freediving with a DSLR ?

[Ahmed Yahya]

Hi

has anyone ever tried going freediving with a DSLR and housing ? i am about to get a Ikelite housing for my D7000 and the setup is not small by anyway

 

[Tigerman]

Its also going to be very negative unless you attach some kinda floaty stuff to it...

 

[Ahmed Yahya]

Its also going to be very negative unless you attach some kinda floaty stuff to it...

the buoyancy can be adjusted as the camera+housing is mostly neutral and i can always add foam to make it slightly +ve.

 

[Tigerman]

Im using a DSLR in a Ikelite housing myself (7D), and no, its not "mostly neutral" its noticably negative.
If you want to avoid that, as I said, you need to add floatation.

I dont do freediving myself, but I would imagine that a surprise, noticeable extra negative bouyancy could be pretty bad and/or expensive...

 

[Ahmed Yahya]

are you using strobes ? is it easy to dive and manouver in water with the camera set ?
i am curious as i didn't try it myself yet.

 

[Tigerman]

Takes a bit time to get used to the viewfinder as compared to the big screen on the compacts, but the upside to that is that you'll get used to "zero" shutter lag real fast

I currently use only 1 strobe and the biggest issue I have with using a strobe is when you're taking shots of things that's hiding between rocks or underneath stuff. gettig the light into the right nooks and crannies can be a challenge.

Moving it around actually was less of a challenge than I feared, its the whole getting into the water and back out again thats a bit nerve-wrecking...

 

[doctormike]

Freediving and photography are a GREAT combination... especially once you are bored with how "easy" it is to get good macro shots on scuba. I found it very challenging, having to stalk your prey and set up a shot on a single breath.

I did this with a point and shoot, but I think that the weight of the DSLR would be a huge advantage. I know that free divers often wear weight to make them neutrally buoyant - I didn't, and I felt the difficulty of pushing my positively buoyant self down to the reef.

Here's my writeup of this, with pix...!

Mike