Got the go ahead to buy a new camera and housing....now what?!

[CanadianTravelAgent]

As a mom with young children in tow, are you sure you are in a position to devote the entirety of your carry-on allotment to a DSLR camera/housing/lighting system? Are you going to have a fair amount of time in general to devote to your photography during the trip? Will there be an abundance of dives during the trip to where you can dedicate each one to a specific photographic objective like macro or landscape so you have the right lens on when you descend?

What you say is very true and I will definitely have to do my own sort of cost/benefit analysis. I have been really disappointed with my current point and shoot. Perhaps a new p&s camera with a strobe would be sufficient if it were only for uw purposes. I've been thinking about an SLR for topside photos too, so "if I'm going to do that, I may as well get something that will work for me uw as well", is what I was thinking. Also, I know from the past that I really enjoyed having the ability to play with the settings on the camera, do some bracketing, try different films (lol), different lenses, etc to get the best photos I could. I did enjoy the ability to change lenses on the dive if some opportunity presented itself, but the vast majority of the time, we would know what we were looking for on any given dive. I hope that we can do more diving in the coming years as our kids get older we feel more confident leaving them with babysitters. My oldest is almost 9, so getting close to thinking about Junior OW Certification In the meantime, I'm hoping to get on some trips without them as well.

As for carry-on luggage, all the kids need are their portable games and headphones and they are good to go, lol. No more diapers, etc at this point!

I definitely have a lot of research to do and it will probably take me months to figure it out. Perhaps I will plan a stopover in Florida on our next trip south for the sole purpose of visiting a retail store specializing in UW photography! I would love to be able to see the housings in person before buying.

 

[CanadianTravelAgent]

Here's a couple of my keepers from my point and shoot. Potential (in my opinion), but lighting could have helped a lot!

 

[Michel Braunstein]

Hi,
Well Jack is correct with all his questions, but globally, if you'd like to go DSLR, Nikon D7100 has a fair price and is a great camera. There are also some rumors about a new D400 to come soon...
If you'd like not to change your lenses to much, you may go to a "point and shoot" like lens, the SIgma 17-70 is perfect. It's wide and (real) macro at the same time, that's really cool.
It's also a great lens for zoom-in/zoom-out pictures effect.
About the housing, there's a bunch of very good companies like Nauticam, Aquatica and more. You will have to decide if you'd like to go to aluminium or acrylic housings.
Sea and Sea has released a wonderful, tiny and very strong flash YS-D1 and flash arms, you have Ultralight, TLC (Aquatica) and many more...
Hope this help...after reading about all the different equipment you can still come back with more specific questions.

 

[richard65]

I sought the advice of a couple of professional uw photographers that I know here as I was wondering whether to get a housing for my Cannon 550d that I use above water. They both recommended the Olympus EPL-5 as being new technology and smaller and easier to handle than a DSLR but still capable of great results.

I duly went for the Olympus and for the Olympus housing and duel strobes as it seemed to me that they are all designed to work together. The results have been amazing.




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[PatW]

As for carry on, I have a hard carry on case for my strobes, housing, and ports. I also have a small bag for the camera body and lenses.

As as for shots my most used lens now is a 60 mm macro. Great optics, fast focus, and good for medium fish and close ups.

I have the Tokina 10-17 for landscape and dive photos.

I have a 105 macro for true macro. It is also good for fast, nervous, small fish like bennies, butterfly fish, and damsel fish.

I have the sigma 17-70. It is best for taking shots of medium to large fish like angels, grouper, snapper, and so on.