Calling All Cold Water Photographers. Help me join your ranks.

[00wabbit]

thanks for all the replies. Has anyone owned one of these DC1400 Pro Duo | Sealife Cameras packages? If so thoughts on them? Also is this a camera that will allow me to learn more advanced manual photography?

The short answer is no. Sea life isn't really meant for advanced manual photography. They are simplified systems for folks that just want to take photos without too much hassle. They do have some control, but not a lot. One of the biggest drawbacks for me is they don't shoot RAW. RAW will allow you to correct much more after the fact for under or over exposed shots as well as shots with bad color balance etc. If you are shooting in colder, darker waters I would say this is a must. Someone recommended the canon s110 or s100. These are great starter cameras. They are pretty forgiving but have full manual controls and shoot raw. I started with an older one of these called the s90 (s100 or newer is better because they shoot hd video)

What kind of shots do you want to take? I don't use a stobe at the moment because I take mostly wide angle shots. If you are more than a couple of feet away from your subject the strobe won't really help.

Here is a link to a post I made to show why RAW is so important. The first video is mine, the second post is a friend of mine with a very high end dslr and he shows what he was able to do with a bad RAW file: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ti...why-i-shoot-raw-video-tutorial-lightroom.html

 

[bvanant]

There is a great system for sale right now in the classifieds, maybe for $1500 you could get a Canon DSLR + Housing. Kit lens is $200 and a strobe will be $400. A little over $2K but you will be able to grow a lot with that kind of system (not mine).
BVA

 

[jscan1]

The nikon p7100, and fantasea fp7100 housing can be had for about $500.00, and you can add a sea and sea ys 02 strobe for a little over $300. I've been very happy with this setup, the nikon allows pretty much full manual control, and the housing allows you to access every function of the camera. You can shoot in RAW. I have a canon dslr, that I use on land, and this camera rivals it in functionality! You can add 67mm macro lenses and wide lenses to the housing, for even more versatility

 

[westcoastmaritimer]

The nikon p7100, and fantasea fp7100 housing can be had for about $500.00, and you can add a sea and sea ys 02 strobe for a little over $300. I've been very happy with this setup, the nikon allows pretty much full manual control, and the housing allows you to access every function of the camera. You can shoot in RAW. I have a canon dslr, that I use on land, and this camera rivals it in functionality! You can add 67mm macro lenses and wide lenses to the housing, for even more versatility

I'm actually now looking at this setup now. Just waiting to hear back some quotes on the camera. Do you use a video light or just the strobe? Wondering if it's worth it to get the video light or just hold off for now.

 

[00wabbit]

I'm actually now looking at this setup now. Just waiting to hear back some quotes on the camera. Do you use a video light or just the strobe? Wondering if it's worth it to get the video light or just hold off for now.

What kind of pictures do you want to take? What kinds of videos? This will help you decide what equipment you need.

 

[the_dragon_no1]

Yes. Saw an add today here in norway. Guy selling a complete ikelite rig, with strobes (ds125), multible ports and lenses, and a nikon d5000.. for around 1500$.


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[jscan1]

I have an I torch 5, video light I've used a few times with it, but I mostly use that with my gopro, if it were my money I'd get two strobes instead. Here are a few shots I took Sunday, with one strobe in pretty low lighting, 65ft of water probably 15ft of vis. La Jolla Shores - Jeff Scanlon Photography's Photos

 

[kydaka]

I'm actually now looking at this setup now. Just waiting to hear back some quotes on the camera. Do you use a video light or just the strobe? Wondering if it's worth it to get the video light or just hold off for now.

I don't where you are in BC but IDC in Vancouver has this Fantasea special on.. Gives you room to add arms strobe and a video light. I suggest a video light to give you more options as the situation dictates

Fantasea Nikon Coolpix Refurbished P7100 Set
$549.95 (camera and housing)

 

[weeksd]

I would look at either canon or nikon cameras in a housing. Fantasea, ikelite or others. Some housing use a cord to fire strobe. Some use the camera flash inside the housing to fire your external strobe as a slave strobe. In BC waters most of the time your strobe will be full power. You need a powerful strobe in BC waters as it is dark at depth. You can look at some samples on my website. Those shots were done on a nikonos film camera with an ikelite AI strobe on full power. The ikelite strobe is 100 watts of power.
reefscenics' Photos | SmugMug

 

[rob1967]

In BC waters most of the time your strobe will be full power. You need a powerful strobe in BC waters as it is dark at depth.

Hey weeks, I had a look at your photos and they are quite nice. I agree that your pics are maybe a bit too dark, but I don't know if the solution is limited to stronger strobes. Have you thought about opening up your aperture a bit instead? (I don't know much about shooting film, are you using ISO 100? What are your other settings?)

I also have to respectfully disagree with your statement above. I use relatively small strobes (YS-01 plus YS-02) and generally use them at only about half-power for macro in BC waters. For wide angle, I turn them up higher, but even then, I don't necessarily need full power, precisely because of the lack of ambient light. It is actually in tropical waters that I find I have to turn up my strobes more if I want to block out the ambient light (of course I adjust ISO and aperture to maintain correct exposure).

You will need the strongest strobes of all to shoot wide-angle sun ball shots in tropical waters, because your strobes have to be strong enough to light up the foreground when all your other settings are closed up to correctly expose the background.

You also can get away with smaller strobes with compact cameras, because you can choose a very fast shutter (1/500, 1/1000, etc.,) which can easily block out the ambient light. Bigger cameras with a mechanical shutter have a max synch speed of around 1/200 or so, so more difficult to block out the ambient light. In BC waters, 1/100 is fast enough to block out ambient light, but in tropical waters, 1/200 is not fast enough, so the only solution to getting a dark background is choosing the lowest ISO and smallest aperture possible and cranking up the strobes.