Canon T3i....I have a few questions...

[ewaiea]

I'm going to be purchasing the Canon T3i before a February dive trip next year. I'll be looking to get the RDX-600D housing by Sea&Sea. My hope is also to have the 18-55mm kit lense, the 60mm macro lense and the tokina 10-17 fisheye. I'll have a flat port for the housing and a dome port as well. I'm torn between the YS-01 strobe or the YS-110a strobe. I'm also torn between whether or not to have 1 strobe or two.

I did post this same question (worded differently) in the general underwater photography forum - I'm just trying to get as much feedback as possible. I've been a Sealife DC1000 point and shoot guy for 3 years, it's finally time to upgrade to a system that will give me the optical power (for macro and wide angle) of a true fully manual DSLR setup.

Let me know what I'm in for and if you have advice of great books to read or personal stories of this camera rig and/or similar ones.

Thanks ahead for your advice.

 

[mjh]

This is a common question probably should be made a "sticky thread". First the YS-110a has been phased out by Sea & Sea with the release of the YS-D1. You maybe able to find one or two still floating around and between the 01 vs 110a take the 110a.

Reality is lighting is one of the MAJOR factors in the quality of your underwater photography. Also a principle way to do creative things to set your photos apart. Typically people buy the best camera/housing they can afford and run out of money when it comes to lighting. I have said it before and will say it again; lighting is probably more important than the "box" you put your camera in. In general MORE is better and TWO are better than one especially for lenses like the Tokina 10-17mm, one of my favorites.

Again we all have budgets so be honest with yours. The T3i is an excellent camera, one you can use for years. In a perfect world you would get Two YS-D1s and be very, very happy. If that is not in the budget the question is: two YS-01 vs. one YS-D1? For me the deciding factor would depend on how soon can you swing another YS-D1 and do you lean more to Macro vs Wide Angle photography? But this is the place to stretch to the budget!!!

 

[PatW]

I am really not exactly sure about what you are asking. I will make some general statements about the above set up.

The 60 mm macro lens is a very nice lens (I have a Nikon but in this area Canon and Nikon should be very similar). The lens has excellent optics. It is very useful for true macro. There is a bit of a problem with true macro with this lens in that you have to get pretty close. The 105 macro lens allows more "standoff" range and is better suited for shy subjects. The 105 also works with diopters better for supermacro. The 60 mm macro can be used to photography fish and the like as long as they are not too big.

The 10-17 Tokina is almost uniquely well suited for underwater photography. It has a very close minimum focus which means you can use a 4" dome with it. It also have a very wide field of view.

The 18-55 lens has similar Nikon counterparts. It can be used with a dome and diopters. If this is the way you want to go, the Sigma macro HSM 17-70 (which is not true macro but 1.2:1) would work better but that means spending $$ for another lens and possibly another dome depending on what you are using for your Tokina 10-17. It can get messy can't it?

As MJH said, the strobes are really important. So why is this? First off, as you go deeper in the water column the longer wave lengths of light get absorbed. At about 15', all the red is gone. At around 60', you are in a pretty much green and blue world. If you want colors, you have to bring light down to replace them. I have taken shots of fish against what looked like a brown background. When I later looked at the photo, I discovered that the background was orange and red from encrusting sponges. Who would have thought it?

You want strobes with decent power and with wide angles of coverage (of course they cost more). Two strobes are better than one. You can use one strobe pretty well with a macro lens. But for your Tokina 10-17 with its very wide angle of coverage, you really will be better off with 2 strobes.

 

[ewaiea]

I greatly appreciate your comments.

I kind of figured I'd need two strobes for wide angle - I just wanted to see if anyone was a huge proponent of just one....sounds like what I expected, two is better than one.

I will be trying to pay off my trip to Milne Bay (for this coming February) between now and probably October/November. Then I'll be pulling the trigger on the camera. I live in Hawaii and get a chance to dive quite a bit. Been busy with my job and working on my professional IT certifications (I'm a Cisco Network Engineer - so that takes alot of my time). But I'm about to re-take my weekends come August so this will be the forefront of my priorities - U/W Photography.

Thanks also for the comments about the macro lenses as well. I'm a pretty decent "point and shoot" photo guy - but jumping into the DSLR world is a big step and this is just a general thread specific to the system I want to piece together.

Any additional comments are more than welcome! Thanks so much for the validation thus far.