D50, D90 or new P&S?

[ericande]

I'm a fairly proficient photographer (on land) and a decent scuba diver and looking at a few options for getting a better underwater setup. I currently use an older pentax s5i with the pentax uw housing and no separate strobes or anything. I have a Nikon D50 and D90 for normal use with the following lenses, tokina 11-16, nikon 50mm 1.8 and a sigma 17-70 with macro (so they say but technically it's not full macro.)

I'm seeing 4 options for trying to get a better kit:

1) Keep my current kit, get an external strobe.
-Nice that it'd be inexpensive
-Not sure how easy or how possible it is to add strobes to this setup
-Would remain compact
-Still a 5 year old camera with many shortcomings

2) Get a housing for my D50
-Picture quality is still better than any P&S (on land at least)
-My backup SLR so I don't have to worry so much about it getting flooded or anything (not sure how big of a worry that is)
-I feel comfortable with an SLR and I like the functionality they give
-Housings can be found somewhat cheaply. A quick glance at BH shows a couple for less than $800 brand new (from Fantasea, looks to be less well made from the photos though)
-Not sure whether I'd be more comfortable diving with the large SLR housing and all that comes with it versus a P&S

3) Get a housing for my D90
-My main camera, it's great and I'm super comfortable with it.
-Would be scared it'd get flooded or otherwise ruined
-Housings are more expensive, $1300 and up, way up.
-It's a great camera and has video if I ever wanted to use it.

4) Get a new P&S and the housing and strobes to go with it
-Probably still end up around the same price or cheaper than even the D50 option.
-Compact
-Newer P&S cameras are great
-I'd have a newer P&S for land use when I didn't want to bring my SLR
-I'd miss the features of an SLR I think
-Cheaper than my D90 so if it were to get ruined I wouldn't cry on the boat, always embarrassing.


Any thoughts or advice? I think #1 is pretty much out. It really sounds like it may be tough to get strobes working well with that kit. I'm completely undecided between the other 3 at this point.

 

[jcclink]

This all may depend on how much diving you do, dive travel (like SE Asia, etc) & how serious you are about u/w photography. Assuming you'd like to get rather deeply involved, then go for a DSLR. I don't consider a new P&S a real upgrade. There are many more options & lenses available with a DSLR which will enhance your photography. Go with the D90 (a baby D300) - a great camera for topside & u/w. Several quality housings are available. Go with 2 strobes, Inon or S&S. Insure everything for any peril any where, just in case. Since you have a Platinum Card all this should be a non-problem

 

[Mariozi]

Option 3 on an aluminum housing (Hugyfot, Aquatica...)

 

[hammerhead man]

It depends on how much money you can spend on the set-up. If you go the D90 route you can expect to spend over $3K when you include the housing, dome port, strobes, arms, stay, lenses, and cables. DSLR is not a cheap route to take. In my opinion if your going to spend that much money on the housing you need all the other equipment to really get good pics. The DSLR set-up is also bulky. If you have the money and want professional pictures then go for it.

However, if you are a recreational diver and don't plan of making prints larger that 8X10 then there are point and shoot cameras that will give you great pics for half the price or less. There are several cameras that people on this forum will recommend. The G-10 seems to be very popular and I use the Sea&Sea DX-1g and have gotten very nice pics with it. You can see some of my pics when you click on the photos link to the left.

Just my opinion.

Regards,

Bill

 

[marcaumarc]

I have the D90 and love it. We also have had various P&S which are okay and much smaller and cheaper. If you use DSLR topside, I'm guessing it would only be a matter of time before you wanted to use it underwater, so I think #3.

 

[Larry C]

If you're starting fresh, you're going to spend at least $2K outfitting a new P & S, with tray, strobes, ttl converter...
Don't waste your time on the D50. If something happens, you have to find another one to fit your housing, and it's older, slower and inferior in every way to the D90. D90 kicks butt and there are a fair variety of housings out there. The Aquatica isn't bad, pricewise if you go with aluminum. Otherwise, the other options are polycarbonate-not that bad either-I've been using the same housing on my P&S for 4 years with no problems that can't be attributed to poor maintenance. House the D90 and get yourself either a 60mm or 105mm macro to go with it. The 11-16 will do fine underwater, though a lot of people like the 10-17 better. There are also quite a few on this board taking nice photos with the Sigma 17-70 if you don't know what you'll be seeing. (see Alcina's posts) Count on $3500 minimum for housing, strobes, one flat port, one dome, tray, arms and cords. If you want a better viewfinder, it's another $6-800. Look at Aussie Byron's results though and you won't regret a dime. I have a D300 and a friend of mine has the D90. Unless you're doing machine gun shots topside, there isn't much difference (except she can do video).

 

[bronk]

I would go with a setup similar to my own. Use the D90 (vs my D200) Ikelite housing, DS160 (vs my DS125) and a port for the 11-16 (vs my favorite 12-24). Later add a 60mm macro and port and after that a 2nd strobe. With the DS125 / DS160 you have an adequate primary light for night diving (until you put the diffuser on).
16 GB card, lanyard with snap and you are set. (I love having the rig on a lanyard when boat diving or hanging on the anchor line).
Dual strobes are nice, but I would go with one that has a modeling lite built in vs dual smaller ones. Pay attention to lighting and be prepared to adjust the arm and you can get great shots with one strobe.

 

[ericande]

After reading these comments and looking around a bit I think a good option may be to get a new, less expensive camera and housing and then add some nice strobes that I can carry over to a housing for my D90.

I was looking at the Olympus FE-360 and the accompanying Olympus housing. I think TTL flash metering is impossible with this setup so I'm wondering if and of the optical slave strobes I would need are also capable of handling TTL with a future D90 setup?

If that will work I'll be able to start out with an inexpensive setup that's an upgrade over what I currently have and then add strobes to it before eventually getting a case for the D90. Then I'll still have a compact for land with a housing for snorkeling, white water rafting, whatever.

Hmmm...

 

[Larry C]

If you're going that way, then decide now between Ikelite or other. If you go with Ikelite, put your money into the best available strobe (DS160). You'll be able to carry that over to the D90 when you switch, and do Ikelite ttl with their housing. Ikelite housings are big but quite reasonable, and all their stuff is designed to work as a package. If you're not going Ikelite, then probably a pair of Sea & Sea YS-110a's or an Inon Z240 plus whatever Camera/Housing package you decide on. I don't think you can do any manual adjustment with the FE series, although they're decent cameras otherwise. Alternatives would be Canon A series or G10, Fuji, Panasonic or possibly Olympus SP-560 if you can still get a housing. For some reason, Canon doesn't do ttl metering in manual mode, but for Oly, you can get a Heinrichs/Weikamp ttl converter-either optical or Nikonos/Sea & Sea configurations. You can also use Ikelite ttl with their housings. If you plan on staying with Ikelite, gaining comfort with their set-up would be an advantage.