Digicam for dive rescue documentation???

[TheAvatar]

OK digital people... the film fanatic is at your mercy.

We are looking for an inexpensive digital camera for use underwater (and in very wet environments above) to document dive rescue missions including:

1. Documenting wrecks
2. Object identification
3. Training review
4. Documentation of missions including ice rescue, dive rescue, and swift water rescue
5. Underwater crime scene investigation (potentially, attempting to find out if digital is kosher for that task)
6. PR photos

Environment: High altitude lakes, resevoirs, ponds, and rivers. Visibility is rarely over 50ft. Water temperatures 34F to 75F. Air temperatures -30F to 80F.

Looking to spend as little as is possible while having an effective setup.

Thoughts:

Primary output is probably going to be computer screens. Occaisonally will make small prints (4x6 5x7 and probably nothing ever larger than 8x10).

Thinking a 3-5MP camera.... and that an ikelite housing would be preferable to a digicam manufacturer housing because of the ability to attatch multiple external strobes which might be important for crime scene work (or can you do this with manufacturer housings?).

Definately trying to keep costs down: $250-$375 for the camera and hopefully much under $400 for the housing. Strobes are a separate matter I suppose.

 

[mandrake]

What's the maximum depth you need it to go to? If you're going to be pushing 100 feet this will rule out some of the more inexpensive options. Are you really considering Ikelite housings? I love them, but they're not cheap ($400 isn't going to cover it, think $600 at a minimum). I was going to recommend something like a Sealife or Sea&Sea type camera, but if you might need external strobes this probably wouldn't be the best way to go.

 

[Dee]

That's not much money to cover your requirements. And mandrake is right, an Ike housing for most any camera will run you $600+. You might consider one of the Canon models but I don't know thatmuch about them.

 

[TedJ]

For a total budget of $650-$775 I would buy the Olympus 5050 and PT-015. The housings are going for $135 at newegg and you can get a factory refurbished camera at the Olympus eBay Store for around $450. Pick up a used YS90DX strobe off eBay for about $350 then all you'll need is some arms and a tray. Aquatica TLCs come up occasionally on eBay as well and you can put the camera on an old Nikonos tray with the dovetail fittings and use any TLC arm parts. The Aquatica arms and parts are available from B&H in New York or Helix Camera in Chicago.
Hope this helps
TEdJ

 

[TheAvatar]

Ted: thanks... that 5050 seems a bit expensive though... the 3040 looks like the exact same camera except with a 3MP sensor which is fine. The fast lens is very cool. The 3020 looks exactly the same except a different lens. Can the 3020 or 3040 or 4040 be used with that PT-015? Can the 3020 or 3040 or 4040 or 5050 be used with flashes that would be compatible with a Nikonos II?

 

[TedJ]

The 5050 has a number of features that are not available on the earlier cameras.

The first is the ability to use a "super macro" mode that allows for very close focusing, like 1".

In addition there is the ability to save camera settings in one of 8 "My Modes". Here you can have the camera set up with different apertures or speed settings or flash settings, etc. and remember them so that with the push of a button you can return to them immediately.

Additionally, and perhaps the most important difference is that you can use multiple media cards in the camera and you can use 2 at a time. That is you can have an xD card and a Compact Flash card in the camera and toggle between them. Importantly you can use Compact Flash instead of just Smart Media, which seems to be dying out as they are not able to make high capacity cards. This is a very important feature.

The f1.8 lens is similar to the one used in some earlier cameras, however, be careful when looking at the different models to be certain of what lens is being used.

Only the 5050 is used with the PT-015 housing, however, there are housings for all of the other cameras. They typically are in the $165-$225 range. As I mentioned the PT-015 for the 5050 is being sold by newegg for $135.

With respect to the Nikonos II flashes, which I assume you mean the SB-102 or so, this could be difficult. The newer digital cameras use a pre-flash and flash setup that fires twice which cannot be interpreted by the early film camera strobes.

Hope this helps.
TEdJ

 

[TheAvatar]

Hmmm I guess we don't have any flashes or arms for our nikonos II... well... I assume the Nikonos II does plain old OTF-TTL flash metering... as long as the strobe is TTL compatable things should be fine. I was more worries about what kinda connectors the PT-015 had.

Got housing models for the 3020/3040/4040? I cant find em anywhere.

 

[TedJ]

The PT-015 does not do TTL and essentially has no connectors, rather a fiber optic cable is used to fire the strobe. The cable is held in place on a Sea & Sea YS90DX strobe head by a female part that looks like a stereo RCA jack. On the housing a piece of velcro is typically fitted over the diffuser plate and again the RCA jack female part is held by the velcro over the cameras flash and the end of the cable is plugged into it. INON strobes use a slightly different screw on connector over the diffuser panel.

In either case, most of the folks I know are shooting the camera in manual mode. Start at about 1/125 speed at f5.6 with ISO set at 64. Depending on the surrounding conditions, look at your results and change the settings accordingly. The camera has been set to fire in a "slave" mode which supresses the pre-flash and the strobe is set to act as a slave, triggered by the light going through the fiber optic cable.

Perhaps someone could jump in here with a photo of their rig showing the camera, tray, arms and connections? I don't have my stuff assembled right now and I'm off for Xmas for a couple days.

Hope this helps.
TEdJ

Edit: Here's a link to a site that might help you in your search

http://www.splashdowndivers.com

Go to Photography and then to Equipment. There are comments about the 3040 and the 5050.

 

[TheAvatar]

We went ahead and orderd the 5050 and 015 from B&H along with the LCD shield and two 256mb cards.

Strobes for later...

so how about them wide angle adaptors on the cheap?

 

[TedJ]

We went ahead and orderd the 5050 and 015 from B&H along with the LCD shield and two 256mb cards.

Strobes for later...

so how about them wide angle adaptors on the cheap?

Well there are several choices. Oly makes one which a number of people are steering away from due to deterioration of the lens coating (at least that's how I understand it.) Inon makes one. the UWL-100, which I have just ordered. The advantage to the INON is that you can also get a dome for it later that will make it even wider. I think Sea & Sea also makes one but I don't know anything about it and given that Sea & Sea has abandoned its US distribution operations and handed them over to TUSA I bought the INON.

Tha last comment also has some bearing on the strobes you think about. I own the Sea & Sea YS90DX which has just been discontinued. It has performed very well but if I had it to do over again I would buy the INON 180 like Gilligan just did. INON seems to be emerging onto the US scene rather than leaving it like Sea & Sea is doing.

BTW, what is the LCD shield?
TEdJ