Fiji fun Times with SP-350

[RockyHeap]

Lets see, still 2000 photos to wade through after 2 weeks in Fiji, but here are a couple of my favorites. we did 19 dives total in Taveuni and Beqa lagoon.......

I loved my new SP-350 rig, Ikelite housing and DS-125 strobe, wide angle lens........especially the control arms, those are real nice!

 

[alcina]

Looks like fun!!

 

[tsreimer]

awesome! Post some more when you get to through them. I'm sooo jealous... I want to go to Fiji!

 

[RockyHeap]

Ah yes, the joys of a wide angle lens, and lots of light to throw from the Ikelite DS-125..........

The manual control of this system is great, I love the hot shoe of the SP-350 and a corded TTL strobe if you need it.....but I also shoot most my photos in full manual.

 

[StevenB]

Nice pics. Thanks. Looks like a great trip. I noticed most of the pics had some hard vignetting in the corners. Do you know what caused that?

SB

 

[Allison Finch]

I just bought that lens and heard that it had that tendency. I'm hoping someone posts some suggestions on how to avoid it before I leave on my trip on the 29th.

 

[gert7to3]

With these accessory W/A lenses you need to very slightly zoom the lens to avoid vignetting. It just takes a tap on the zoom. Do a test shot to check that you're clear. Or just forget about the vignetting and slightly crop your photos.

 

[tsreimer]

Rocky:

Where'd you end up picking up the wide angle lens at? I am hoping to pick one up soon too.

You can always crop out the vignetted areas pretty easily once you pick out the photo's that are worth cleaning up.

 

[RockyHeap]

Yes you need to slightly zoom in to lose the vignetted areas. The Zoom control on the Ikelite housing barely engages the zoom button on the camera (I need to shim it out a bit with a couple washers) so sometimes I had zoom function and sometimes not.)

All my gear except the Ikelite housing was bought at Reefphoto.com, and I highly highly recommend them for customer service and pricing. They were out of the housing when I placed my order, so the housing was bought from BH photo.
All said and done, I'm into my rig for about $2,000. Happy Happy too after dealing with cheap and crappy Fantasea housings on past Nikon Coolpix rigs.

In some ways I kinda like the vignetted effect, yes I could crop and trim every photo, but just haven't taken the time yet. Maybe when I'm ready to print them out poster sized, but for the web posting its good enough.

 

[jjwdiver]

Nice pics!