Joining the ranks.

[Jim Lapenta]

I have had several UW cameras over the last ten years. Inexpensive ones. Including some disposables. I finally got into a position, thanks to selling off my 35 mm gear (a lot of it), where I could move into digital.

So my new rig is a Canon SL1 DSLR , Ikelite Housing, Single arm tray with flex arm, an old modified Sea Life flex arm and tray added to the Ikelite one, and pre owned DS 51 strobe and synch cable. While I have had the housing in the pool I have not yet taken it with the camera under water. Wanted to check the integrity of the housing even though it is new and am still playing with the camera and learning it's functions on surface shoots.

With the help of a couple more or less to me local UW photo pro's who actually make money with their pictures I plan to try and get to the point where I may be able to offer an underwater photo class that I would want to take. Until then or instead of, I'll be happy expanding my knowledge of the underwater world through another medium.

The plan is to take a class from both of them. One perhaps in the winter when things are slow and then another next season. I don't care about a c card. I want the knowledge.

I have a lot of 35 mm experience but digital with a camera of this level is new. Looking forward to picking up some tips, settings, composition advice, etc..

 

[Neilwood]

This is not related to shooting underwater as all my experience is topside (at the moment - planning to change that with a housing for my Canon G12 soon)

A number of items for a new digital shooter:

Bear in mind that digital is effectively free (apart from very slight wear on components ie the shutter). So unlike film, feel free to shoot away all you want - mistakes only cost time not development costs.

Feel free to alter the ISO any time you like - you are not fixed with a film speed for the next 36 shots!

You can set a custom WB by using a grey/white card.

Preferably shoot RAW - you get more "wiggle" room for developing your shots than JPEG. Put simply, the JPEG (8 bit or 256 bits per channel) is like the developed photo, RAW (14 bit on your camera or 16384 per channel) is effectively the negative (and contains more info). With RAW you can normally squeeze about 2 stops leeway on exposure each way, you can tweak your WB while processing etc.

 

[bvanant]

In terms of lenses, for the SL-1 I would go with the Tamron 60 (compared to the Canon it can use a 1.4 teleconverter for more magnification) and the 10-17 from Tokina with appropriate ports.

BVA

 

[Jim Lapenta]

The Tokina was recommended by someone else. Frankly I'm not that into it yet to spend more on a lens than I did on the camera. The cannon 10-18 is around 260 and no need to change the port.

---------- Post added September 3rd, 2015 at 05:00 PM ----------

For now I'm just going to use the stock 18-55 while I'm learning.