L22 with Ikelite housing?

[Tricia]

Folks, as some of you may have noticed, there's a banner ad on SB for Dive Pro for an Nikon Coolpix L22 & Ikelite Housing Package. I lost my Olympus camera last summer due to a leak and am looking to replace it (and no, it was one of the few times I forgot to renew my insurance before I went - grrr )

Any of you know of this camera set up or have any feedback/thoughts for me?

Thanks!
Trish

 

[pjones]

Anybody?
I'm looking for the same info and was hoping someone had an idea on the quality of the image and the flash too...

 

[CharlieSierra]

I just purchased this combo through ScubaToys.com. I have taken a few pictures running around town to try to get used to it. Image quality seems to be great, but it has issues picking out something to focus on when objects are in motion (but that may be more user ignorance than anything), flash is typical of a point-and-shoot and only has a good range of about 4ft. If you can afford it, you may wish to consider the strobe as well for your underwater shots. The kit I received came with the flash diffusers that you clip on in front of the flash once it's in the housing. This is one of my first underwater set-up's so I'm a relative rookie at this, but my only difficulty is in trying to determine what button does what when you close the casing.... You can't see the labels any more - so you need to know which buttons do what. Hope my novice info helps. I'm going to Cozumel next week and will be taking the camera with me all week (6 days of 2-tank dives, plus a couple of shore dives), so I may be able to answer questions better upon return after I've got some time in the field with it.

 

[Tricia]

Charlie, I'd really appreciate your feedback. After I posted above, I found the camera with housing for a little bit cheaper at B&H Photo. I've had good luck with stuff I've ordered from them before, so I'll likely order from them.

I'm scheduled to dive in the Bahamas starting 19 June and B&H says it takes about 2 weeks for delivery. So if you could get us your feedback before the end of May, that would be fantastic!

And re your comment about being a rookie: I hear ya! I started taking photos back in 2001 - some of them are quite scary to look at now! But you are right that once the camera is in the case and you're down below, you MUST know the main buttons and what to do. When I get a new set-up, I practice with the camera inside the case on land first for at least 15 minutes. Then - if I have access to a swimming pool (or even my sister's hot tub!) - I do it there, too. That way, when I hit the ocean I'm pretty comfortable.

One suggestion: the housing comes with this stupid wrist strap - worthless. You should have a spiral thingy that clips to your BCD (sorry, don't know the name, but your LDS will have one). That way, you're free to let the camera go without fear of losing it if you suddenly need both hands.

Have a great trip!

Trish

 

[Richy]

I recently bought the L22 with Ikelite plus flash and found a few things that may help. When I first set up the camera at my house with the flash, I noticed a 'ghost' in my pictures. Turned out, the camera lens housing does not seal on the interior lens and the flash bounces on the bright shiny metal into the camera. There is a rubber gasket on the Ikelite lens housing but it does not have the correct width, so I cut a piece of bicycle inner tube, glued it to fit the inside diameter and no more 'ghosts'.

Under water, I discovered that it is very important to manually set the white balance by using something white such as the white flash diffuser. Huge improvement over the colors!

Have fun -

Rich

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Call Reef Foto, they may have it available as i saw one there.

Chris

 

[Tricia]

Thanks for this info Richy! Although, I confess I'm a little intimidated by the DIY that you had to do.

Unfortunately for me, I learned long ago that adding a strobe really makes all the difference. (And I also lost my strobe in the above accident. ) So I will likely be buying the recommended strobe at the same time. Oh, this will be a painful month financially... :depressed:

And Chris - thanks for the tip! I'll check out Reef Foto, too!

Trish

 

[PhilC]

L18 owner not the newer L22 but same basic design. L18s built in flash is good for macro, the AF35 isn't powerful enough for anything beyond about 5 feet in my experience and too powerful except at very low settings within 2 feet. Housing is prone to fogging when it's humid out but the small moisture munchers take care of that pretty good, as long as you remember to change them. In general I like the system and get some decent pictures with it but I'm finding the inability to set apeture and shutter speed on the L series camera to be hindering some of my shots.

Many more underwater shots with it at philandjen's Photos- powered by SmugMug

 

[Tricia]

Nice photos Phil (here and on your site)!

I see some of your pics look "very blue" - I suppose that's the water and perhaps a lack of a red filter? I was at least able to salvage my red filter from the other flooded housing, so that should help me. The strobe will of course, make a huge difference (and your comments confirmed to me that I'll need one).

I have to laugh where you wrote "...I'm finding the inability to set apeture and shutter speed on the L series camera to be hindering some of my shots."

I have to confess that after 9 years of underwater photography, I've still never gotten that far. I use the "programme" function and let the camera chose the shutter speed. I know, I know, I need to get more serious about photography, but I just never have the time.

Anyway, if that's your biggest issue with this camera, then it sounds great for me. Thanks!

Trish

 

[PhilC]

I've actually got a red filter but don't really use it. I prefer to take Macro shots in most cases and the red filter doesn't work for those. The wide angle shots I've tried numerous different settings with the red filter on and have never yet been happy with the results so I stopped carrying it. I would prefer to have better color balance in the shots and I could do it by using custom white balance but my fingers and the button size on the housing make it kind of difficult to switch. If I were willing to dedicate a dive to only wide angle I think that there would be no problem dialing out the blue with a custom white-balance which the camera will do. At least with the L18 the camera seems to badly under-exposes the shots taken with the red filter and I have about zero skills in correcting images in software to recover them if they are under or over exposed. We're heading back to Bonaire in August where I'll have more time to play with it and may just dedicate one or more dives to taking the same picture 50 times while adjusting what settings the camera does have to see what works best with the filter.

One really nice thing about this setup is that the camera is so cheap, I actually take two L18s with us on trips, picked up a second for $60 delivered from Adorama just in case something happens. For some above water shots if I'm going somewhere I just can't or don't want to carry my DSLR I can just throw one of the L18s in a pocket and get decent pictures with it.