L22 with Ikelite housing?

[slowhands]

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

The L22 in an Ikelite sounds like a fine choice. Good price and solid reliability. For an inexpensive strobe, consider the intova ISS2000, about $160 with tray and arms and cord.

[One of the most amazing stories posted here on Scubaboard concerned an L18 in an Ikelite that was lost in Aruba, and found in the Florida Keys. The housing survived and during its voyage got bit by a turtle, which somehow turned on the video so a movie was made accidentally - a hit on youtube! Eventually re-united with owner too. Check it out: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/335831-found-camera-stage-com-help.html ]

I hope you don't lose your camera like that, but do have some great memories saved with it.

 

[rpc8520]

Thank you Trish for the info, it was very helpful and makes more sense. I'll search for the filters until I can convince myself into shelling out $400 for a glorified flashlight!

 

[slowhands]

I have been reading reviews of the L22 and have concerns. As reported on Amazon by a significant number of unhappy users, this camera is prone to lens errors. Basically the plastic gears on the lens focus and zoom mechanism get dirty or damaged by being dropped. Nikon considers this abuse and does not cover it on warranty. These cameras also have a plastic latch on the battery door that will break if you drop the camera on the corner. Don't pay to have it repaired, just buy another, they are less than the cost of repair (used ones are $50, repair is about $125!).

Overall, this is looking like a very cheaply made camera series. I understand Nikon needs to keep costs down in this market space, but it shows. If you buy one, get it at a good price and make sure you can return it within the first 30 days when the lens error might occur. After that, consider it a disposable camera. Buy two if you want to be sure of having one working while on a trip, seriously.

I'm not knocking Nikon, I love their professional cameras. But these are like plastic forks and spoons compared to fine sterling. Made cheaply, and work like something cheap. So a different expectation is in order. Be prepared for lower reliability than the typical Nikon product.

 

[Tricia]

These cameras also have a plastic latch on the battery door that will break if you drop the camera on the corner.

On that subject, I'd better confess/warn you about what I think happened to me re the flooding. When I got in the water at the beginning of the dive, the boat captain handed me the camera and (as a courtesy) he visually checked the case and saw no water, no issues.

I swam over to the bar and descended slowly. I do it this way to slowly equalize my ears (I am NOT a "kamakazi diver") and also as I descend, I check the case to be sure there are no leaks. There were none.

Then, at about 17 metres, I remember that I was holding the case on each side with both hands when boom! The back door of the case opened and it flooded. Although I shut it back quickly, it was too late and I had a swimming pool inside the case. As you can imagine, the camera was destroyed.

I was looking at the case later with others and they were surprised that the door is made that way. It has a push button at the upper part and the bottom and if you push both at the same moment, the door opens. In contrast, my Olympus housing has a similar system, but there is a kind of lock you have to open with the plastic key they give you (or some other tool) to get the casing open. In other words, it ain't coming open under water!

Frankly, I think this is a design defect, but like I'm ever going to get Ikelite to admit it. In the future, when I use this case, I'm going to put duct tape or similar over it so it won't come open even if I push the two buttons. I should add that I have since tested the housing and it is fine - no leaks or damage, so clearly I must have opened the door myself...

Lastly, I would add that I did have DEPP insurance, but their rules are so onerous for claims, I realised it was cheaper just to buy a used camera on eBay, which I did. My "new" camera seems fine - land photos have been OK, so I can't comment on the other issues Slowhands has mentioned.

Hope this helps somebody out there and avoids them having a flood like mine!

Trish

 

[Richy]

Well after my last dive trip, I have had it with the Coolpix L22 for an underwater point and shoot camera. I have tried everything I could think of to get reasonable in-focus pictures and just cannot get it to give me a sharp image. I think the lens is too slow with poor depth of field. May also be the processors limited ability to set focus underwater. Color is also a big problem and you have to continually adjust the manual white balance. The auto white balance rarely produced pictures with good color. Macro mode isn't, and by the time the camera does focus, the subject has moved away. I also used an Ikelite AF35 strobe which works ok but didn't help that much. The last straw was when the LCD display driver lost a color channel so you cannot see what the lens is looking at nor can you change the menu. Oddly, the camera took pretty good underwater videos but again, the color quality is lacking which is a function of the depth/natural available light.

The good thing is that it is a cheap camera so I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[PhilC]

L18 not the 22 but for what it is I've been pretty happy with it. At this point the camera IS holding me back from getting better images since it has no manual controls so I'll be upgrading but it's a fine little ~$100 P&S and I've never had significant issues like Richy is describing. If you drop any camera it's going to break, whether it's a $100 P&S or a Uber-$ dSLR, the key is to not drop your nice things or you won't have any nice things.

More pics and some video from August in Bonaire here:
Bonaire August 2010 - philandjen's Photos

 

[Lee Taylor]

My opinion:

You will likely be paying about 900 for the underwater camera set up with camera, housing, and strobe. That particular camera is not much more than 100.

For as much as you are investing (say $900) to take underwater photos, I think I would move up to a little more expensive camera.

In other words with that particular arrangement you are putting, by far, most of your money in housing and strobe.

 

[Tricia]

Hey fellow Atlantan! (Lee),

The package Ikelite offers with the camera, housing and strobe hits about USD 850. But I agree with you that the more expensive camera you get, the better off you are (within limits, of course). The Olympus I flooded and then replaced costs about USD500 new on Amazon - but I think that's because it's a very popular camera, even if it is end of series. So that's why I got a used one on the internet and will probably do the same for a back-up.

Richy - I'm so sorry to hear you're not happy with yours. I saw from the other post that you were happy at first, once you resolved the "ghosting image" thing. I'm still going to take mine as a second back-up on trips (dear Lord, I sound like Stephen Frink here )! But my first choice is going to be the Olympus, but using the Ikelite strobe.

(I do have to admit that the L22 takes really nice shots on land - so I think it's a housing thing. But I am NOT a professional photographer, so maybe it's just me, ha ha!)

Happy photography to all!

Trish

 

[Jim Malone]

Tricia, did you tried this?

from the Ikelite booklet included with the housing.

-set camera to "auto mode", not easy Auto or Scene modes
-set camera to macro mode
-set white balance to auto
-set flash mode to on (lightning bolt only)
-set image mode to high and AF-assist to OFF
A strobe focusing light is recommended to assist AF underwater

The camera will focus far away even in macro mode. Leave macro mode on. you can back from the subject and zoom in to avoid over exposure, if necessary.

Try this and use a dive torch to illuminate the object for AF