My test dive with a Nikon D200

[ssra30]

Congratulation. I am sure you will be happy with either S&S or Ikelite. S&S seems to learn from their mistake with D70 housing and did a very nice job with D200.

 

[Cacia]

silly question, how much of a step up is the 200 from a 100?

How much is the body? I like duty free "Little Switzerland" in ST. Thomas BTW.

 

[HowardE]

silly question, how much of a step up is the 200 from a 100?

How much is the body? I like duty free "Little Switzerland" in ST. Thomas BTW.

Body MSRP is 1699 - I don't know about the D100 - it's discontinued isn't it?

 

[Mike Veitch]

Great shots howarde... first time...damn!

Well done... Lots of colour, you got in close, and it all looks good!

Smart move with the Ike housing if that means you can get two strobes for same price as the aluminum housing! wow.. quite a diff.... You could also consider Aquatica....

 

[HowardE]

Great shots howarde... first time...damn!

Well done... Lots of colour, you got in close, and it all looks good!

Smart move with the Ike housing if that means you can get two strobes for same price as the aluminum housing! wow.. quite a diff.... You could also consider Aquatica....

Thanks Mike. I really appreciate that coming from you!

I've never heard of Aquatica Housings before. I'll have to look into them.

Fortunately, Reef Photo will let me try the Ike - before I buy. So I think I'll do just that. When I get back in the water in 3 weeks. I should have the body and a lens by then.

One other obvious drawback to the ike vs the Sea & Sea or Subal is that the Ike ports are acrylic, and can scratch more easily than the Glass ports from the others. But I guess, since the Ike ports are 1/8th of the price of the glass ones - there's a lot of leway to replace them still.

 

[tbizzell]

The Sea and Sea domes are also acrylic. Sea and Sea seams to make nice stuff. I am going through the decision process of maybe getting a housing for a d200. I just find some of the manufactures pricings really annoying. A S&S d200 housing is $2500, but the ttl add on is an other $500. If you want to use a 18-70 or 12-24 lens inside a dome port, the zoom/focus ring will set you back another $200( for a plastic part).

the Ikelite may not be quite as nice. It will cost around $1379 but the actual costs of an equivalent S&S housing before the port purchase will be about $3200.

The oem heinrich ttl converter circuit costs about 50 Eur.

I will probably want to try before I buy. It will more than likely and IKElite if I buy one at all.

I can afford them, I just do not know about the value. I think a lot more engineering and smarts goes into the camera's and their lenses and the land strobes than goes into these housings.

The ys-15 auto cost around $300. Give me a break.

I know the economies of scale are not there. It is a niche market. But $200 for these cheap zoom rings.
It reminds me of the military paying $500 for hammers.

 

[HowardE]

The Sea and Sea domes are also acrylic. Sea and Sea seams to make nice stuff. I am going through the decision process of maybe getting a housing for a d200. I just find some of the manufactures pricings really annoying. A S&S d200 housing is $2500, but the ttl add on is an other $500. If you want to use a 18-70 or 12-24 lens inside a dome port, the zoom/focus ring will set you back another $200( for a plastic part).

The port I used on my demo was glass.

I agree on everything else.

 

[RonFrank]

silly question, how much of a step up is the 200 from a 100?

How much is the body? I like duty free "Little Switzerland" in ST. Thomas BTW.

Huge...

You can see a side by side comparision HERE but the major differences are:

* Build quality (all alum weather sealed on the D200)
* CAM1000 focus - really an amazing system. Faster, more focus zones, amazing dynamic focus and tracking, and focuses betting in low light vs. the D100.
* Much faster (5fps) with a lot faster image processing and a much larger buffer. USB II support for fast uploads.
* RAW + JPEG mode so one can shoot RAW + any type of JPG.
* dTTL (D100) vs. iTTL (D200) Nikon really did not get it right with dTTL which is what I have on my D1x. The iTTL is a much better and more accurate flash TTL
* 1/250 vs. 1/180 x-sync speed (I really would have liked to see them do 1/500 as they did on the D1x and D70).
* 10.2mpix sensor vs. 6.0. Sensor technology has changed a lot since the 2002 release of the D100, even if that camera takes great shots.
* Photo orientation sensor, no more rotating images.
* Auto ISO, kinda a cool option, but I wish you could use shutter speeds faster than 1/250.
* Color matrix metering vs. the old 3D. IOW's more accurate color aware exposure meter.
* ISO 100 and much better noise charasterists at higher ISO's.
* Kelvin WB adjustment. Now you can set the WB in Kelvin units. More useful on land vs. underwater.
* 2.5" LCD screen on back with much higher resolution.
* Zoom feature for reviewing images allows one to select the zoom area, and magnify the image to almost any size.
* More custom functions.

There are so many cool features on this camera, that after several weeks of shooting, I am still finding interesting an useful tools tucked away in menus!

The question becomes is with worth the cost for an upgrade? Only you can figure that out.

 

[RonFrank]

Good stuff Howarde!

Where did you dive BTW? Just wondering if there is brain coral off the shore of LBTS, as it's one of my favorites!

The D200 is the goods. I am nothing but pleased with mine. Can not wait to get it UW, even if it's going to be a beast! :lol:

That Sea&Sea housing looks great, and users rave about it. Unfortrunately I'm with you bud, I just can't afford it especially considering how little I will use it (like a couple trips a year).

Looks like the 60mm macro did a good job for you. That is one of the ports I'm going to get. Did you just do AF, or did you MF at all? Reef said that most just use AF for the 60mm, so I'm leaning towards saving some bucks, and getting the AF only port.

Yeah, that iTTL is the tits! Looks like the Sea&Sea version works great, and I know after finding users of the Ike that Ike iTTL works well. Unfortunately it's a $400+ add on which is another reason I'll go with the Ike. I don't have an Ike strobe the supports iTTL yet, maybe I can get Ryan to loan me one for a couple dives.

My SS200 however will work great I'm very certain, just a bit more to adjust.

 

[RonFrank]

TI am going through the decision process of maybe getting a housing for a d200.

I just went through this little excercise. The Ike house is about $1400 shipped. Add an 8" dome $380, a 60mm flat port ($110) and you are at around $1900. That get's my 12-24mm, my 18-35mm, and my 60mm UW with is a good selection of lenses.

Now the Sea&Sea, housing $2500, 8" dome $900, TTL $450, and then I still don't think you are done. I think you need a gear for the lenses $200, and an extention $160. So one is at $4200 to get a setup similar to the Ike, and you still don't have a flat port! Granted you could go with the 6" dome, and shave off maybe $400, but you are still looking at over $3500, and you still don't have strobes!

I just could NOT justify that kinda $$$, so Reef has the Ike Housing, and an 8" dome waiting for me when I get to FL!