Scuba Photography

[Hastobe_Katt]

Sorry not much of an intro title! I'm new to the boards, from the UK, Padi AOW. I came across the boards trying to get some kit together for underwater photography. I was set on buying a Pentax K5 / K7 (have some good K lenses) but would love to do some underwater photography. I have an old Canon S2 IS but, apparently, Canon never made U/W housings for this model. It seems that Pentax don't make housings for their cameras and ikelite aren't supporting Pentax either.

Are there any photographers on here who could give a steer on what to buy, camerawise - viz good under water and on land?

 

[benstudly]

Any good online SCUBA shop has basic camera its. Ikelite housings are fantastic but tend to be very expensive. For a first time purchase I would look at buying a complete kit. It can be tough to find a good camera, housing, and strobe. Also if you buy a dedicated UW camera it should have the potential to add strobes stc...

 

[Doubler]

This is a loaded question as the answer depends on how much of a budget you have. Once your budget is established a better answer can be given. There are many great cameras out on the market that have associated housings. I shoot a Canon T2i in an Ikelite housing while many on the board shoot the Olympus PEN or Nikon or G2. It depends on what you want. Let us know a budget and we will be very helpful in your spending it. Ikelite is actually a mid to low range cost housing when compared to others but that does not mean cheap by any means.

 

[Hastobe_Katt]

Many thanks for all the feedback. The more digging I did the more expensive the housings for DSLRs seemed! Sooo - I went on Ebay to see what was available at the 'budget' end of the spectrum. I found a camera (a compact 10Mpixel Canon A640) and housing (ikelite) that were on offer at a very competitive price. There were some very nice pictures on the Ikelite website from someone using the same combo so I decided to give this a try and, if I find I use it a lot, I will upgrade. (I have put buying a DSLR on hold for a bit.) The outcome of my Ebay efforts were that I got the housing but was sniped on the camera - but there seem to be plenty more A640s on Ebay so I'm sure I will get one.

So my next question - how important is a strobe / grip?

 

[Hastobe_Katt]

Well I managed to get (a new!) Canon A640 as well. I have seen a grip for the Canon 640 for sale at a good price and a Ikelite 50 strobe - but I have no idea how to mount the strobe (the grip only seems to have a mount for the camera) and how/if I can synchronise the strobe?

The Ikelite information says there is a diffuser built into the housing to render the internal camera flash is more effective. Does this mean I can take photos with just the internal flash? If so what is the range and depth over which the camera's own flash will be enough? (We're off to Dahab, on the Red Sea, in a couple of months and we are really looking forward to trying out our new kit - and showing friends and family why we like diving so much ) )

On a separate point. The Ikelite housing is 'used' but the seller says it was in good working order when she last used it which was not so long ago (she sold because she was upgrading her gear). Nevertheless, I think it would be prudent to get it serviced. Where would I need to go to get the housing checked out? (We are from the UK).

 

[Doubler]

You can get the housing serviced by Ikelite. Not sure what shipping from UK would be.

The on camera strobes are usually not that good for underwater unless you are extremely close. They are too close to the lens and not very powerful. You get tons of backscatter which distracts from your photos. I would also go with a DS51 vice the 50 and get the manual controller for it. The controller fires the DS51 when the cameras internal strobe fires. Because you will be optically firing the strobe you should also look at Sea and Sea and Inon strobes.

 

[rickthompson]

From what I've seen, no mater what you're looking at at least $2000 USD for a housing, lens port, and strobe for any DSLR, and even more if you want two strobes. You can get a cheap point and shoot setup for maybe $600-$800 USD with a strobe and a good point and shoot/MILC setup for maybe $1000ish USD. Definitely not cheap getting into U/W photo...

 

[ScubaBB]

Welcome aboard :cool2::cool2::cool2: