Latest News. . .
Indonesia 2010 trip
As our group is now slated to be on a bigger and more luxurious boat, we may have an opening available for you on this fantastic adventure. Read on for more details and contact Cathy if you are interested.
SP350 replacement found
At long last, I have found the new replacement for my all-time favorite camera, the Olympus SP-350. While no camera is as easy to use as the SP 350, none have the convenient presets that included the exposure settings, and none have the full range from super macro to wide and all with TTL, the Olympus Pen E-PL1 is the best that I have found. In spite of the short-comings of all cameras compared to the discontinued SP350, the E-PL1 has the best image quality and functionality of any camera in its price range today. See my review.
Subal Housing for the Nikon D300s in stock.
For anyone with a D300 and a Subal housing who want to upgrade to the D300s will be happy to know that they only need to replace the back of the housing and not the entire housing body.
Upcoming activities
Our World Underwater, Rosemont, IL at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center February 18-20, 2011--Check the seminar page
Current Cameras for Underwater
There are dozens of in-depth reviews on the web for every camera of interest. What I discuss here are those features that are important to housing a camera for underwater. We only use a few features underwater compared to the hundreds of features available, and it is easy to choose a camera based on above-water ratings and end up with the wrong camera for underwater. We need sensors with a wide contrast range, such as the newest ones found in the Nikon D700 and D3. We need lenses for macro and wide, and we need easy access to exposure controls.
Olympus E-PL1 camera and housing
SeaLife DC1200 first impressions
Stylus Tough 3000, Tough 6020 and Tough 8010 Olympus waterproof wonders
Olympus E-620 SLR with housing--LOW COST, really low cost, with great versatility. Fully tested, fully in stock.
Nikon D3x--a full-frame 24.5 MP marvel
Lens choices for Nikon FX cameras
Nikon D300s -- big screen viewing at its finest plus video
Nikon D700 -- Much the same as the D3 but a lot less money
Advantages of Nikon cameras over most others
Sea and Sea DX-2G - nice camera for the versatility. Review coming soon.
Tips
Those of you who have our Heinreich Weinkamps TTL converter in the Subal housings, don't forget to check your converter battery and carry spares on your dive trip.
Housings
Sea and Sea MDX housing and tips for Nikon D300
Subal D700 housing for Nikon D700 now in stock
Aquatica housings coming soon
Lenses
Lens choices for the D3 and D700
• Nikkor AF-S Zoom 14 - 24mm f/2.8G ED lens
Lens choices for the D300:
• Sigma 10 - 20mm for Nikon SLR - a fine alternative
• Tokina Fisheye zoom 10 - 17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107
Adding an external strobe to any compact digital camera in a clear housing
(The information on adding a strobe disappeared, but will be put back in soon. Basically it said that you can add many types of strobes using a fiber optic cable and a variety of attachment systems. Some work well as TTL strobes and others work better as manually adjusted strobes.)
Advantages of Nikon Cameras
• You can view the highlight warning while the photo is at full size. Many other cameras reduce the playback image to show the highlight warning and the histogram side by side, making it difficult to study your photos. The ability to study your photos is the whole key to taking advantage of shooting with digital. Without seeing your image clearly, you are more likely to miss flaws in your photo that you should correct and this slows your progress underwater while shooting.
• You can change your point of focus with a single touch of a navigation key. (It is often several steps with Canon.)
• You can change the f stop and shutter speed with a single step with independent controls.
Nikon D3x
Why would an underwater photographer love this system? The full-frame 12.1 MP D3 and the 24.5 MP D3x cmos sensors allow us to return to using the 60mm micro Nikkor at its full width. I missed this feature on the previous D2x where the 60mm lens "becomes" a 90mm lens and I have to shoot further away from my subjects.The large viewfinder makes aiming and composing easier than with the smaller viewfinders of the other SLRs. The downside, of course, is the cost for the camera and housing.
The ability to render an incredible photo from dark shadows through rich colors through detailed highlights is unsurpassed. If I had the money, I would get this one in a heartbeat. Add the utterly perfect Subal housing and this is a system to beat all. (Until the next one comes along, of course. But don't miss taking pictures this year, to wait for next year's camera as there will ALWAYS be another on the horizon and you will never get a photo.)
At a suggested retail of only $8000.00 it will be a great tool for the serious photographer. (I say "only" because a few years ago this many megapixels was over $30,000.00.) (The Nikon D700 is also an FX, i.e. full-frame film size, camera.)
Nikon D700 compared to the D3
Take virtually every lovely thing I said about the D3 and lower the price and you almost have a D700--especially when you consider only those features that we use underwater, For divers, the biggest advantage of the D3 is the 100% viewfinder, compared to the D700 which shows only 95% of the image. However, in playback mode, both cameras show 100% of the photo. I personally value the 100% viewfinder so much that I would be willing to save up and get the D3. For most divers, the large increase in cost will not be worth it. Many of the advanced features of the D3 are not used much underwater, such as shooting at 9 rather than only 5 frames per second. The faster processing speed of the D3 is of minimal value, as the D700 is still faster than our strobe recycle time. They have the same great three-inch LCD, a huge ISO 100 to 25,600 range, two live shooting modes, shutter speeds of 30 seconds to 1/8000th second and so on.
D3 and D700 lens choices:
With these cameras we are back to the original film format lenses, so you will want the 60mm micro Nikkor for your closest photos and the Nikkor fisheye AF 16mm f/2.8D to get full 180° of coverage. For distant fish, use the 105mm micro Nikkor, and choose from a wide range of zoom lenses, such as the Nikkor AF-S Zoom 14 - 24mm f/2.8G ED lens with an angle of 114° to 84° for everything in between.
Nikon D300s
The Nikon D300 is/was a wonderful camera, and now At 12 MP, you can make fine enlargements. It is fast, has the usual wide range of Nikon DX lenses, and the large 2 1/2-inch LCD screen makes reviewing your photos much easy. Like all pro Nikon cameras, the f-stop and shutter speed are single controls, easily accessed through a housing. Changing the point of focus is also a single button control for fast changes. There are no disadvantages that I can think of to the D300 except the size of the viewfinder when compared to the D3 and the lack of a true 60mm lens when compared to the FX cameras.
Lens choices for the D300
remain the same that we have used for all previous digital DX models. The 60 and 105mm micro Nikkor lenses for macro photography, the 10.5 mm for extreme wide angle, the Tokina 10 - 17 mm for extreme wide/zoom and there are lots of choices for the zoom range in between, including the Sigma 10 - 20 mm (not available for Sea and Sea housings), the Nikkor 12 - 24 mm and many more narrower ones. Check to see which lenses are supported by the housing of your choice as the zoom gears are proprietary to the housings
Sea and Sea DX-2G
The camera review is coming soon.
Sea and Sea MDX for D300
Sea and Sea has upgraded their housing style for the D300. The solid block aluminum housing shows many improved features. The f stop control is now a large gear on the corner of the housing which is easily reached while your index finger is on the shutter lever. The shutter speed dial is large and easy to turn with your thumb, and the focus point navigation buttons are shifted to the right and enlarged for easy use. The menu buttons are slanted to the left so that you can push them easily from the left handle. The focus CSM switch is now an easily accessible gear on the left.
Add the Sea and Sea TTL converter, and you have a fine, modern, improved, easy to use digital system. Ergonomically, this is about as good as it gets compared to Canon and compared to many other housings for Nikon.
Sea and Sea MDX housing tips for Nikon D300
The Sea and Sea housing for the D300 is a great housing but VERY heavy in the water. Use all Ultralight 2" diameter buoyancy arms. We use the 8" and 12" arms. Also, when you add the Sea and Sea TTL converter with the YS110a strobes, you will notice that when the converter is turned off and you are prepping the system, the camera will not fire at all after the metering system has turned off. You will need to turn the converter on to keep the camera functioning.
Updated: June 12, 2010