D90 Ikelite Housing prob: what's going on?

[UW_again]

The 12-24 zoom requires a +3 or +4 diopter. It will focus topside, only very close. The diopter clears up soft focus in corners.

not an issue JCCLink as I'm using an 18-55, which works great for me right now BTW

 

[UW_again]

Check all of your camera focus settings. The problem seems to be associated with low light conditions and the camera may be having difficulty sensing and focusing on an object. I had a similar problem with a D300 and changed my focus settings (I'll have to check the camera to see what I ended up doing, but it involved more than one setting). Also, the UV filter can be contributing to the problem. I followed the Ikelite recommendation on the 12-24 lens to include a diopter, at which point the camera would not focus above water (I never tried underwater).

since I'm not using the 12-24 lens, that's not an issue I AM using the 18-55 tho, and it's working well for me for right now. The uv filter doesn't seem to be an issue either.

 

[UW_again]

Keep away from auto mode underwater. Its great onland but not so great underwater. With lots of sun I usually up the shutter speed (turn FP onto auto and go higher than 1/200th) and shoot manual mode.

Regards Mark

Thanks for the advice, am finding out on auto the D90 overexposes by at least a stop to maybe a stop and a third. WHICH the camera also does out of water I am finding out

 

[WetLens]

Had similar problems with my D90 in an Ike housing on a recent trip. Shutter wouldn't fire for various reasons and sorting through them all took time and lost opportunities. As this was a shakedown trip for the system, it was all to be expected.

Concur with looking for other knobs/levers pressing in odd buttons. Especially troublesome was the strobe EV adjustment and the camera EV adjustment. Got in the habit of clearing all knobs/levers at the start of each dive - became a routine: turn on strobes, check strobe power/TTL position, fan bubbles off camera, turn camera on, move all levers.

Also had trouble at depth with the shutter. Past 100', I started having sporatic problems with the shutter not firing. Thought it was focus related but problem persisted when I flipped to manual focus. Could not fire the shutter past 130' (was the camera acting as a dive coach?). On the trip home, finally sorted out that the shutter lever may need to be adjusted. Theory is that the lever was moving to a position that interferes with the on/off ring. A slight bend - or adjusting and gluing the rubber end piece hopefully will cure this problem.

Did a lot of experimenting with EV settings for metering. Old standby of using -0.7 was my starting point. Blue seemed pretty bright, so I ratcheted through -1, -1.3, -1.7. In certain conditions, these looked better on the camera's screen. However, reviewing the photos on a computer screen revealed that -0.7 continues to be the best "average" setting.

Tried using P setting for wide angle stuff, but ended up back in M. Much easier to control the shot.

Tried 3D focus while shooting fish. I didn't find it to be any better that standard mode. Next time I'll experiment with AF Lock as I continue to have issues with the shot being what I want in the finder, but the camera not liking the focus point.

D90 users: Is the Info button the best thing since sliced bread, or what?

 

[Mariozi]

For those of you using manual, how do you meter?

I leave my camera on matrix since the day I buy it to the day I sell it!
Back in the film days when we HAD to nail down the exposure on max 3 shots with no LCD we used to play around on metering and use it really well...
Now with the back LCD for checking it, and shooting manual (which makes me KNOW in advance that underwater I can start my exposures at f/8@1/125s, ISO200) I just shoot-adjust-shoot again.

 

[John Gulliver]

I leave my camera on matrix since the day I buy it to the day I sell it!
Back in the film days when we HAD to nail down the exposure on max 3 shots with no LCD we used to play around on metering and use it really well...
Now with the back LCD for checking it, and shooting manual (which makes me KNOW in advance that underwater I can start my exposures at f/8@1/125s, ISO200) I just shoot-adjust-shoot again.

How well does that work with subjects that only take up a small part of the frame, like pipefish, especially against a dark background, Marcelo? Don't your strobes burn the fish? Wouldn't centre-weighted metering be bättre in such cases?

 

[Mariozi]

I don't use TTL, my flash setting is in manual as well.
So there is absolutely no difference...

This maybe deserves a thread on it's own:
If you think about he last 10y of UW shooting, it is really simple to shoot underwater.
In film days we had "daylight film" which means our WB was stuck at "daylight".
We had no LCD, and still most of us never used TTL for WA at least, in macro it has always been useful. And we had amazing images...

Today I dive and shoot the same way! WB at "daylight" most of the time (in macro sometimes I set it to my strobes flash temp.), I don't need to care about metering for WA... I got the back LCD. In macro some TTL would be useful, but if I used it I would still be in Matrix to avoid the hassle, and if I saw something tricky as you described (black/white background) I would just play it down on the Exposure Comp. or Flash Exp. Comp. just as we did when shooting with film 10y ago. No biggie.

 

[UW_again]

Had similar problems with my D90 in an Ike housing on a recent trip. Shutter wouldn't fire for various reasons and sorting through them all took time and lost opportunities. As this was a shakedown trip for the system, it was all to be expected.

Concur with looking for other knobs/levers pressing in odd buttons. Especially troublesome was the strobe EV adjustment and the camera EV adjustment. Got in the habit of clearing all knobs/levers at the start of each dive - became a routine: turn on strobes, check strobe power/TTL position, fan bubbles off camera, turn camera on, move all levers.

Also had trouble at depth with the shutter. Past 100', I started having sporatic problems with the shutter not firing. Thought it was focus related but problem persisted when I flipped to manual focus. Could not fire the shutter past 130' (was the camera acting as a dive coach?). On the trip home, finally sorted out that the shutter lever may need to be adjusted. Theory is that the lever was moving to a position that interferes with the on/off ring. A slight bend - or adjusting and gluing the rubber end piece hopefully will cure this problem.

Did a lot of experimenting with EV settings for metering. Old standby of using -0.7 was my starting point. Blue seemed pretty bright, so I ratcheted through -1, -1.3, -1.7. In certain conditions, these looked better on the camera's screen. However, reviewing the photos on a computer screen revealed that -0.7 continues to be the best "average" setting.

Tried using P setting for wide angle stuff, but ended up back in M. Much easier to control the shot.

Tried 3D focus while shooting fish. I didn't find it to be any better that standard mode. Next time I'll experiment with AF Lock as I continue to have issues with the shot being what I want in the finder, but the camera not liking the focus point.

D90 users: Is the Info button the best thing since sliced bread, or what?

Thanks for the detailed (and insightful BTW) description and troubleshooting process for this problem - which is EXACTLY what I experienced. Mine was evident at 80'-90' and when I went shallower to about 60' there was no problem. So I think your assesment of the problem is correct. Like the pressure is pushing in the rod which then gets caught up on the outer ring surrounding the shutter release button. I found that flipping the shutter release lever on the housing up and then down took care of that problem in most cases - possibly it re engages the spring and moves the shaft in the housing's gland. I liked your solution but also maybe some kind of plastic spacer over the shaft on the outside of the housing between it and the lever to prevent the shaft from going too far into the housing would also work. I have noticed on my housing that the housing's shutter release shaft does seem a bit too long - by several mm or sixteenth's of an inch.
I'll have to try your EV racheting experiment and see what results I get.
I like the info button too, beats the heck out of the u/w slate writing down the photo stats in the olden film days!
regards
Richard

 

[WetLens]

Follow-up on shutter control lever... Dove the U352 yesterday. Glued the rubber end piece in place and it worked fine. Shot a few frames on the way down as test shots. Hit the bottom at ~105', settled in to take a couple of lionfish photos and the shutter would not fire. Went back through the routine of clearing all knobs and levers, confirmed that the shutter lever was hitting squarely on the camera's shutter release (it was) - camera still would not fire. Turned camera off and back on. Frame counter showed -E-. I took 6 photos in the room the night before the dive and at least three photos on the way down to the wreck! No way it could be -E-. Packed it in and continued with the dive.

Back on the boat, checked and there was an 8Gb card in the slot. Pulled out the card and reinserted. Worked fine. Standard procedure is to use the camera to reformat the memory card rather than delete - did that after the last trip. Images from the room and descent were on the stick. ????? Reformatted again, reloaded, and took on the next dive. Rattled off 105 shots - max depth 100'. Not sure what to make of all this...

 

[jcclink]

When you want to clear the CF card, format is the best & most reliable option. Do not do this on a computer - only in the camera. If the card is formated properly, I don't see where deleting files should make a difference.