Does any Mfg make a digital underwater camera

[Nemrod]

Those are housed cameras. I think they're a relatively inexpensive digital that have been branded by Sealife. For the money I think most people would be ahead of the game just picking their favorite Olympus or Canon and housing it.

Exactly and in no way, optically or otherwise, do they (cheap Sealife cameras) ever begin to compare with a Nikonos with underwater corrected Nikon optics.

N

 

[bvanant]

No, they don't and why I cannot imagine. My two Nikonos III cameras were light, small, compact, durable with superior optics. Now all we get is cheap P&S and dSLRs. I hate dSLRs. My Nikonos III rigs were smaller and lighter than my Canon 570 rigs today and of course were far more capable but I could only shoot 36 exposures and could not check my work until I got home, oh well. We live in an age of a one year obsolescence cycle and plastic dSLRs that get one drop of saltwater on them and the magic smoke comes out. Try putting that back in, good luck.

While I agree that the wide angle lens (the 15 mm) for the Nikonos was superior, the idea of using a framer for macro is a complete joke. Here's how it went typically, let's guess at the distance and the exposure and now put the face of the little fish between these two plastic bars then press the button. Yes they were small (but with strobes and arms not that small) and had arguably the best wide angle lens ever, but they also flooded a lot and in general (other than the RS) used 1950 technology. The reason that Nikon bailed was that there would be no market in such a technology. But for those of you with too much time and some killer engineering skills look at
Digital Nikonos Industry Design Challenge :: DivePhotoGuide.com - The Underwater Photo & Video Portal

I would bet that there will be no winner except maybe for the lens adapter system. If you want to shoot film, I would guess that Chris Newbert has a garage full of subeyes that you could get cheap.
Bill

 

[Nemrod]

No, they don't and why I cannot imagine. My two Nikonos III cameras were light, small, compact, durable with superior optics. Now all we get is cheap P&S and dSLRs. I hate dSLRs. My Nikonos III rigs were smaller and lighter than my Canon 570 rigs today and of course were far more capable but I could only shoot 36 exposures and could not check my work until I got home, oh well. We live in an age of a one year obsolescence cycle and plastic dSLRs that get one drop of saltwater on them and the magic smoke comes out. Try putting that back in, good luck.

While I agree that the wide angle lens (the 15 mm) for the Nikonos was superior, the idea of using a framer for macro is a complete joke. Here's how it went typically, let's guess at the distance and the exposure and now put the face of the little fish between these two plastic bars then press the button. Yes they were small (but with strobes and arms not that small) and had arguably the best wide angle lens ever, but they also flooded a lot and in general (other than the RS) used 1950 technology. The reason that Nikon bailed was that there would be no market in such a technology. But for those of you with too much time and some killer engineering skills look at
Digital Nikonos Industry Design Challenge :: DivePhotoGuide.com - The Underwater Photo & Video Portal

I would bet that there will be no winner except maybe for the lens adapter system. If you want to shoot film, I would guess that Chris Newbert has a garage full of subeyes that you could get cheap.
Bill

So what you are saying is that a Sea Life camera is a better photographic piece of equipment than a Nikonos?

Seriously, I would not rig it nor did I with huge strobes and long arms and neither of my Nikonos ever flooded nor were they prone to and I don't care a flip about macro unfortunately for me I guess.

Actually, I am not disagreeing with you, hope you are not overly tweaked. With a wide angle or fisheye type, full frame, I would rig two small S2000 strobes on the handles with butterfly clamps and there would be no arms and when FIX or Sea & Sea or somebody makes an aluminum housing for that new Oly that is my plan. It will be compact and streamlined compared to a bulky dSLR rig.

N

 

[SUMURPHY0300]

I bought a Sea&Sea-DX 1200HD for around $525.00. It's really a great digital / video camera with all the functions one will need. It's easy to operate on-land and underwater. Granted, I bumped up against a problem with it during it's maiden dives -- the battery hung-up after a few shots / videoing and can't be powered back up for the entire dives until after surfacing. I removed the battery and then re-inserted it again in order to start it back up. I just returned the unit to Sea&Sea and have them look at it. I hope it's nothing serious. But barring this from ever happening again (otherwise, I will write a not so kind recommendation), it's really a great u/w camera to consider.

 

[siikik]

I would have thought that any true film-camera enthusiast would have "rolled his own" so to speak. I remember buying film in bulk 100' rolls along with the canisters and could comfortably fit 50-60 frames inside. Which, of course, I developed and subsequently reused the canister. Now that's recycling!

Of course, that cannot even begin to compare to the capacity of a DSLR. Sure, the manufacturing has gone more to plastics since the good old days, but there are plenty of good optics to be had. And you can get filters for color correction should you need it. The inexpensive FE-360 housing mentioned above will accept external filters like a Nikonos.

While film might have more grain than a digital file, my DLSR will produce a 24"x36" print without noticeable picture degradation... so I can print 8"x10" pictures all day long and never see a blip... even from a .jpg file.

I loved my old film cameras and playing in the darkroom... but there's no need to do it anymore. Be nostalgic all you want, but it's time to embrace technology. Which, BTW, my DLSR is well over a year old and there has been only one model since then that I would even consider superior... When it's released, it will also be three times the price but will still use the same lenses and accessories.



Ken