Housing/Camera for deep photography. Need help

[GF99/99]

Hi guys,

I am brand new to underwater photography but not new to photography. I have been shooting wildlife photography for about 6 years now currently shoot 1dx mark 2's one with a 600 mark 2 and another that I alternate between a 70-200 mark 2 and 200-400. I am super familiar with canon and there big lenses but thats about it, I do own an older first generation 24-70L 2.8 but just use that for misc photos and not very often. UW is a whole new world to me, obviously I am partial to the Canon platform however the bodies and lens I have are pretty much useless so I am very open to starting from scratch, and am very open to switching to mirrorless.

I am looking for a setup that is somewhat light and easy to travel with but the real catch is what options are out there for depths below 100 meters. I have fallen in love with sub 100 meter diving and my passion for photography is catching up with my diving passion so I would love to combine the both of them. But I just wanted to see if there are others shooting below 100 meters and what setups they are using? Also open to strobe suggestions as well.

 

[Ovahimba]

I haven't seen a housing rated at that depth, though Aquatica housings have been known to be sturdier than most, but for the depths you're talking about its not going to be light and easy to travel with, nor cheap. Being a Canon person as well, I will be waiting for the new R5/R6 to be tested underwater in the various new housings, which probably won't happen until the end of the year.

 

[Barmaglot]

Easydive universal housings are rated to 150m out of the box, as they don't have direct mechanical linkages to camera controls. Other high-end manufacturers (Nauticam, Subal, Seacam, Aquatica) offer spring upgrade kits to handle depths in the 130m range; you can find some relevant discussion here: What gear for 120-130m?

 

[scubadada]

The Nauticam housing for your 1DXII is rated to 100m and runs just under $6000

 

[sea_ledford]

All of the people I know that dive that deep and take pictures or video use Nauticam housings. Don't bother with any non-metal housings. They may hold up, but the pressure makes them deform and the buttons don't line up anymore. For the aquatica housing I used down to 200', I had the deep springs installed as well. Not sure if nauticam has the same option.

I'm not sure if any of the strobes would be rated and functional at 100m. Might be better to stick with video lights and a camera that can do super high ISO.

One woman I know has a Sony Apha7 something or another, with a nauticam housing along with an adapter to use the old Nikonos 15mm lens. I haven't seen it up close, so I don't know exactly how it works from a connecting body to housing to lens orientation. But she gets some amazing shots with it.

 

[GF99/99]

Hi all,

THanks for the responses. Just to clarify I am not interested in getting a housing for the 1dx bodies I already have thats is just a beast of a body to setup for underwater photography. I am very much interested in the R5/R6 or the A7 platform or the A9. I have looked at the Nauticam housings but all specifically state 100m rating and I would be too scared to take it deeper. I have seen that they use to make a 150m housing for the older 5d Mark 3 but these seems to be hard to get a hold of.

Last week we took a Nauticam housing with a RX100 iv down to 130m but the buttons stick and we flooded one video light. Also we new that there was a high possibility of it flooding but flooding a well used point and shoot that is only worth couple hundred dollars is alot different then flooding a several thousand dollar body and lens. So I am really looking for something that is reliable at those depths.

 

[Chris Ross]

You are probably not at a great risk of flooding a housing when you go deep - o-rings work better with more pressure, the risk is buttons not working etc. eventually you get deep enough that housings components bend and lose clamping force on the o-ring some companies offer deep kits with stronger springs. You can run into problems with various accessories like strobes and lights as you discovered. If you are looking at Nauticam housings I have Canon 1D bodies I use on land and to house that the cost for just the housing was more than a complete micro43 system with cameras, lenses ports etc. so I ended up with an Olympus EM-1 MkII system which I've been happy with. I know Aquatica have a deep (130m) option for their housings but you would need to see what ports were available in ratings greater than 100m. Seacam says greater depth available on request for some housings (likely $$$$). Subal has a 120m option ($$$)

If you are wanting to go deeper than 100m the other issue you will run up against is the ratings for domes a lot are rated for 100m, but not all of them, many are only 60m so that could restrict what you can shoot. You might need to hit the manufacturer's websites to see what options there are for deep rated domes - some are better than others in including the spec for their ports depth rating. The Nauticam domes are rated at 60 or 100m for their glass domes while some of the acrylic domes are rated at 150m. The problem with the domes is the big surface area which leads to really very high loading on the dome glass with the pressures you get at depth.

For strobes they all seem to be limited to 100m or less except for OneUW strobes which are rated at 200m. They are good strobes by all accounts but a little pricey.

If you want portable, you would be looking at smaller sensor options - dome port size scales with sensor size and while full frame mirrorless bodies and housings are smaller if you want to shoot rectilinear wide you are looking at big domes. It's not just the camera it's the complete system housings - ports- UW suitable lenses, particularly if you want to go deep. A micro43system is going to be easy carry-on international travel option while a SLR or even full frame mirrorless is going to more of a struggle, depending on what lenses you want to shoot. If you go with fisheyes you can use mini domes rectilinear wides need big domes. Nauticam's water contact options like WWL are limited to 100m.

 

[weeksd]

Have a Aquatica housing rated 100 metres for the d40,d60. It is about the size of the micro 4/3 setup. Easy to travel with. Aquatica housing, aquatica extension for 16-85mm len, 6 inch dome port, nikon d60, ikelite AI strobe rated 100 metres and ikelite 100A strobe also 100 metres. All items in good condition. The ikelite 100 A strobe is excellent as it was my backup. All you would need is 16-85mm lens or your lens with a different zoom gear. $2000usd