I would like to switch to digital........

[raxafarian]

beware that buying the housing kind of locks you into your current camera. The digital camera seem to change body styles rapidly and drastically rendering your housing obsolete along with your camera.

troy... not familiar with the sony, but if it is discontinued, I'm not too sure I'd buy a housing for it.

I've heard good comments about the olympus, but never tried one.

I love my nikon 995 in ikelite housing. It uses a sync cord, so I'm not locked into just a few strobes... I can use any ttl strobe.

good points:
1. incredible macro... focuses to less than 1 inch
2. no preflash... use any strobe
3. uses compact flash.... I get 220 or so pics on a 256mb card


bad points
1. slight shutter lag... all digitals except slr type
2. nothing else comes to mind

if you want to see some pics taken with this setup:

http://www.raxafarian.com/bonaire
http://www.raxafarian.com/largo

 

[raxafarian]

very nice pics Dee

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by Wally_lamma
Your pic's are great.
I will echo the film thing also. Only used my MM-II twice before trying a digital.

I have been trying out a OLY D150 with a housing. Seems to work good.
Do you use any outboard filters or lens? Also do you use a different light setting when your underwater or do you let the camera do the selection. As you will gather from my questions the OLY D-150 is pretty much an point and shoot as compared to the MM-II or other high end Digitals.


Thanks
CHrisR

No, no filters. I've never used them with any camera. The photos posted here were taken using the zoom feature with spot macro. There were also some of the very first ones taken and I think I was using the Program Mode. The lighting was ambient light. But when using the camera flash, the
setting was EV-3. The internal flash is alittle too hot for macro.

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by raxafarian
very nice pics Dee

So are yours!

 

[clive francis]

cool pics rax..... interesting how you chose to keep the barreling effect of the lens in the shot with the lamp post.

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by clive francis
the deep blue cool pics rax..... interesting how you chose to keep the barreling effect of the lens in the shot with the lamp post.

Isn't that deep-blue website yours, Mr. Francis?

 

[Mike Newman]

Caymaniac, you've had great advice and assistance from Dee (Dee your pics are outstanding!)

I can just add two cents' worth in favour of going digital. I recently invested in the Olympus PT-005 housing to take the Camedia 3020 Zoom camera (please note - Olympus have retained the same body style while upgrading features, many cameras fit the PT-005 housing. )

The combination is awesome. On my first outing I got some great shots in an uninspiring and slightly murky environment. The accompanying Bluegill shot and pic of my son are examples.

It cost me well under a $1000 for my digital combination - Dee's camera is at the cutting edge of consumer digitals right now, mine a step back from the brink - but the price is dropping every month.

The shutter lag is a nuisance, but can be coped with - exactly as Dee suggests.

By the way, if you want to know more about underwater photography generally, try this site. http://www.uwpmag.co.uk/

 

[Mike Newman]

Sorry - haven't used the attach feature before on this Board. For some reason, the second picture didn't appear. This is the one I meant to send. BTW - I also used the Macro setting, like Dee, but the internal flash was fine, I found.

 

[Dee]

You're bluegills look just like ours! Great pictures too! Don'tcha just love digital?!?

 

[MerKiwi]

Brilliant pics Dee. Been using my friends Olympus setup too, though I think his is the model with around 2 megapixels. Couldn't get used to the shutter lag though. Was using it in moderate current so it was near impossible centering the subject. I also found that the flash is not strong enough in low light.

Does anyone know if there're housings sold for nikon cameras?