New to SCUBA...and new to U/W photography

[Ruxton]

As the title states, I'm new to SCUBA (just got my OW last month and will be going to get my Advanced Adventure dives done next month). I've done some reading and decided on the TG-4 camera as I liked the features I saw but now I'm at the split in the road between housings and strobes/lights. Presently considering Ikelite housings as well as Olympus housings. Same for the strobes/lights. Looking for some good/bad stories on each so I can do some more research before my next set of dives so I can have my camera rigged and ready. Any and all help is appreciated. I know there's things I need to work on as a diver to have good pictures, so that's understood. But what I'm looking for is the combination of gear/rigs and the capability that rig gives me. I'm not totally sure of some of the potential compatibility issues, if any. Kinda feels like the first time I built my own PC...

TIA.

 

[mattia_v]

As a not so experienced diver who started photography too soon in many ways (i.e. Around my 20th dive)...focus on diving first. On perfect situational awareness. On bouyancy control that does not require a lot of conscious thought but that can run as a 'background process'.

Then add a camera (shoot raw, use a red filter) for snaps. When you're starting out, even a camera without a strobe (or even a GoPro without so much as a screen!) can be so distracting as too make you at best a danger to the reef, and at worst a danger to yourself and your buddy. Strobes and arms and wet lenses make everything even more difficult.

It's fun, yes, but learn to dive better first.

As for strobes, I believe the Oly strobes are mostly rebranded seas and sea units.

 

[Ruxton]

As a not so experienced diver who started photography too soon in many ways (i.e. Around my 20th dive)...focus on diving first. On perfect situational awareness. On bouyancy control that does not require a lot of conscious thought but that can run as a 'background process'.

Then add a camera (shoot raw, use a red filter) for snaps. When you're starting out, even a camera without a strobe (or even a GoPro without so much as a screen!) can be so distracting as too make you at best a danger to the reef, and at worst a danger to yourself and your buddy. Strobes and arms and wet lenses make everything even more difficult.

It's fun, yes, but learn to dive better first.

As for strobes, I believe the Oly strobes are mostly rebranded seas and sea units.

Thank you for the information.

 

[jmartel]

I would wait until you get at least 20-25 dives in. That being said, some people don't want to wait, so here's some information.

Regarding the camera considerations. For a TG-4, I'd just get the Olympus housing for it. Cheap, works well, good basic package. Put the money difference into strobes/tray/arms and eventually wet lenses.

For a strobe, I would look at the Sea & Sea YS-01. Gives you a bit more control than the YS-03, but at a not significant increase in cost. The YS-D2 is a wonderful flash, but quite a bit more expensive. I have one of each. Starting out with 1 is fine, but eventually dual strobes will make a significant difference.

For your strobe arms, I would avoid the loc-line/flex style arms and go with a decent ball-arm setup. The cheap ones aren't so great, but i-DAS makes some pretty good ones for less money than Nauticam. For the clamps, I'd definitely go Nauticam though. They aren't much more than the i-Das, and they are a huge step up from the cheap ones. A good combo for most people seems to be a 7" arm and a 9" arm. 7" goes closer to the housing, 9" goes to the strobe (with the YS mount end rather than 2 balls)

Cheap ones that aren't great to use:
Flex Arm 1/2" Package 10" Long Arms
Lightweight 8in Ball Arm & Clamp (I started out with this style. Hard to get to the correct tension setting underwater, scratch up very easily, etc)

Ones worth getting:
2x Nauticam Standard Clamp
i-DAS BM-i09 9in Aluminum YS-BB Arm
I-DAS BB-i07 7in Aluminum B-B Arm

And a basic tray with single handle will probably be fine for starting out. Get one that can add a second handle to later if you want to add a second strobe.

 

[Skeptic14]

I didn't follow the 20-25 dives general rule of thumb before bringing along a camera, by dive 8 I already had my tg-4 and ys-03 and by 18 my wide angle lens.

It depends and you'll have to see if it's too much to worry about a camera and strobe that soon or not. It might be helpful to keep it simple initially, maybe pick one mode for your camera and don't worry too much about making adjustments once you splash.

The TG-4 is a good camera to start out with in UW photography and you can add accessories as you go, it's an addictive hobby!

 

[Ruxton]

Yeah I find it hard to go for my Advanced Adventure diving with the U/W photography as one of the options....and not having a camera do it with.

 

[jmartel]

For reference, I had about 5 dives before I did a week trip in Grand Cayman with a GoPro and added another 20 dives. Luckily, with a GoPro there wasn't really anything for me to do other than turn it on and swim around, occasionally pressing one button.

I switched to my mirrorless setup after roughly 28-30 dives total.

If you can set it to an auto-mode and turn the strobe onto the TTL mode, then you can probably get away with breaking the 20-25 dive rule of thumb. Depends on how comfortable you are in the water. Make sure you have a tether on it and connected to your BCD. That way, if you suddenly need both hands, you can drop it and not worry about it getting lost. Plus, if it's attached to your BCD, then your hands are completely free. You won't have a weight on the end pulling your hand down.

 

[JackConnick]

The YS-01 is not fully compatible with the TG-4 camera. It doesn't work in TTL, but will work in manual mode. We don't recommend it with this camera. You can get it to work by putting the camera flash into slave mode, but you will need to do this every time you turn the camera on. The YS-03 is a lot cheaper and includes the cord. The tray and arm are a "starter" set, I would look at something better as you get into it.

 

[Ruxton]

I got a YS-03 Thanks to Mr Skeptic14 and some other reviews I did.

 

[KeithG]

As for strobes, I believe the Oly strobes are mostly rebranded seas and sea units.

The ufl1 is a rebranded ys17. the ufl2 and ufl3 use sea & sea enclosure, but the guts of these strobes are all olympus.