Newbie Help Pls

[freshie24]

Planning to take my 13 yr old boy to the Caribbean this summer for a week long diving vacation and would really like to document the trip. This will be his second year diving and the first time at any warm water location.

I have a considerable investment in Nikon gear and figure my backup camera, the D200 and a 15mm 3.5 rectilinear would work pretty well. It seems I'm doomed to paying for the $1,300 Ikelite housing, but I need to figure out what strobes would fit my needs. The majority of my dives are in cold water locations with an occasional deep water dive. What light setup would you recommend for the above setup? We'll be doing 3 dives a day in some locations, so battery life might be an issue.

Also, I realize that a LOT of practice is ahead of me. I have a pool and plan on practicing late afternoon and night time to simulate low light conditions. Can anyone recommend some targets to practice with? Maybe some neutrally buoyont targets?

I should be able to get at least a half dozen practice runs doing cold water dives before the trip in addition to the pool work. Is shooting in cold water any different than warm, besides of course the light conditions?

I've really enjoyed the pictures I've seen browsing the site. Hopefully, in about 6 months, I'll have something worthy to post.

 

[mjh]

If you buy an Ike housing you might as well go with Ike strobes, I think then you can shoot TTL if you like. As far as strobes go IMHO the more power the better.

 

[Larry C]

The DS-161 will act as a strobe, aiming light and dive light, but it's a bit pricey. If you are doing WA, though, as the 15mm indicates, you'll want the power.

 

[Warren_L]

i would second the Ikelite strobes. The DS-160s will do. The DS-161s have video capability but if you do not have a camera that shoots video or plan on shooting video, the DS-160s will be fine. The other option is to pick up a used set of DS-125s.

 

[JaneMitchell]

I agree ... if you're going Ikelite then go the Ikelite strobes. I use the D160s as they were the best I could afford at the time...figure they'll last me a while