Nikon D70: Housing and Strobe Questions

[jjoeldm]

I did a quick search of threads and didn't see these questions answered so . . . .

I currently own a Nikonos V, Ikelite Substrobe 200 and a Sea & Sea YS90 with separate connectors for both strobes.

On the dry Nikon side, I have the original D70 & 18-70mm zoom and a Sigma 28-200mm macro-zoom. I will be buying a good wide-angle like the Sigma 10-20mm for this camera and an as-yet unspecified 1:1 macro lens (any suggestions?).

I am looking seriously at the Aquatica D-70 housing, but am open to any suggestions, although the 300 fsw depth rating is very appealing to me.

1) What ports will I need for that housing with these lenses? The base housing is $1700. What other accessories will I need for this housing and these lenses?

And I already assume that neither of my strobes will "work" in i-TTL mode with my D70 given its proprietary nature, so:

2) What strobes will work with this setup? Is there any sense in using either of these old strobes; is there any way to?

I'm not entirely clear on the UW strobe options for this camera. If a strobe will work in TTL mode, then great, but even my relatively newer Nikon Speedlight SB-50DX for my Nikon N80 film camera doesn't work except in manual mode with the D-70.

Thanks for any input on these questions.
JoeL

 

[alcina]

I would contact Ryan at ryan@reefphoto.com and ask him questions and let him know your needs. He's very good at sorting out gear to suit your specifics wants!

 

[Mike Veitch]

Your setup will work fine. Aquatica is a great way to go. THey have a fantastic set of extension rings that cover pretty much every lens choice. They also have an extremely wide port that will let you use some of the bigger lenses.

Your strobes are fine too. I have YS120s also older strobes, and they work just fine. Just no TTL.

 

[H2O Photo Pros]

The Aquatica housing is fantastic. Optics are great, the controls are smooth and the housing is nice and compact. The nice thing is the price. You are getting a quality housing for less than other manufacturers.

As for the wide angle lense. the 10.5mm fisheye is great. The 12-24 is great as well (but costly).

Other accessories would be the ports, port covers, leak detector, make sure you get the housing with dual bulkheads,

For your strobes, both wil work. I sell most of the systems with YS90 Autos or
YS120s (depending on what you are shooting primarily). For ports I am not sure (my specs dont show the Sigma 10-20 being supported with gears) but I will check on MOnday and let you know. For the 18-70 you need the dome port, dome shade and the zoom gear. If you are not shooting with Ultralight Control System arms for your strobes, I would suggest going with those as well.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance or if you have any questions.

 

[ssra30]

Aquatica is a nice housing. Subal and Seacam are even nicer but I am not sure if the price is really worth it except that you will have an option of adding a magnifying viewfinder which is quite useful for D70 smallish viewfinder.
If you want TTL, you have a couple of choices, house a SB800 with either Subal, Sealux and Fantasea housing or get Ikelite housing and Ikelite DS series strobe. Seacam will release an iTTL compatible strobe soon but it is rather expensive.
Wide angle, 10.5mm, 12-24mm and Sigma 15mm would be a good place to start. Sigma 10-22mm or whatever it is, 12-24mm and Tokina 12-24mm are some alternatives but I am not sure which lenses are supported by which manufacturers.

Macro wide, either 60mm or 105mm would be a good place to start. Some like one over the other, most end up with both or like myself, a 70-180mm macro zoom with 5T/6T diopter as well.
I am not a big fan of the 18-70mm as it is not quite wide enough for good wide angle shot and does not focus enough for good macro, kind of stuck in the middle, ok for big fish portrait, I suppose.

 

[jjoeldm]

I'd be doing the majority of my shooting with the ultra-wide and close-ups. Last year I was in the Carolines in Truk and several of the dives were below 200'. I took my Nikonos V down anyway and it held up fine. I'm interested in a dive trip to Bikini Atoll in the next few years and some of my cave diving is below 200'.

I'm still not entirely clear about TTL and non-TTL. It seems like strobe manufacturers go to a lot of trouble to make their guns TTL compatible, so what are we talking about here if I were to stick with the Ikelite SS 200 in the short-term? How much control is available and how much trouble are we talking about? How will my shooting regimen change?

I was planning on selling my V and the strobes on fleabay and using that to help fund the new equipment. I get the impression that their DS strobes are NOT TTL with non-Ikelite housings.

Is this a problem that is going to go away as more vendors get involved making adapters and/or strobes for the new proprietary digital flash circuitry? Don't I _want_ TTL? I'm a lazy photographer, so it wouldn't surprise me to hear back that the more dedicated sorts prefer manual flash to TTL for finer control, esp with a housed camera.

I can go another season or two using film. I wouldn't want to get into a solution that is short-term or incomplete. I might even consider selling the D70 if there is a better option in the same price-range, considering the cost of housings.

However, I do have a limited budget where a housing is concerned. It seems to me that once you house a DSLR, all of the savings on the land side from discarding film are lost to the cost of the housing and accessories. On my Truk trip film and developing costs (before prints -- I scan every slide) were nearly $300, so over time, digital will probably end up being MORE costly when you consider the life-span of a typical DSLR purchase. It doesn't look like the ROI is as relevant a consideration as much as control and end-result.

Thanks to all who have posted so far. All of your responses have been useful to me.

JoeL