Nikon D90 housings Ikelite domes, arm length etc

[roby jeff]

My son ans I have just ordered a Nikon D90 with Nikor 18-55VR lens and a fish eye Tokina 10 17 lens to go with our current S & S DX1G compact camera.
We are confused as to what Ikelite productÃÔ are best suited to our modest skills and ambitions. pros and cons.
* Do we use the 6 inch or 8 inch domes ...especialy WITH the fish eye lens????
*We want to use 2 x DS160 stobes but we am not sure what lenghth arms we need ??? 14, 16 or 18 inch ..what would be best suited to cover the wide angle lens etc.??
*We would greatly appreciate any ideas and opinions or if any one thinks their may be better options than ikelite.??
We were thinking Ikelite because TTL came standard and it seems modestly priced .

 

[Katamuki]

Use the 8 inch, the increased dome size makes for crisp edges along the photo. Great combination. I seem to rarely use anything other than the 10-17 nowadays, the photos are just too much fun!

I use the 160 strobes and like them alot. Good lighting with great coverage. Recently one has quite firing but I fully expect Ikelite to fix this with no problem. All my repairs with them have been painless and they are very quick to respond. (I own 3 housing systems with about 20,000 photos between them all). With the FE lens you will need a very wide stance with the strobes. I use two 9 inch arms on each side with the FE.

As for TTL, junk it. The default 1/60 shutter speed with TTL will defeat the ability of the D90 and the lenses you have for clear crisp photos. Get used to shooting at about F8 and 1/200 with the 10-17 and you will be very happy.

 

[Katamuki]

From about 2 feet away with the Tokina 10-17

f stop:F/13.0 exposure:1/200 sec. focal length:17.0 mm

From 5 feet away with Tokina 10-17

f stop:F/9.0 exposure:1/200 sec. focal length:10.0 mm

 

[CheddarChick]

beautiful.....

 

[scottfiji]

The D90, ike housing, 10-17mm and 2 DS-160's sounds like a great choice. You may eventually want a macro lens, like the nikon 60mm lens and a flat port.

here's the Ikelite port chart, you'll see the 10-17mm at the bottom.
Nikon SLR Port Chart

Many people use 6 inch domes successfully with the 10-17mm, and enjoy them because they are smaller, lighter, and easier to do CFWA shots of rhinopias, frogfish, etc. with. Edge sharpness problems in small dome ports is more common with lenses that don't focus close. The 10-17mm lens focuses very close.

I have a 6 and 8 1/2 inch dome port and I haven't noticed a difference with my 10-17mm, although I can only speak for the S&S dome ports, I haven't personally compared the ikelite ports.

You will probably want 2 arms on each side. I use 2 8-inch arms, but other people have different preferences.

>> The default 1/60 shutter speed with TTL will defeat the ability of the D90 and the lenses you have for clear crisp photos.

Katamuki, I'm just curious, why are you seeing a 1/60th default shutter speed? People using TTL should be shooting in manual mode, and they can set any shutter speed they want.

Scott

 

[Katamuki]

Scott,
If your shooting in MANUAL mode then your not using TTL metering. TTL would defeat the idea of background exposure with the f-stop or foreground with the shutter speed. TTL will work in full automatic mode, aperture mode where the camera defaults to a pre-set shutter speed allowing the user to set the f-stop, and of course shutter speed priority like you mention. When you choose shutter speed like you do in your example then you are unable to either lighten or darken the background with the f-stop as the camera is striving to illuminate the metered portion set by the camera.

Pictures like this one with black backgrounds or even blue shades are done with changing the f-stop, with TTL they are next to impossible as the camera metering is trying to illuminate the background...

In addition, if you use shutter priorities to shoot a "fast" shot and the camera selects the f-stop the field of view will be very narrow. A reef with alot of activity will not be as nice a scene as you can achieve by selecting a higher f-stop (lets say f8 rather than the camera defaulting to f3.2) a fast shutter speed (1/200 to catch the definition of the fish/coral/diver) and choosing full power from the strobes to illuminate it all.

This picture is manually shot with f8.0, 1/200 @ 10mm with a wide field of view...

 

[Katamuki]

Scott, I went to your website and you have some gorgeous photos! I must confess after looking the website I dont understand the statement, "People using TTL should be shooting in manual mode, and they can set any shutter speed they want." Probably just slipping my mind as its been known to happen before.

 

[AussieByron]

I use my Nikon D90 and D80 in manual mode with my two Ikelite DS125 strobes in TTL.

I have no problems in getting black backgrounds when using high f stop numbers like f29.

60mm (f29, 1/80th ISO 100)

60mm (f29, 1/80th ISO 100)

60mm (f29, 1/80th ISO 100)

Regards Mark

 

[AussieByron]

Turning on FP will get you what ever shutter speed you want ;-)

 

[AussieByron]

Here is a shot taken at 10mm (f8, 1/200th ISO 100) in manual mode with Strobes TTL'ed.