Question about D300 setup

[mintaka]

My wife and I have been using a D200 for a couple of years topside. We are pretty new divers and pretty new UW photographers. I have only had experience with a Sealife P&S, but did get a couple of decent shots. I have taken the AOW photography and PP Buoyancy class and expect my buoyancy skills to keep improving.

We absolutely want to get into UW photography and want to buy a setup soon. I was considering a $3000 Canon G10 setup, but then got to reading and thinking and obsessing until I'm not sure the "right" decision is possible
Just for the sake of argument, lets assume that money is not an issue.

My wife has wanted to upgrade the D200 to a D300 and would be doing this regardless of UW applications.
So, this is my question: will we be totally out of our league as new UW photographers if we had a D300 setup ( a Sea & Sea MDX-D300 Housing with a Sea & Sea YS-110alpha DS-TTL Strobe ,with TTL converter and all the ports and hardware necessary for a 60mm macro and a 12-24mm WA) ?

I dont want to spend $3000 for a P&S setup and be disappointed knowing I could have had better. At the same time I dont want to jump in the water with way more than I can handle. I could certainly live with a few dives that were frustrating at the beginning as long as improvement followed with the learning curve.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks !

 

[Ryan]

No.

The camera is easier to use in many ways than a compact system. This article on our site offers one person's perspective:
Reef Photo & Video Support Center - KnowledgeBase - Are You Ready to Upgrade to a SLR Rig? One Users Story

 

[scottfiji]

I was in exactly the same boat as you before. 2 years ago I was debating between a fuji E900 with wet lens, and a D80, S&S housing, TTL converter and 2 YS-110 strobes.

The D300 will be simple to use underwater. It's just point and shoot. You won't regret it.

Put on your 12-24mm lens, set your camera to ISO 200, F8, 1/100th and start shooting underwater. If your feeling crazy, you change even change the shutter speed and see what happens. Changing just one control, how hard can that be?

And then, the next try, try out your 60mm lens. Set the camera to ISO 200, F11, 1/100th and start shooting. If your feeling crazy, you change your aperture to F8 when your subject is farther away, and change it to F16 when you are shooting really close. Practice changing just the f-stop, how hard can that be?


go for the dSLR, you'll never regret it!

hope this helps

Scott

 

[mintaka]

Thanks all ! I'm impulsive and have already dropped the hammer. Probably wont be in the water (except for a pool test) for a month or so. I cant wait !

 

[jcclink]

If you're starting from scratch with a D300 setup I'd plan on spending $10,000 +/-. Camera, multiple lenses, strobes, housing/ports, spares (anything electronic), etc. Is your computer set up to process & store the larger files (~11mb ave)? I'm sure you know how a $1600 camera can snowball. I just upgraded from a D70 setup. Love the 300.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

And then, the next try, try out your 60mm lens. Set the camera to ISO 200, F11, 1/100th and start shooting. If your feeling crazy, you change your aperture to F8 when your subject is farther away, and change it to F16 when you are shooting really close.

Shooting macro you want to shoot the max strobe synch speed of
the camera (probably about 1/250), unless you are playing games
trying to get blue or green water in the background, in which case
you will need more like 1/60.

And if f/11 is working, you have REALLY wimpy strobes. Adm.
Linda is shooting about f/19 with her SB-105s at ASA 200 and
a 105mm. I'd be shooting about f/32 with my SB-104s at ASA 100,
but the lens will only stop down to f/22 so I just let the TTL
quench the strobe early (and can shoot click, click, click, click)

 

[scottfiji]

Implying that someone should start off at F19, F22 or F32 and 1/250th on their first dive with a 60mm lens is bad advice. FYI, ASA is from the film days, it is now ISO.

They will most likely be shooting at subjects at various distances, and when they take a shot at a fish 3ft away they will wonder why it is severely underexposed.

Mintaka's first couple dives will probably be focusing on getting the feel for the camera, not worrying about settings for every possible scenario. It's best to keep things simple for the first few dives.

Shooting macro you want to shoot the max strobe synch speed of
the camera (probably about 1/250), unless you are playing games
trying to get blue or green water in the background, in which case
you will need more like 1/60.

And if f/11 is working, you have REALLY wimpy strobes. Adm.
Linda is shooting about f/19 with her SB-105s at ASA 200 and
a 105mm. I'd be shooting about f/32 with my SB-104s at ASA 100,
but the lens will only stop down to f/22 so I just let the TTL
quench the strobe early (and can shoot click, click, click, click)

 

[mintaka]

Thanks all-- Yep, the setup was around $10k...still cant believe I did it. But I am an ex digital astrophotographer and my last camera for that hobby was 10K by itself, so I guess I am conditioned for expensive equipment (probably a bad thing )
Our computers are all set up for processing large files with PS CS4 and Lightroom...my wife is a topside semi-pro (sold a few) and really knows the software well. I have decent PS skills from my astrophotography days.
I appreciate all of the tips on aperature/exposure and strobes. I certainly want my first several dives to be plain vanilla warmups, so I'm grateful for the initial settings to try.

Strobes are a whole new ball of wax for me and its been ages since I've even used an external flash, so a lot to learn there. I'm only planning on using one strobe at first (YS-110alpha DS-TTL Strobe ,with TTL converter), aside from not having as much light, are there other disadvantages to a single strobe, such as uneven light distribution ?

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Implying that someone should start off at F19, F22 or F32 and 1/250th on their first dive with a 60mm lens is bad advice. FYI, ASA is from the film days, it is now ISO.

They will most likely be shooting at subjects at various distances, and when they take a shot at a fish 3ft away they will wonder why it is severely underexposed.

Mintaka's first couple dives will probably be focusing on getting the feel for the camera, not worrying about settings for every possible scenario. It's best to keep things simple for the first few dives.

Hey, I'm an old dinosaur. I was winning photo contests forty+
years ago. It's ASA. Not politically correct, but the American
Standards Association came up with it, and it works, and is
REALLY easy to convert to the sunny day exposure. The DIN
convention was more complicated. The ISO rating used to be
aaa/dd where aaa was the ASA number and dd was the DIN
number. The dd has long since disappeared (There's an old box
from expired in 2000 E100 VS on my desk, and it just says
ISO 100)

The 60mm is for shooting little tiny stuff, and 1/250 and a small
aperture will work for shooting tiny stuff. And there's LOTS of
cool tiny stuff.

If you want to shoot bigger stuff, you need a wider lens and get
closer. Howard Hall once said something like "to take good
pictures underwater, remove as much water as possible from
between the lens and the subject."

Shooting fish from 3 feet away is REALLY REALLY hard if you
want good results.

And if you want to pick nits, it's f/19, not F19.

 

[jcclink]

Most lenses are sharpest at f8-11, so there is a tradeoff between maximum sharpness & maximum depth of field (f22-32).