sapphire:
OK, I got to this point, not by choice, but by an unfortunate sequence of events. Here I am, recovering from surgery and can't dive for 8 weeks :17: , when some idiot decides he needs to burglarize my house. Gone is jewelry, my daughter's laptop, a video camera with tapes of irreplaceable family memories included in the case, and my Oly C5050Z.
I have TWO Oly housings (one a gift from a friend who already upgraded to a Nikon D70, and two Inon D180 strobes, plus a nice ULCS tray and arms. Although he looked through the stuff, I guess the burglar could not decide what to do with those things.
My question:
I would really love to upgrade to a DSLR. But I would really love to ALSO still use my strobes and not have to replace those. Is there any camera/housing combination that would allow me to use my strobes :06: ??
I am relying on all you experts out there for advice :07:, thank you!
sapphire
J - I am sorry to hear about what has happened! I hope that you and your daughter are ok and that those responsible will be found and held responsible....
Anyhow, I recently went through the upgrade dilemma myself. I went from an Oly C5050Z with dual Inon strobes (D-180 and D-2000) with Fisheye tray, ULCS arms and INON UWL-100 to a Nikon D-70 setup. My plan was originally to sell off the strobes and the arms, and WAL as they seem to have (and keep) the most value. The Camera and Housing not so much. But since I'm going to be doing some UW Photography teaching this year, I decided to keep the setup and use that in the classroom.
It was painful to do this since the rig still has some good value. Going to the Nikon D-70 with Ike housing (still waiting on the iTTL housing which should be here shortly), dual DS-125 strobes and various Nikon lenses cost a small fortune and cash from the old rig would have helped. I don't know what the final tally is, but I suspect it will be in the $7000 range.
I thought for a while to use my existing strobes, but I figured that if I was going all out, I would just bite bullet and do it properly, rather than trying to save a few bucks and try to make my existing gear work with the DSLR. Having TTL isn't a huge issue for me as I tend to shoot manual, but if I ever decide to upgrade from the D70 to a D2x or whateve, the iTTL should help resale.
One of the biggest issues I can see is definitely cost. A whole different league than the C5050. As well, your choices of lenses and dome ports are critical to the type of photography you want to do. With the C5050, it was pretty simple. Lug along a couple of wet lenses and pop them on when you need them. With the D-70, you are going to be somewhat more limited as you choose your lens for the dive. Zooms like the 12-24 can be useful, but you do sacrifice other things by doing so. Again, it's all going to be personal preference as you learn the D-70. May swear by 10.5mm WAL, other the Sigma 15mm. I've got a 12-24 and 18-70. But since I've yet to receive my housing, I can't really offer much in way of practical advice (yet). I suspect the 18-70 will get limited UW use and will be mostly for topside.
Anyhow, good luck with your decisions.
W
