Specific use camera/housing/flash

[WreckWriter]

What do you all recommend for use in the following conditions:

Deep, must be rated to at least 300'

Wrecks, so mostly wide-angle shots, little close up, no macro

Dark, including totally dark

What would it cost to get a setup like this?

Thanks

 

[notabob]

Light and Motion's Tetra housings are rated at 300ft. You can get one for an Olympus camera for about $900-1000 or so, I think. Plus about 350-400 for a 3mp Oly 3040. This housing, however, doesn't support the built-in strobe, you have to use an external one. As far as external strobes go, there may be a problem at that depth. I'm not aware of any strobes that have that high of a depth rating. Ikelite strobes are rated to 200ft, I think. Your best option at that depth may be to use a video light (LED or HID) instead of a strobe. This housing will also support an add-on lens.

If the 300ft of the Light&Motion rating isn't sufficient, consider the Chinook's Seal housing for the Canon S200. The S200 is only a 2mp camera, but the Seal housing is rated for 350ft and supports the built-in flash. You can get the housing and the camera together for $969 at OceanBrite. This housing, however, does not support an add-on lens. OceanBrite also sells video lights to be used with this (and probably any other) housing.

You can also try and research other housings, in case I missed something at DigiDeep

Hope this helps!

-Roman.

 

[raxafarian]

send ikelite an email.... I'm guessing that their housings have gone beyond the recommended depth... at least a time or 2.


Maybe custom?

 

[raxafarian]

HERE is a couple of strobes good to 330ft.



Nexus housings are also rated to 330ft.

 

[notabob]

Oops... WW never did say he was looking at digital only, did he? Don't know why I just assumed it... Oh well. I guess there're a few more options if you go the film route vs. digital.

-Roman.

 

[WreckWriter]

I didn't specify but I think digital would be preferable.

Tom

 

[notabob]

If you got $$$ to burn, check out the Gates housing for the Sony 5mp camera. It's wicked expensive (~$2k, I think, +cost of camera), but is rated to 450ft and can be had with a dedicated strobe specially designed for that housing. It also supports external lenses.

Since many digital cameras use pre-flash, the external strobe has to support it, which limits your options when it comes to finding one that can function that deep. Nikon digital cameras don't use preflash, I don't think, so if you can find a deep housing for a Nikon digicam, you may be able to use one of the strobes that Rax provided the llink to above.

-Roman.

 

[WreckWriter]

The Gates is sweet. Unfortunately, cost is a factor.

I keep telling myself that I'm going to write another book but I'm having trouble finding good (and free) sources of u/w photos for it.

Cost would be deductable but that only helps so much....

Tom

 

[notabob]

Tom, you may want to go with a Nikon CoolPix 5000 ($800) with a Light&Motion Tetra5000 housing (330ft, $1500), and one of the strobes that Rax gave a link to. This setup isn't going to be cheap, though. Depending on the cost of the strobe you're looking at close to $3k. For that kind of money or a little (well, relatively. ~$300 or so, maybe?) more you can go with the Gates setup and the Sony camera. Or go the cheap route with the Canon S200 in a Seal housing and a video light for less than $1500 total. I would imagine that for book illustrations, 2mp should be more than sufficient. Wide-angle may be a problem, however.

-Roman.

 

[WreckWriter]

Its mostly a pipe dream at this point anyway. I appreciate the advice.

Tom