I recently added a dslr set up to my ever growing collection of camera equipment. You may have noticed I didnt say upgraded to a dslr set up. Ill leave it to the experts to delve into the technical reasons why dslr is superior to other digital cameras Im only in this for fun and most of that stuff goes straight over my head! This is likely to be a long-winded report, so brace yourselves. Many of these photos are not fabulous they are included here to show the process of my learning.
I decided on the Canon 20D over the other options available at the time I was deciding. Why? Gut instinct in the long run. It seemed a capable system, there were other users out there who could help me with specific questions and the service for Canon in my area is far superior to other brands so if something does, god forbid, go wrong theres a good chance I can get it dealt with quickly and painlessly. When you live 1200kms from the nearest city service is an issue. I did have existing Canon EOS lenses, but this didnt really influence my decision as I was pretty sure Id have to start from scratch for any underwater work. I had the old 100mm macro EOS lens, but added the newer version anyway. So for me, existing system components werent influential on camera body choice.
I also have an entire Ikelite system for our old EOS film camera all ports etc are in excellent condition so the Ikelite housing was pretty tempting. I asked a lot of questions, annoyed a lot of people and tossed and turned many nights trying to decide which housing to go with. The top two choices, for me, were the Ike and the Subal. I decided on Subal. Why? The biggest factors for me were size, weight and finish. I knew that if it proved too bulky I would hate it and wouldnt use it no matter the price tag.
I couldnt lay hands on any of the new equipment before I bought it, so some of the housings may be close in size and weight and this might not be a factor for others as much. I relied on anecdotes of hand sizes and control access. Ryan at Reef Photo was pretty influential he detailed the pros of each housing (and there are a lot of them for the Ikelite and Aquaticas) and then mentioned some of the niggly things for each. The Subals nigglies were things I thought I could live with versus some things that might become burdensome as I intend to do more diving in the next 12 months than I have been over the past 12 months. Something that seems like a minor annoyance once in while may become a real PITA when you dive multiple times a week and arent handy at all!
And, lets face it its one sexy housing.
For lenses I decided on Canons 100 macro and 60mm EFS macro plus Sigmas 10-20 to get started. I decided on the Sigma because the Canon offering was a whole lot more money and the reviews and examples I was seeing from the Sigma were more than adequate for my needs. Again, Ill let the experts wander into whose lens is better stuff the land shots Ive done with the Sigma are perfectly fine and I expect the underwater shots to please me, too once I get the right zoom ring!
First impressions of the Subal housing: very cute little unit. Smooth finish. Terrible manual its next to useless. Disappointing packaging. The housing body arrived with no port cover so it was filled with those stupid packing peanuts and bits of those packing peanuts. It took me ages to get all that crud out of the housing body and I swear I am still finding little bits that have seemingly been trapped behind the innards. This just seemed low-budget to me and it didnt get better with the ports.
The macro ports had plastic protective covers and covers for the open ends. However, both ports were very dirty. Lots of fine dirt and hairs/fibres. Again, took quite a while to clean these out.
The wide angle port about sent me over the edge. No cover for the glass part itself. No cover for the open end either. It was wrapped in a double layer of bubble wrap so it was secure enough, but that didnt stop it collecting more debris on the inside. And for a port that costs more than several hundred dollars I would expect the company to throw in a token scratch cover. But they dont. I still dont understand why theres no cover for the open end on this one while the macros do have them.
None of these things reflect on how the system works, so in the end they are just minor details. If it were my company, its not how I would do it, but it must work for them. So onwards and upwards.
I chose to use the 100mm macro lens first despite lots of warnings on how potentially difficult this lens can be. I have about 15 dives with this lens now and I like it. I envisioned this lens to be my first choice for the cleaning action while still allowing me the opportunity to shoot nudibranchs and the like.
The 100mm (or similar for other brands) is the working distance macro. It allows a little more room between you and your subject so lighting is theoretically easier and you can capture more skittish creatures and not disturb behaviour.
However, I find I am running into the opposite problem more often the fish are too close and I cant get far enough away. I know, terrible problem to have, but there you go.
This wobbie wasnt very big as far as wobbegongs go, but I found that by the time I put enough distance between him and the lens all I was getting was junk. So I moved in for a more abstract look.
Small fish, like this scorpionfish, work pretty well.
And pairs of medium sized fish are good, too
This lens will focus fast. This, combined with the slightly larger working distance, was extremely beneficial to me in the dive conditions so far lot of surge meant that I was moving, the fish was moving and the sand/particles were moving. When I was shooting fish the working distance didnt help me at all with the tiny nudis. The lens didnt hunt or grab onto the floaties nearly as much I had expected. At cleaning stations I like the fast focus as the little wrasse are quick and they change positions all the time.
I even found in several low light situations it didnt have a hunting problem. In others it does like the help of an aiming light but I havent quite figured out why it needs it some times and not others.
I caught this cod spitting sand (I have no idea why) and yawning out of the corner of my eye while shooting a nudibranch. I swung around, hit the * button and then the shutter. BAM the focus did a pretty good job, I think.
Despite the number of dives I have with this lens, I dont feel I have given it a fair run yet. I spent a lot of those dives testing different settings, playing with the controls, practicing reaching the housing controls with one and two hands and experimenting with different strobe angles and settings. For those not familiar with what will happen when you choose a shutter speed too high for your strobe/camera to synch, here it is!
Framing with the view finder is much more difficult than some would have you believe, at least for me. This is especially noticeable on tight framing, of course. I am constantly getting the subject right at the edge of the frame or cutting off a body part. I am also considering a new mask that might make the angle better. As is, I often am not looking square on at least I assume that is the problem I cant see the numbers along the bottom of the screen.
It took three goes to get both the eggs and the mating nudis in the frame and even then I ended up with them too far to the right.
There are four parts to this problem, I think: 1) the dramatic change from lcd to viewfinder, 2) quite surgey conditions for the vast majority of my 100mm dives I probably shouldnt have tried to learn this lens/system right off in these conditions 3) its hard for me to one hand the housing smoothly and 4) user incompetence.
I am getting better with #3. I can comfortably hold the housing in my right hand with my thumb on the * button and my finger on the shutter release. I can comfortably use the shutter release holding the housing in one hand most times, but sometimes I find I tilt the housing slightly my finger is just not quite strong enough. What I still have problems with, and I think its a matter of coordination and hand strength, is holding the housing steady, pushing the * button and then smoothly pressing the shutter release without moving the housing all one handed. I am already getting better but its tough. I think if one has slightly larger or slightly stronger hands this isnt so much of an issue.
#4 is not self-deprecating, I didnt and havent taken the time to use the viewfinder on land nor to really get to know the lenses on land before hitting the water. Knowing I have access to pretty good diving pretty easily makes me happier to just get out there and learn as I go. Although thats sometimes hard to remember when reviewing the shots with missing body parts LOL
I decided on the Canon 20D over the other options available at the time I was deciding. Why? Gut instinct in the long run. It seemed a capable system, there were other users out there who could help me with specific questions and the service for Canon in my area is far superior to other brands so if something does, god forbid, go wrong theres a good chance I can get it dealt with quickly and painlessly. When you live 1200kms from the nearest city service is an issue. I did have existing Canon EOS lenses, but this didnt really influence my decision as I was pretty sure Id have to start from scratch for any underwater work. I had the old 100mm macro EOS lens, but added the newer version anyway. So for me, existing system components werent influential on camera body choice.
I also have an entire Ikelite system for our old EOS film camera all ports etc are in excellent condition so the Ikelite housing was pretty tempting. I asked a lot of questions, annoyed a lot of people and tossed and turned many nights trying to decide which housing to go with. The top two choices, for me, were the Ike and the Subal. I decided on Subal. Why? The biggest factors for me were size, weight and finish. I knew that if it proved too bulky I would hate it and wouldnt use it no matter the price tag.
I couldnt lay hands on any of the new equipment before I bought it, so some of the housings may be close in size and weight and this might not be a factor for others as much. I relied on anecdotes of hand sizes and control access. Ryan at Reef Photo was pretty influential he detailed the pros of each housing (and there are a lot of them for the Ikelite and Aquaticas) and then mentioned some of the niggly things for each. The Subals nigglies were things I thought I could live with versus some things that might become burdensome as I intend to do more diving in the next 12 months than I have been over the past 12 months. Something that seems like a minor annoyance once in while may become a real PITA when you dive multiple times a week and arent handy at all!
And, lets face it its one sexy housing.
For lenses I decided on Canons 100 macro and 60mm EFS macro plus Sigmas 10-20 to get started. I decided on the Sigma because the Canon offering was a whole lot more money and the reviews and examples I was seeing from the Sigma were more than adequate for my needs. Again, Ill let the experts wander into whose lens is better stuff the land shots Ive done with the Sigma are perfectly fine and I expect the underwater shots to please me, too once I get the right zoom ring!
First impressions of the Subal housing: very cute little unit. Smooth finish. Terrible manual its next to useless. Disappointing packaging. The housing body arrived with no port cover so it was filled with those stupid packing peanuts and bits of those packing peanuts. It took me ages to get all that crud out of the housing body and I swear I am still finding little bits that have seemingly been trapped behind the innards. This just seemed low-budget to me and it didnt get better with the ports.
The macro ports had plastic protective covers and covers for the open ends. However, both ports were very dirty. Lots of fine dirt and hairs/fibres. Again, took quite a while to clean these out.
The wide angle port about sent me over the edge. No cover for the glass part itself. No cover for the open end either. It was wrapped in a double layer of bubble wrap so it was secure enough, but that didnt stop it collecting more debris on the inside. And for a port that costs more than several hundred dollars I would expect the company to throw in a token scratch cover. But they dont. I still dont understand why theres no cover for the open end on this one while the macros do have them.
None of these things reflect on how the system works, so in the end they are just minor details. If it were my company, its not how I would do it, but it must work for them. So onwards and upwards.
I chose to use the 100mm macro lens first despite lots of warnings on how potentially difficult this lens can be. I have about 15 dives with this lens now and I like it. I envisioned this lens to be my first choice for the cleaning action while still allowing me the opportunity to shoot nudibranchs and the like.
The 100mm (or similar for other brands) is the working distance macro. It allows a little more room between you and your subject so lighting is theoretically easier and you can capture more skittish creatures and not disturb behaviour.
However, I find I am running into the opposite problem more often the fish are too close and I cant get far enough away. I know, terrible problem to have, but there you go.
This wobbie wasnt very big as far as wobbegongs go, but I found that by the time I put enough distance between him and the lens all I was getting was junk. So I moved in for a more abstract look.
Small fish, like this scorpionfish, work pretty well.
And pairs of medium sized fish are good, too
This lens will focus fast. This, combined with the slightly larger working distance, was extremely beneficial to me in the dive conditions so far lot of surge meant that I was moving, the fish was moving and the sand/particles were moving. When I was shooting fish the working distance didnt help me at all with the tiny nudis. The lens didnt hunt or grab onto the floaties nearly as much I had expected. At cleaning stations I like the fast focus as the little wrasse are quick and they change positions all the time.
I even found in several low light situations it didnt have a hunting problem. In others it does like the help of an aiming light but I havent quite figured out why it needs it some times and not others.
I caught this cod spitting sand (I have no idea why) and yawning out of the corner of my eye while shooting a nudibranch. I swung around, hit the * button and then the shutter. BAM the focus did a pretty good job, I think.
Despite the number of dives I have with this lens, I dont feel I have given it a fair run yet. I spent a lot of those dives testing different settings, playing with the controls, practicing reaching the housing controls with one and two hands and experimenting with different strobe angles and settings. For those not familiar with what will happen when you choose a shutter speed too high for your strobe/camera to synch, here it is!
Framing with the view finder is much more difficult than some would have you believe, at least for me. This is especially noticeable on tight framing, of course. I am constantly getting the subject right at the edge of the frame or cutting off a body part. I am also considering a new mask that might make the angle better. As is, I often am not looking square on at least I assume that is the problem I cant see the numbers along the bottom of the screen.
It took three goes to get both the eggs and the mating nudis in the frame and even then I ended up with them too far to the right.
There are four parts to this problem, I think: 1) the dramatic change from lcd to viewfinder, 2) quite surgey conditions for the vast majority of my 100mm dives I probably shouldnt have tried to learn this lens/system right off in these conditions 3) its hard for me to one hand the housing smoothly and 4) user incompetence.
I am getting better with #3. I can comfortably hold the housing in my right hand with my thumb on the * button and my finger on the shutter release. I can comfortably use the shutter release holding the housing in one hand most times, but sometimes I find I tilt the housing slightly my finger is just not quite strong enough. What I still have problems with, and I think its a matter of coordination and hand strength, is holding the housing steady, pushing the * button and then smoothly pressing the shutter release without moving the housing all one handed. I am already getting better but its tough. I think if one has slightly larger or slightly stronger hands this isnt so much of an issue.
#4 is not self-deprecating, I didnt and havent taken the time to use the viewfinder on land nor to really get to know the lenses on land before hitting the water. Knowing I have access to pretty good diving pretty easily makes me happier to just get out there and learn as I go. Although thats sometimes hard to remember when reviewing the shots with missing body parts LOL
