Two Nudies from last week end

[Big-t-2538]

Rooster once bubbled...

I'm trying, (Very hard) to hold off until next year, as I'm tryinging to buy a new Harley this year ;-}

DUDE....get the harley....screw the camera....they'll be bigger and better next year. The Harley can roar now, and I guarantee it won't change much.

Nice pics BTW...gorgeous

 

[Rooster]

bob101 once bubbled...
nice nice nice pictures. I also think the second one rocks .

I had a question about your camera casing. I have a Nikon F100, and was thinking about getting it into the water.... what do you reccomend for casings? :huh:

chris

I hope you don't mind, but the following. Is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to some one else that had asked about my housing. Hope it helps.

Of course I think your choice of the F-100 is a good one. ;-} This is one excellent camera. As far as housings go, I bought an Aquatica because I felt it was the best "Value". Although the Sea & Sea, and Subal offered a couple more features, I didn't feel they were important enough to pay close to twice (or more) the price for them. The added features may be important to you, so you may feel that the added expense is justified. There were rumors that Aquatica was trying to slowly raise their prices so they are more in line with the other big housing manufactures. But for now they are hundreds to thousands of dollars cheaper than the competition.

So how do I like my Aquatica/F-100 setup? I think it's great. The more I use it, the better I get, and the more I like it. Most of the controls on the housing are easy to use. The couple that are not "easy" are not difficult and I don't use much any ways (even if they were easier). The camera can be used in full auto (program) mode, aperture priority, shutter speed priority, or manual. The Auto modes work so well I rarely switch to manual. I find it easier to let the camera do the preliminary work. If I think I need to adjust from the cameras initial exposure settings I can adjust simply and easily by using the exposure compensation controls. Since I mostly shoot macro, and depth of field is so important, I mostly shoot Aperture priority with the strobes set to TTL. This works great for most situations. The lenses I currently have are the Nikkor 60mm and 105mm Macro lenses, and the 20mm wide-angle lens, these works great with the F100. A friend of mine has a N90 in an Aquatica housing, there is a big difference in how much better the F100 works. It focuses faster, quieter, in less light, and with less searching. Although I bought the focus and auto/manual focus selector gears for the macro lenses I don't use them. There have been a couple of times when I would have rather used manual focus, but this is so infrequent. I no longer bother with putting the gears on. In the few instances that I wanted to use manual, I just focused on something approximately the distance to my subject, set the focus selection switch on the housing to manual, and move the camera in until subject is in focus. I'm not sure which lens I like best. The 60mm is smaller, lighter, focuses quicker, and fits into the standard macro port without the need for an extension. It takes great fish ID photos, and shows great detail in macro shots. It will go down to 1:1 but you have to get real close (8" I think). It can be done but takes great patience. For real small stuff The 105 shines. It will get you to 1:1 also, but at a more reasonable distance. This makes strobe positioning easier and since you don't have to get as close, your less likely to spook your subject. The down side is it's longer, heavier, and a little slower. This means you have to use a port extension with the standard macro port for the lens to fit, and since it's a little slower, it's a little harder to focus on moving targets.

I ordered my housing with the double Nikonos TTL bulkheads. I'm currently using two strobes, an Ikelite SS200 and an Ikelite 100a. Since my focus is mostly macro with this system, these two strobes work very well together. I like the fact that they have built in modeling lights. This works great at night. Both strobes are currently mounted on TLC arms. They work very well and are easy to adjust UW.

If I had it to do all over, the only thing I would have done different would be to order the Aquatica A100 "Deluxe" package. This comes with both the 8" dome port and the macro port. It also comes with the dome port shade, the macro port extension (for the 105mm lens), and moisture alarm. Basically the whole ball of wax you'll need to house your camera, and the three most popular lenses (20, 60, and 105mm).

Here's a place you might want to check out http://www.aquatica.ca/news.html there is a great article by Franklin J. Viola on the benefits of an Aquatica housed SLR. Sorry I really don't mean to sound like an Aquatica commercial.

I hope I answered your questions. If not or you have more, feel free to e-mail me.