Underwater Camera Help

[Addicted2H2O]

Worth noting that none of the photos I posted taken with my SeaLife have been edited in any way. With my DSLR I shoot in RAW so I can get the most out of every picture and then edit in Photoshop to clean them up, enhance, etc. I honestly haven't even tried that with my underwater shots. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a DSLR setup for diving but other priorities take precedence at the moment....namely.....kids. Besides, photography isn't my passion as much as music is so I'd be more likely to spend $$$$$ on music equipment than I would a good camera setup. So like it's been said, it's all in what you want out of your pictures. For me....I'm not looking to sell pictures or shoot professionally. I just like having some decent shots to look at and show friends & family so they can see what they're missing.

 

[PatW]

I dive with a Nikon D800. I call my rig BoatAnchor 2.0. In the water, it is easy to handle. It is pretty near neutral. The advantage of a DSLR is no shutter lag. I used to have a point and shoot. Taking photos of moving fish was problematic. With a DSLR, I am far more successful.

There is a drawback with macro. The rig is big enough to make it hard to line up the strobes. A friend has a mirrorless system. It is far more compact and has the edge for macro shots in a tight, cluttered environment.

The camera rig is a challenge on air planes. I pack the housing and strobes etc in a carryon and the lenses and camera bodies in a back pack.

 

[Barmaglot]

The advantage of a DSLR is no shutter lag. I used to have a point and shoot. Taking photos of moving fish was problematic. With a DSLR, I am far more successful.

As far as I know, the shutter lag on most compacts and older mirrorless cameras is caused by CDAF. On my Sony A6300, which has on-sensor phase-detection autofocus, there is no perceived shutter lag. RX100V and RX100VI should be the same.

 

[Stoo]

You already own a Nikon D7100 that works extremely well as a housed underwater camera.

^^^ This. You have a nice camera and are a competent photographer. I think to house a p&s would give you nothing but frustration.

The only thing I'd suggest is tracking down a spare 7100/7200 body, "just in case". If you invest in a decent housing and something happens to the camera, you have an expensive paperweight in the housing, if you can't find a spare body.

I use a D7000 and get decent, publishable results with it.

 

[mi000ke]

I'll offer the perspective of someone who has been doing land photography for a while (I have a Canon 5Diii and 7D with too many lenses) but just started to do underwater photography about a year ago. When I checked out the cost of housing my DSLRs (plus the fear of flooding them) I decided to first start with an old Canon S110 P&S I had hanging around, as I wasn't sure how I would like underwater photography, didn't care if it flooded, and I wanted to get used to diving while holding and using a smaller, simpler kit first. I got a new housing for $250, and decided to keep things simple by shooting ambient light, RAW, Av mode, and edit my settings, white balance, etc, in post. Even though I have pretty good buoyancy skills, my greatest challenge was learning how to concentrate on photography and diving at the same time. (The first time I tried, I kept holding my breath when I shot as I often do on land, and I'm sure you know where I ended up.) Anyway, after a year of learning how to shoot underwater while diving with the S110, and getting half decent results with my current set up, I am now looking to move to the next level (probably a mirrorless setup with dual strobes) and an investment somewhere around $3000-4000 (if I buy new, but hope to find a good used deal). But now I know what I'm looking for and the kind of UW photography I want to do. So I would recommend starting with the P&S.

And you can get a TG 820 housing for less than $200

Amazon.com : Olympus PT-052 Underwater Housing for the Tough TG-820 : Camera Cases : Camera & Photo

 

[AZTinman]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention something important should you decide to house your Nikon D7100. Get flood insurance! I carry a policy on all of my underwater camera equipment. Should you flood a housing, extra D7100/D7200 camera bodies are easy to find.

-AZTinman

 

[outofofficebrb]

Others have given great advice but I wanted to touch upon a different perspective....task load and experience. I know you mentioned you are a newer diver and expressed this in time but didn’t mention how many dives you have/how often you dive and what your comfort level with buoyancy and air consumption is. There is no doubt there is task load while diving with a camera, even one that you are very familiar with on land.

There are also different factors to have to combat while preparing to and actually shooting underwater, including possible uncooperative marine life (turning right as you take the shot!), minimizing/managing backscatter and the angles you take a shot from, and the color challenges underwater by using lighting and how to position lights/strobes. Some people tend to use more air than diving without a camera and if air consumption is already a concern for you, minimizing complexities underwater may be ideal. Add in the care and preparation of gear before and after diving like o-ring care with flood prevention, battery charging, and how much mental load you can handle before and after a dive to ensure your equipment is ready and taken care of, it can be overwhelming for many. I would keep this in consideration.

Perhaps that is what can steer and affect part of your decision. There is always the option of getting something simpler like a point and shoot you mentioned with a TTL enabled strobe and upgrading later. Or, you can start with just your DSLR in a housing and slowly add on different lenses and ports, then adding lighting and arms, and other complexities once you become a more experienced and seasoned diver.

I’m hoping to give a different perspective and don’t want you to take it the wrong way. I love UW photography and have changed my rig significantly from when I was a newer diver. it is much nicer being able to enjoy diving in the moment for what it is instead of fighting my photography equipment while tying to manage diving as a newer diver. I found that super helpful and hoped to share that experience.

 

[Bearcat11]

Hey everyone,

Thank you so much for your very helpful advice! My wife and I used the advice to check out wetpixel and we bought a sony rx100 V package that will have everything we need and was significantly cheaper than some of the options. I've been shooting video on our dives for a while and my buoyancy is decent, but I'll use this as a way to learn the basics while bettering my buoyancy. My wife isn't as in to photography and this camera fits her needs very well, as well.

 

[jgttrey]

You'll be very happy with the rx100. I used the rx100ii for a long time and it is a great performer.

Three pieces of advice:

1. Lighting is everything. One strobe is fine to start. Eventually you'll want 2. But, any strobe will improve your photos enormously. Video lighting is better than nothing, but no substitute.

2. Highly recommend that you look into the underwater photography books by Martin Edge and Alex Mustard. There are some basic composition and lighting fundamentals that are particular to underwater photography that make a huge difference immediately. I was a pretty experienced land photographer and these books were very helpful.

3. There is tons of good information about camera settings, particularly for the RX100 series, that will give you a good starting point. Not just exposure stuff, but reassigning button functions, video settings, etc. that will help you get started and configured for the underwater environment - probably a dozen different things, some of them more obscure. I also usually set up Custom 1 presets for wide angle and Custom 2 for macro, for example. I'd change things during the dive - ISO, shutter, aperture, whatever, but I could always toggle back to my "baseline" settings without having to manually change individual things back. There's a guy on Wetpixel under the handle "interceptor121" that wrote a lot about RX100 settings and has a blog that is definitely worth checking out.

 

[outofofficebrb]

@Bearcat11 Congrats!

I have been shooting a RX100 IV and love it.