Yes, I Still Use a Nikonos V and Love It (sorta)

[jjoeldm]

Here I am in 2007 having owned a Nikon D70 since they came out and looking with lust at the D300 (can't afford the D3!) and yet on dive trips I continue to take my Nikonos V, Nikonos 15mm 2.8 lens and macro lens extensions kit with Ikelite SS200 strobe (and a supplemental Sea&Sea YS90 slave strobe) and I keep getting great results.

I did have some issues this year and last when my Ikelite acted up, then on this trip stopped working a couple days in and the Sea&Sea just wasn't able to fill the frame with my 15mm so the results were disappointing, (and then it seemed like my Sea&Sea was also inconsistent in output even doing macro!); but this was a maintenance issue and the thought of housing an SLR, the cost (I have three kids under the age of five and I'm not rich) & the complexity gives me the willies! Sort of lustful "gadget" willies, but it makes me nervous nonetheless.

I do love my D70, the ability to shoot and shoot and get great results, but I can carry my whole UW shooting outfit in a small Ikelite case, arms and all and if it floods, I can pick up a new V for a song on Fleabay. If a housed d300 floods I'm out $2k.

Still, the problems I had on this trip brought into sharp relief the primary advantages of digital. The ability to review and adjust settings while still on a dive. Right now I can't even review and adjust on a whole liveaboard trip if there's no E6 lab on board! The ability to shoot and shoot with a large memory card and no film or developing cost -- I'd love it! Now before a trip I have to think how much I'll shoot on a trip and buy accordingly. A trip with a lot of shooting opportunities can cost $200-300 just for film and developing! And that's just scanning slides when done!

But the fact is that at this point I'm not going to house my D70, I'll sell it in favor of one of the new D300s (or wait for the budget version) and then there's the new lenses. I'm using an Nikon 18-35 and a Sigma 28-300, neither of which are optimal for the kind of UW shooting I do. I'd have to buy at least the Sigma 10-20mm and a Macro, possibly Nikon or Sigma to do what I'm doing now and even then, there is simply no lens, IMHO, that matches the Nikonos 15mm underwater.

Add a housing of almost any quality and we're talking $5000 minimal; for a good machined aluminum housing we're talking closer to $7k or higher. And I'm just not at all interested in point-and-shoots and their housed systems. Sure, I've seen some nice shots coming from some small digitals and Olympus has offered some nice sets over the years, mostly macro, but to get true wide-angle AND macro with quality that matches 35mm film, my feeling is that you either have to house a DSLR or stick with a Nikonos V. Am I wrong about that? I'd love to see a way into film-quality digital without the $5 investment!

So for now and maybe for another year or two, I'll get my SS200 fixed, send my V to Southern Nikonos for a checkup and keep buying Provia 100F online until I either start making a LOT more money or unless I find a really cheap used D200 housing and camera somewhere, but then, I'm not really an eBay kind of guy where digital cameras are concerned . . . the fact is that given the one-to-two OW dive trips I make each year, it just isn't cost-effective to go to a housed DSLR yet. It'd have to be a "gotta have it" purchase. I could spend $600 a year in film and developing for ten years before I'd break even on a housed DSLR . . . and after five I'd want the latest digital, guaranteed!

Just Venting,
JoeL

 

[vladimir]

I hated changing film between dives. Not a huge deal on liveaboards, but a real pain on a beach or small boat. And, as you mentioned, if you were doing something wrong--and I often was--you didn't find out until you got home from Papua New Guinea. Ouch! And the Provia bills did add up. I still have my Nikonos V, my F90x, and its Subal housing, (not to mention the Coolscan slide scanner) but I don't usually have enough baggage space to bring any of it along. Anybody, please let me know if you want a sweetheart deal on the film equipment.

 

[jjoeldm]

Yeah, on a liveaboard, no big deal, in fact I kind of enjoy it. It's one of those film rituals that always appealed to me, call me weird, I dunno, but on a beach, right, no fun at all!

And, as you mentioned, if you were doing something wrong--and I often was--you didn't find out until you got home from Papua New Guinea. Ouch!

It seems I always have some problem or make some error shooting on every trip that results in at least a roll or two being WAY too underexposed or overexposed. I'm not as focused as I should be on the process, which makes me double nervous about housing an expensive DSLR! The worst such disaster was in Truk when I incredibly failed to bring batteries for the camera's metering system and there were none to be had anywhere. I managed to get a few shots, but the vast majority were unusable. I'm sure there is a workaround, but even after all these years I'm not as familiar with V as I should be. Oh, the horrors of film and a forgetful diver!

For this and other reasons, sometimes I feel like I have to change over to digital for my underwater shooting. If I did more dive trips and shot more images UW there would be a truly cost-effective reason for the change, but as things are, I can do one or two trips a year and get very satisfactory images with my Nikonos without the fear of a costly flooding and huge up-front investment.

Still, when I see a whole roll of black images with a barely visible moray or octopus it breaks my heart. I'm in the middle of scanning right now and over the next couple of days I'll have the "fun" of trying to "Photoshop" some images into a usable form either by adding color manually or making them B&W which surprisingly works with some of them.

Thankfully have a few good rolls so I should have some good representative shots. I have one that looks particularly good of an octopus clamped tightly onto a conch shell.

Thanks for the note,
JoeL

 

[Rockhound76]

I'm sitting here in a similar quandry. I used to do a LOT of UW photography and got fairly good at it (just enough to wow my friends, but not enough to make any money). Anyway, I had a friend with tons of equipment, so I only owned the camera, a flash (SB105 from the recall) and the extension tubes. I borrowed his 15mm and 20mm lenses all the time and they were great. Funny, I began to think the 20mm was a more versatile lense, but I'll admit nothing can touch the quality of a well composed 15mm shot. Five years ago, I stopped using the camera for no particular reason.....I just drifted away.

Now that my son is diving with me and given that he already loves photography, I thought I'd dust off my Nikonos and teach him how. I THOUGHT about digital after I looked at the high cost of getting my system ready again (about $400-$600 for a used 20mm WA lens and finder, plus the full workup at Southern-Nikonos--new rings in the flash and camera and a focus check.) .

Then I looked at going digital.
Let's see...to acheive similar QUALITY, I'll have to spend maybe $3000+?

If I limit myself to $600, I'm looking at an entry level digital system that will give me fair to average results, but nothing near the pro-quality of the Nikonos.

I think I'm sticking with the Nikonos....but I worry that in a few years, there will be no parts, no service and jeesh, maybe no film.

Am I making a mistake?

 

[spyder]

Vladamir,

What model Coolscan? I've been looking at buying one for a couple years but just haven't spent the cash.

I'm in the same boat. I've had a Nikonos V since the late 80's and love it. Unfortunately I don't shoot enough anymore and when I do it's definitely crap shoot. I've got a 15mm, 2 20mm, 35mm, 2 MV strobes, a 102 strobe, and all the other ancillary stuff (tubes, sync cables, etc). I hate to get rid of it because when a shot is on it's on. On the other hand, I just bought a D80 for topside and starting to make the slide.... Of course I bought a 18-200mm Nikon VR DX lens for $$$ which works great above water but doesn't appear to be a good choice for UW. Sigh, it's only money, right?

 

[Footslogger]

So for now and maybe for another year or two, I'll get my SS200 fixed, send my V to Southern Nikonos for a checkup and keep buying Provia 100F online until I either start making a LOT more money or unless I find a really cheap used D200 housing and camera somewhere, but then, I'm not really an eBay kind of guy where digital cameras are concerned . . . the fact is that given the one-to-two OW dive trips I make each year, it just isn't cost-effective to go to a housed DSLR yet.
===================================================

Let me know if you'd like a back-up Nikonos V. I have one that I no longer use. It's in excellent condition and has been serviced annually since I bought it. Never flooded. Have the 28mm lens, close-up kit and macro tubes.

 

[vladimir]

Spyder, I have the Super Coolscan 4000ED. It is my second Coolscan and is one relic from the film era that I won't part with. I still have thousands of unscanned slides and negatives that I will scan "when I have time." Both my Coolscans worked well and were trouble free.

 

[DesertEagle]

For years I used a Nikonos system. The 20mm lens was very easy to use, with the 15mm being my favorite. The real beauty of shooting chromes were the Ilfochrome prints I used to get. Unfortunately, the lab with those skillful printers closed a year ago.

I don't think it's fair to compare an optical (Ilfochrome) print to a scan, unless you have a really good scan. Drum scanners work a little differently than what most of us can afford. And those scans are expensive. I've got an Epson scanner that will do 4800dpi, plus ICE correction. It can produce a huge file, but in my opinion, the output from a current DSLR will blow it out of the water.

Why be afraid of eBay? If you buy a good housing (Aquatica, Subal...) you can take it to a place like Underwater PhotoTech and have it serviced. FYI Underwater PhotoTech has a consignment shop. It's worth calling them. You won't pay anywhere near $5000. Consider a 20D/D200 and 15/16mm fisheye lens. These are great wide angle lenses with the cropped sensors.

These days I'm using an Olympus SP-310 system. 11X14 inch prints look just as good as scanned film. While I won't compare the results to a 20x24 inch Ilfochrome, I'm quite happy with the medium-sized prints. When you get to DSLR land, the sky is the limit.