D70 Undewater housing

[Ant]

Youre best bet for a housing are ikelite ( http://www.ikelite.com). There are two Australian importers that I know of. If you want I can track down their details. I priced one for my D50 and housing and port came to around $1800. These housings are good to 60m. The other housing to look at is the fantasea housing ( http://www.fantasea.com I think). Slightly cheaper than the ike housing but no ttl.

After that you can go more up market to the aluminium housings, aquatica et al ( http://www.seaoptics.com.au), but these are getting much more expensive.

I currently use an Oly C-5050 with housing for my underwater shots but the shutter/focus lag is starting to drive me insane.

A comment I would make, as a scuba instructor, is get comfortable with your diving before you add the complication and stress of managing a camera underwater. I have a few horror stories of divers out of their depth, air or lost because they were too focussed on the camera.

Hope this helps,
Ant.

[anubis]

Thanks Guys for the advise.

Ant, excellent advice, I will focus on the diving in the first instance

[SteveGriffin]

If you decide to go down the Ikelite road try http://www.helixcamera.com . I have bought all of my Ike gear through them and it works out 30+% cheaper than using the Ozzie distributors and you get after sales service and delivery generally within a week.

For surf work though the EWA MArine bags are just the shot. Light and easy to handle - the Ike housing is bulky and heavy.

If you ant a film rig I have an F80 and IKE housing that you can have real cheap

[Sandy Feet]

What I have found when pricing this type of equipment is you can spend a fortune on a housing and it is useless with out decent lighting which will cost you other arm and leg.

And I agree Ant as another Instructor be really comfortable with your diving before taking on UW photography, put a lot of work in on your Buoyancy.

Cheers
Rod

[jerrysk8]

I am really interested in a housing for the D70 or D2x, but not for scuba. I have lots of good mates who are surfers, and when I surf with them, I can't help but see the possibilities of shooting out there. Would a scuba housing be overkill or just what the doctor ordered, considering the pressure of pounding waves?

EDIT: seems like a cheaper and better idea than ann exotic tele lens, sitting on the beach.

scuba housings like ikelite are no good for the surf. their not designed to take a beating like proper surf housings are and also weigh way too much to be hand held by one hand out of the water.

do not get an ewa marine bag for out in the surf. these are just glorified zip-lock bags and are only good for splash proof stuff. my friend had one for wakeboarding, just sitting in the water, and the seem split and flooded his camera.

there are plenty of really good surf housings available. the ferrari of surf housings are made by aquatech and are really really expensive. there are more affordable options. off the top of my head there are del mar, spl, mike waggoner, photo support systems, ... if your really keen i can dig up some links for you

i myself have just aquired a del mar surf housing for my 1d and am loving it. it has a pistol grip and i have a dome port for a 15mm fish and another port that supports primes upto 100mm. also erik, who makes them, is a great guy and is always more than willing to help you out.

my housing

[ATJ]

I will have an Ikelite housing for my D70 by the end of next week. I'm getting it from B&H in NYC by mail.

I will be getting dome ports for the kit lens, 60mm Macro and 20.5mm D lens. I already have the DS50 strobe, but am also getting the DS125 and will run 2 strobes.

There is a good write up on the housing (and D70) here: http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_g ... nt_d70.htm

[robboh]

Anubis,

Expect to pay in the order of $1.5k - $2k for a housing. Disgusting price for a piece of plastic and few o-rings really

On top of that, you will be wanting to add on at least one strobe, more likely two. Nother couple of $K for that. Having said that, Ive never done any UW with digital, so its quite possible that the ability to bump ISO will give results that werent possible without strobes on film. Due to the light filtering, usually the only way to acheive any true colour and pop is lighting with stobes. You can also do some PP filters in PS as well which tone down the blue/green and pull back in the reds and oranges (which get filtered first as you get deeper).

You will find you will need your full mind on the job for the first 20 or so dives, so I would suggest leaving the camera at home at least for the first few dives after your OW.

When you are taking photos, dont forget to keep up your buddy awareness. Also, work hard on your bouancy skills. You'll need them and also, there is nothing worse than watching some photog climbing around a reef on his hand's and knee's destroying things.

Another option might be to see if you can find a 2nd hand NikonusV, which is a dedicated underwater film camera. We can often get them here in NZ for ~$500 with strobe.

[ATJ]

I will have an Ikelite housing for my D70 by the end of next week. I'm getting it from B&H in NYC by mail.

OK.... I didn't allow for customs processing.

I'll be lucky to see it before the 19th.

[ATJ]

I got my housing last Wednesday and used in on Saturday. The conditions were not very conducive to photography with very poor visibility, but the setup performed well. I am very pleased.

It is significantly better than my Coolpix 4500 in Ikelite housing in 3 main areas:
1) No shutter lag
2) Much better focus
3) Easier to frame using a real TTL viewfinder than an LCD panel.

Here are a few pictures taken with the kit lens.







More pictures here: Dive at Camp Cove, Watsons Bay, NSW on 20/05/2006

[Willy wombat]

I am so envious. I keep stumbling in my saving plan for my underwater housing.

Did you shoot in raw? One strobe or two?

[sirhc55]

Wow - these look great. Just wish it was a warmer night to view images of this nature

[ATJ]

Did you shoot in raw? One strobe or two?

Raw. Two strobes. I already had a DS50 and I added a DS125.

[Ant]

Did you get the housing with TTL support? A friend of mine has just housed his Oly C750 (I think) and the TTL is amazing, no more guessing flash exposure for macro...

Ant.

[ATJ]

It has iTTL support. You still have to be careful and adjustments may be required. For example, a light colour fish swimming in open water will get overexposed due to the averaging of the whole scene.