45 replies to this topic

[CDesperado]

Has anyone here used Jonah Housings before? Just curious about a few things... I am going to spend some time on their website and maybe that will reveal a few answers..

[james]

I was able to handle the Jonah housing for the D100 at Seaspace last weekend. I'll try to post some photos as soon as possible.

It was very small and light and seemed well made. The one I got to try had a Jonah flat port.

Cheers
James

[CDesperado]

Well, foot. I must have walked by that housing 437 times... I wish I had known they were in the mix for a Canon housing. Mental note for next year I guess - I should have asked around more.

By the way James... did you see the "Northwest Diver" piece by the Drafahls? It was _hilarious_. Rumor has it that there is a "Part Two."

[CDesperado]

PS - James, did you happen to ask if the Ultralight strobe arms would work with the Jonah housing? Or would I need to buy arms specifically from them?

[james]

Ya, I saw it - I laughed my a$$ off! Part II is - Fiji Diver

You can mount pretty much any kind of dovetail base or ball on the Jonah handles it looks like.

HTH
James

[CDesperado]

Going off topic here for a second... but if any of you missed SeaSpace this year, you missed a good show. The film festival had a great showing of a film by Stefan Shultz called "Save the Whales" and a blinding display of 900+ photographs that flew by your eyes in just over two minutes. (The images were displayed against the digital song "Popcorn" with a new image displayed alongside each musical note of the song - I promise you that you have never seen anything quite like this.)

Moving back on topic... I am curious about the types of batteries people are using in their 10Ds. Specifically, does any suggest avoiding any particular brand? Does anyone highly recommend any particular brand? Also, what about chargers?

Sorry for the general questions, but I will literally be buying everything at once and need to ensure I get it perfect because once I get to where I am going, there will be no second chances.

[Stewart L. Sy]

I doubt you'll be able to drain a 10D's battery in 1 day of diving as the standard Canon BP511 is rated for upwards of 400 shots...I'd worry more about strobe batterries...I use the 1500 MaH batteries from the Battery Barn, that's 20% more than the Canon OEM battery. I have that battery and a standard Canon Bp511 in the BG ED3 grip and have shot over a thousand frames before the battery meter went down to half....

What are you planning strobe wise? There are no housings for the 550EX except for the one from UK Germany and you need a 6 pin connector for that, all other regular UW strobes will only work manually.

Stu

[Simon K.]

I can only report on the D60 I use Original Canon 511 and I'm pretty happy. You can shoot a lot (at least without internal strobe but even then it is really ok) with on battery. The only downside is that the camera need a lot on energy on "standby". So if you forget to turm it off the camera is dead in 2-3 hours.

I assume that it is similar with the 10D only that you get a couple more pics out of one battery.

Simon

[CDesperado]

As far as strobes go, I was planning on using one large strobe (Sea&Sea YS90DX or Ikelite DS-125) and one smaller strobe for fill.

I own a YS90DX and have been extremely happy with it, but have had good luck with Ikelite strobes in the past too, I would just need to buy the DS-125 at this point if I decide to go with that.

Since all strobes only work manually with the 10D, I will probably just stick with the ones I have. The word of the day is "semi-neutral" - right now, I am focused on resolving the housing issue and trying to understand which batteries and chargers to go with depending on which camera I get.

Two people have recommended the Fuji S2 over the Nikon D100, but the issue here is that I would still have to buy Nikon lenses regardless of which camera I bought. I read through the info about the S2 on DPreview and the two cameras look basically identical.

James... you shoot with the S2. Would you mind if I asked why you chose it over the D100?

[james]

Better control of flash and flash exposure in all situations - both above and below water. Firewire port.

Also better resolution ~ somewhere around 9 megapixels (see the dpreview for the "lines"tests). The S2 is an amazing camera for what it costs.

I get about 350 shots off of a set of 1800 mah batteries. I bet I could get 400 or 450 w/ some new 2200's

Cheers
James

[CDesperado]

James, what kind of charger are you using? I have been given so many choices by so many different people...

From a purely logical perspective, I am thinking I need a charger with 8 slots, so I can fully recharge two complete sets of four (while using a second two sets of four). Or is that overkill?

Just thinking out loud here...

[james]

I use an Ansmann Energy16. It will charge 12 AA's at once, so I can do 4 batteries for the cam and another 2x4 for the strobes. It is universal voltage (has internal converter) so you can use it just about anywhere.

www.nexusamerica.com

I have 2 DS125's now which don't take AA's but now that my GF has a DSLR camera (D60) it is still really nice to have.

Cheers
James

[CDesperado]

Anyone else have any recommendations about battery chargers? Specifically, manufacturers to avoid?

I dont want to have my charger catching on fire when I am 400 miles from shore.

[Andi Voeltz]

Anyone else have any recommendations about battery chargers? Specifically, manufacturers to avoid?

Take the GP powerbank with GP rechargable batteries. It's the only reliable solution I know from trying that really charges 4 batties within 60 minutes. It's awesome! We use it for all regular bats. For the Canon 10D you should buy a second battery. They charge very fast (less than one hout, too).

[Stewart L. Sy]

I'd second James' suggestion on the Ansmann chargers...robust and universal volatage....I've got 2 Energy 8's and 1 PL6 (I've got 2 YS120's, needing 16 AA's!) Plus I can charge my D-Cell and C-cell aiming lights.

Also recommend the Ansmann batteries...

Contact Woody Mayhew at www.nexusamerica.com he's in Dallas as well.

Stu

[CDesperado]

It's funny how small the world can be. James and I bumped into each other at least half a dozen times last weekend without knowing each other - I recognized him from a picture he posted while field testing something... and Woody....

Woody is actually in DUPS (Dallas Underwater Photographic Society) with me and we have been talking quite a bit the past two weeks. He _loves_ his D100 but also understands my dilemna: Do I say a prayer (and chew my fingernails) and hope a housing for the 10D is available by August or do I bite the bullet and get the S2 or the D100 and get a more readily available housing, purchasing an additional set of lenses along the way?

I sure do love my Canon lenses... especially the macro lenses.

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks for the suggestions on chargers.

[Stewart L. Sy]

I'm curious though, you've got Canon lenses already, so why get a D100 or S2? I'd get the D60 and the Subal housing for it. There is nothing wrong with the imager on the D60 and I've taken pictures of birds in flight with it, I was using a friend's D60 and was ready to buy one then it was announced that the 10D was just released...I waited for the 10D.

The 10D does have faster, better AF, but underwater if you're using the 50 macro, the motors on that lens are slow enough that you won't notice the lack of AF speed on the D60, with wide angle like the 16-35L, it's not really precision focus you're looking for anyway...compared to macro.

My point is, why get a new system where you not only need a new body, but new glass as well...Nikons work in reverse for us used to Canon, the lenses mount in reverse, the functionality is different (not better or worse, just different) This is not something I'd look forward to using underwater, it would get confusing...IMHO.

Stu

[CDesperado]

This seems strange to me, but I thought I would go ahead and run it by you guys.

The Canon 10D has a hotshoe mounted flash (the 550EX) that someone built an underwater housing for. At this time, this is apparently the only "strobe" that will allow a 10D to fire using TTL.

Is it just me, or does it seem like there is no way in Hades that this flash would be strong enough to shoot anything past a few feet? And even if you were shooting macro, it seems like you would be pretty limited to what you could do with it. And what would you mount it to - you couldn't stick it on the top of the housing because the shadows would look too harsh.

What I was planning to do was to shoot dual strobes, setting one manually and using one for my primary light and then using the other as a slave at a significantly reduced power setting for fill light.

Is anyone here planning on using the 550EX underwater? If so, would you enlighten me as to what advantage you see by doing so?

I dont want to stick with the "old" way of doing things just because ... but I dont see how this flash would really work effectively underwater for anything other than macro shots. (And even with that, I see issues.)

[CDesperado]

I'm curious though, you've got Canon lenses already, so why get a D100 or S2?  I'd get the D60 and the Subal housing for it. 


My point is, why get a new system where you not only need a new body, but new glass as well... This is not something I'd look forward to using underwater, it would get confusing...IMHO.

Stu

Excellent question Stu - why would I want to use Nikon when I am used to Canon? The answer is simple: I don't.

The problem is this: I could get ahold of the D60 and a housing fairly easily because I know someone who put together a system last winter then never had a chance to even use it. However, if I bought his system (which I still consider as an option), then I would still be wishing I had the 10D simply because it is a better camera.

Unfortunately, the housings for the 10D may not be available by the timeframe I am working under (although I may have that resolved now) - I have to have the housing no later than say... early- to mid-August.

Since I am determined to bring a DSLR on this trip, I am very loosely considering buying the Nikon D100 or the Fuji S2 simply because housings are readily available for both cameras. The downside is that this would require me to buy Nikon lenses (at least two), and as you said, this would be a huge change for me.

Would it be intolerable? No... probably not. The good part is that once you get underwater, I would simply need to know how to navigate the camera. The bad part is that I would have to maintain an entirely separate set of lenses for underwater use. The good part about that (maybe?) is that this means any damage done to the lenses I am using underwater would not impact top-side photography since I would continue using my Canon lenses for that.

Basically, switching to Nikon lenses (and the D100 or S2) is an absolute last resort. A very last resort.

And I think you are right... I do think it could get confusing.
I can already envision me underwater... going .... thinking, "ok... now what setting was I supposed to use?"

[Stewart L. Sy]

While I'd love to house the 10D, it's not in my finances at the moment to drop 3k on a housing, even though I've got all the ports and lenses. I'm still waiting for what the manufacturers will do for those of use who have regular strobes. If I do go the Subal route, I will likely have 1 bulkhead set up with the 6 pin ETTL connector and the other bulkhead with just the trigger and ground soldered. For macro shooting, I'll have the 550ex in a housing at TTL and will have likely a YS90 on the other bulkhead but powered way down to provide fill light for shadows only, for macro, I'll likely stick to my twin YS120's at set at manual and trigger them through a S&S Y-cord.

Though a good friend only shoots with 1 strobe over the port for macro and he has stunning shots....

My 2 cents...good luck on what you end up with....

stu