StuartL

I'm looking to house a DSLR. I was planning on the 5D, but for certain circumstances which forced me to wait. Now those circumstances have gone, but damn - Canon's gone and spoilt the party by giving me two glorious options.

The first option is the 5D II, with the 16-35mm II and/or the 100mm macro (and likely a fisheye down the road). Pros that I see: higher resolution, ISO up to 25600 (drool!), likely slightly better overall image quality, and a video mode. Cons: cost (especially if the housing floods), and I'll probably have to wait until December for the camera (and I don't know how long for Aquatica to produce the housing - although I'm sure they will produce it eventually.)

Second option: the 50D, with any of the 100mm macro (which I have), 60mm macro (which I'd have to buy if I wanted to use it), Tokina 10-17mm fisheye zoom, and/or the EF-S 10-22mm. Pros: I can get the housing right now, and the camera in the next month; it's a lot less money down the drain if it floods; and it'll cost me less to put the kit together. Cons: slightly lower resolution (although 15 MP versus 21 MP really isn't that great a difference), ISO only to 12800, and I lose the f/2.8 on the ultra-wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) angle. I'd also have to pick up the 10-17mm and/or the 10-22mm, since I don't currently have a 1.6 crop body or either of those lenses.

To be honest, I'm leaning towards the 50D - I'm not sure that the extra cost for the 5D II will be warranted for this purpose. Although I'll probably end up getting one to upgrade my 5D at some point, once the price drops a little.

Can anybody see anything I've missed in the above?

I'm intending to take a Canon 5D underwater, with the 100mm macro or the 16-35mm II, depending on my mood and what I'm shooting. I've already started picking up bits and pieces of an Aquatica housing as I can afford them (Australia being what it is, there's very little local stock, so I'm getting them from B&H).

The question is: is it desirable to put a diopter on the 16-35mm when using it with the 8" dome? Being an 82mm filter thread, there are no direct options available, but Schneider Optics do make a filter in the Series 9 size, as well as an adapter to mount Series 9 filters on 82mm threads (information I picked up from the uwphotochat forums.) Minimum focus distance for this lens is 28cm.

The other thing that's bugging me: what should I do in terms of servicing the housing? Cleaning the easy-to-reach O rings is fine, but what about those that are a bit harder to reach? Is it particularly difficult or fiddly, or just time consuming? (Bear in mind that I'm an IT professional - I'm not used to doing fine work with my hands.)

It looks like B&H carries the O ring kits, so that's one concern alleviated, at least.

Thanks for any and all advice - I'm a genuine neophyte (at least for underwater SLR photography - I have a fair amount of knowledge on the surface), but keen to learn.