I have been reading and trying to get my head around a DSLR set up for 4 months. Yesterday I saw a Olympus E-520 with twin lenses for a good price and started on the purchase plot.

OMG! after going to Reef Photo's and others and adding up all the bits it became obvious that my beer money budget didnt buy diddly squat.

E-520 Camera and lens package: 650
Housing: 975
Single Port for 50mm macro: 450
Zuiko 50mm lens: 440
Handles: Approx 150
Shipping to Australia: 150
No Gears or ext tubes or Wide angle lens and port.

Total for basic set up excluding Flashes: $US 2815 ($AUS 4140)

Plus single Flash: 750
Cable:150
Shipping: 50

Total $950 or double for twin flashes.

So a basic set up is going to cost $3765 say $4000 with a couple of unknowns.

If you are a casual diver doing say 30 dives a year this is a big investment and is the price of a great trip somewhere.

How do you guys afford it?

Bet you're wishing you were looking into it when our dollar was still up around US$0.93! I got my settup when it came down to around 80c, there's no way I'm buying anything more from overseas until it goes back up to around that mark again!

And don't forget, if you're ordering anything from overseas to Aust, if the package is over a grand, you have to pay GST and customs on top of it.

Cheap car on LPG, shore dives, friend with boat, don't go on expensive dive holidays.....until you have all the gear.

haha welcome to our world

Undertow this is NOT funny. I got all hot and sweaty yesterday with the dream of a purchase and had it snatched out from under me.

Panda if I cant afford a liveaboard to PNG or somewhere equally as good once a year, my life as I know it ends!

This is a tragedy of Greek proportions.

Oh! Christ I didnt know that, so add another 10% + customs theft to it.

Well this is the nice thing about digital cameras. There is always a newest best xyz just came out. So you should buy the NEXT oldest camera (you know, it's OLD because it's been out 12 months lol) for like half the price.

I just saw a Sea and Sea RebelXT housing on Ebay that didn't even sell for $950. And two Inon Z220 flashes that sold for $300.

So don't worry, it CAN be done, if you get a used even a new but slightly older model.

Cheers
Jaems

Probably the quickest way would be to rent a u/w camera for a week end, print your shots and sell them.
There is a huge market for under water prints and they sell quickly at very high prices.



Believe that and I have another one!

Hey Ardy,
I understand your pain. There seem to be four main paths to the treasure.
1) Go to Medical school ( or Engineering or Business) wait til your 50 then go diving all you want.
2) Become an investment banker, (That's not working out so well right now)
3) Convince yourself your going to go pro and write off all your equipment on your taxes(See Okuma's post) or,
4) Get creative;
My son just put his first system together pretty cheaply. He found a used Canon 400D and a older 350D housing that we rigged so the 400D (Xti) would work. (Thanks to Pakman). He picked up two S&S 110 strobes after starting with a older Nikonos 102. He started with a 60mm and one port. He's going to college and works as a dive instructor so you know he makes no money. Jeff took odd jobs after work to pay for his system. (Laying concrete in the Arizona desert in the summer will make you appreciate what you earn.)
The short answer my friend is there is always a way. You may have to give up a few mega pixels and some bells and whistles, but you can do it and come home with great images. By the way, Jeff's images are embarrassingly much better than mine. Here is a shot of a happy guy on his first dive with his first DSLR.



That's my focus light, he "borrowed " it. Like James says, there are a lot of choices out there if you don't have to have the latest and greatest.
Good Luck,
Steve

Ardy, within Aus, it's prob worth keeping an eye on the DiveOz classifieds (for camera gear) too: http://www.diveoz.com.au/bss/list_category.asp?cat=9 There's normally some slightly older dSLR rigs on there.

Hi Aussie - thanks for that I have added it to my favourites.

Seems that 2nd hand is the only road I can afford and it may be the best road in the end. Part of the carrot was to reduce the carry. My current rig weighs over 15k's.

Love the inovation shown here by Okuma made me laugh anyway - printing my old slides and selling them to pay for a new dslr is another form of my current mad state.

It seems to me that 2000 for a housing and 1000 for a flash + + is a bridge too far for many. I am surprised that someone hasnt put a company together to sell turn key set ups that suited the majority of divers. At the right price they could clean up this market just with a rig for Nikon and Canon . Then leave the other cameras/housings etc to the professionals. Seems strange that you pay only 16% for a camera and the other 84% is to keep it dry and light it.

You can also go directly through Japan and find some deals. http://www.fun-in.com.tw/catalog/index.php?cPath=95_34 is a place I've ordered from that is very good. Their price on strobes is tough to beat. I did notice that you left strobe arms off the list above....can be very pricey... however you can certainly start on the low end. And finally there's the plastic option. The mastercard or visa type...hehe.

So you spend all that money and you still have a camera system about to be obsolete! So buy secondhand. When I changed to a couple of D200 I advertised two S2 Pro with a Subal housing for about one fifth of the price I'd paid - and got not one single reply (apart from the obvious one from Nigeria!) It seems everyone must have the LATEST kit. I guess my two D200 have no value now either so I still use them. The people that buy the pics don't ask me what cameras I use. I never got round to getting a housing for my D2x.

Second-hand Nikon D200 will cost you about $600. I bought an Ikelite housing for about the same price. Sea & Sea YS-90DX I bought for $600 when new, were $300 recently (new, discontinued), and I bought a used one on ebay for $205. Used Tamron 90mm macro lens was about $150 on ebay. Second-hand ULCS parts still cost me ~$250, and I bought the port and sync cord new. Yeah, even buying on the cheap it adds up. That setup is under $2K, and is good for a LOT of quality fun, and can be expanded later.

But I bought the camera and lens to use on land, so they don't count in the underwater price. I owned one YS-90 that I used with a point-and-shoot, so adding a second one (for macro, slave mode, so no cord) didn't cost much... The point being that I spaced out the purchases enough that my first DSLR underwater last summer didn't cost THAT much. When I got back I bought a dome and wide-angle lens... for the next trip.

You can't get a DSLR underwater cheaply, but you CAN start minimal (I started with one lens, one port) and still have a blast.

Tubino you did well. I thought I could get a system for about $2800 and fell well short of that. I am now on the hunt and will use my old nikon lenses and my manual flashes to get a system started.

I wonder who has bought the cheapest UW digital SLR? $2000 is pretty good by you.

Anyone done better than 2k?

Thanks for that I have bookmarked it. I left the arms off as i have a set which i hope i can use.

Plastic cards scare the shit out of me if I cant pay off the total when it becomes due.

I am also on the quest for the cheapest u/w set-up. I decided to go with Ikelite since it is and one of the most dependable housings around. I have a Nikon D80 with the kit lens to start with which i bought last year, so it started with that, and built my setup part by part with so much patience!

In March I bought a DS51 strobe kit new: $424
Then the Ikelite 6inch dome on Ebay which is very flexible (can be used with the kit lens and 60mm macro) $105
Then I bought just two lenses used from Adorama.com last June: Nikon 60mm macro $240 and Sigma 15mm Fisheye $325
And all of sudden, there was a used Ikelite D80 on eBay last July $875
And finally i gave in and bought a brand new dome for the Sigma fisheye last August $185 plus a magic filter $35 (just for the wideangle shots, since I haven't gotten big strobes yet!

Total $2189, and i've got my little set up for macro and wide angle right there

I was a P&S underwater shooter for years -- my 5060 served me well. But I went for DSLR with my venerable D70S (megapixel count is NOT what makes a good pic), a used Ikelite housing, used Sigma 17-70mm lens, and 1 used Ike DS-125.

This entry level setup will absolutely smoke any P&S setup you want to talk about. The lens and sensor quality, even at only 6mp is simply superior to the P&S's. The 17-70 is a great all-arounder lens and you can certainly get by with 1 flash. For the TTL alone this package is worth it.

I "went over" to DSLR about a year ago, and I already had the Nikon body and some lenses, so it was a fairly easy decision. If I was doing an entry-level used setup today, I would look for a D200 / Ike setup. This is a hypothetical cost based on what I've seen on craigslist and ebay and is very close to what I paid to get into DSLR with the D70s:

Used Setup:

Nikon D200 -- $650
Ikelite D200 housing -- $900
Sigma 17-70mm (non-hsm) -- $300
Port and 8" dome -- $400
DS-125 with charger and arm -- $650

Total = $2900

Now -- that seems like a lot of money, but that is a setup that has room to grow and will take *spectacular* photos. You could probably go cheaper if you want to forego TTL and get a cheaper strobe. I am seeing D50/D70 cameras with housings go for about $900-1000, so you could save there too. As I say, the D70s is still an excellent camera, it just doesn't have the megapixel count of the D80/D200/D300 etc. You could also decide to do a straight up macro setup to start out and that would be cheaper.

It's worth it, regardless of what DSLR you go with. Here's a sample of what a typical "Joe Average"(me) shooter can get with the above setup:



JP

Ardy,

Getting into it certainly has a high startup cost, but once you are in, upgrading the body means only replacing the body and housing. All your other parts are reusable, such as ports, strobes, arms, cords.

If you go the second-hand route, I have a D70 and Ikelite housing that I could be persuaded to sell if the price was good (not sure what that would be). I upgraded to a D300 and Ikelite housing early this year and am undecided on what to do with the D70.

Hi Andrew I have sent you a message.

I remember the cost of buying my Aquatica and F4 etc so I do remember the pain but I was earning good money in those days. Apart from the lenses it appears nothing is useable and I want to get a smaller easier to carry set up.

Hi Ardy,

I know of an Ikelite housing for a Canon 40D, ports, and 2 DS-125's that is about to go on sale. I'm sure you could pick up the camera new for fairly cheap now, as the 50D has just been released. PM me if you're still looking for something.

Ryan.

Ooh, it's advertised on DiveOz already, and comes with a camera body. Not incredibly cheap, but nothing is at the moment. DiveOz Classifides

Hi Aussie thanks for that but $6000 is way beyond me and I would buy the Olympus 520 set up for less than that if I was totally out of control.

regards

Ardy

Lowest price wise, I think Id probably win, in that I started with an Olympus E300 (known in some circles as the 'ghetto' DSLR), I got the camera for $250 US (with the two standard lenses yet), and the Ikelite housing new for $600, presumably because they sold like 5 of them in total.

Started with a port for the 14-45, and a DS51.

It ended up being not bad for macro once I got a 50mm, but overall I would have saved more in the long run by waiting, given I ended up changing to Canon.

Otara

Otara this made me laugh as the cheapest DSLR I have heard of I was getting excited until the final line. I guess I am capable of something like this as well.

regards