Introduction

In 2003, Kodak announced an upcoming full frame camera called the Pro 14n – thus named because of its fourteen megapixel image sensor - the largest of any 35mm digital SLR camera. Instead of designing and fabricating the sensor themselves, Kodak went with a third party company called Fill Factory in order to keep costs low. Due to various development problems, Kodak wasn't able to debut the camera until months after they had promised, and users had problems getting good image quality from the camera due to green and magenta color shifts in the images, and a lot of noise in shadow detail. This was largely due to the fact that the 14n does not have an anti-aliasing filter – a design decision for which Kodak released successive firmware updates to help correct some of the problems, but late delivery and poor word-of-mouth buzz about the camera really discouraged the adoption of the 14n.

But then Kodak did a novel thing – they released a new camera using the same body called the ProSLRn, which came with a larger buffer, and a much better sensor. But they went o­ne step further, they accepted the 14n's as part of an upgrade program and for $1,500 they installed the better sensor and better power management circuitry. Kodak users were very pleased by the excellent product support – and a clear upgrade path. Imagine if Canon would accept the 1Ds body and for $1,500 they would send it back with the 1DsMkII sensor and electronics!

About this time, I was looking around for an upgrade to my Fuji S2pro which I had been using for over a year. I wanted a full frame camera with more megapixels for an upcoming offshore engineering project. My philosophy for camera upgrades is that I look for two times image size and quality, going first from a 3 megapixel Coolpix 990 to a 6 megapixel S2pro and finally, the 14 megapixel ProSLRn. I shot about 3,000 frames offshore before getting a prototype housing from Aquatica, to take the camera underwater. In that time, I learned most of the cameras ins and outs and how to get the most out of its sensor. If you would like to see some interesting photos from an offshore deepwater production platform, please see:

Offshore 2004 With the ProSLRn

Myself, as well as 3 or four other Nikon-mount shooters were looking around at housing options and I talked to Aquatica as I liked their S2pro housing, and the Kodak is based o­n the same body. Aquatica was able to use the front half of the S2pro housing, and with a newly developed back to accommodate the camera's “girth” they had a prototype ready to try. I made two dives in cold water at the Coronado Islands just south of San Diego in order to evaluate the setup in challenging conditions.

The Camera

The front of the ProSLRn – it's very similar to an S2pro, except for the “Leno Chin” at the bottom. Note the 10-pin connector though, for remote camera control.

Rather than make the camera taller, Kodak expanded the rear of the camera about ¼ inch to accommodate the electronics. This means the viewfinder is recessed and when viewing with the right eye, my nose can press the buttons.

Rather than write a full review of the camera, I'll refer the reader to the reviews by Thom Hogan and Phil Askey of DPreview. I will touch o­n the aspects of the camera that will interest underwater photographers:

Viewfinder: It is the same size and brightness as the D100, however it is recessed, making it difficult to get your eye up against.

Size and Weight: The camera is slightly bigger than the D100 and the S2pro. The body looks plastic, but it's actually magnesium alloy, like the better laptops. The body is not weather sealed.

Image Quality: Since the camera doesn't have an anti-aliasing (AA) filter, it is sharper than ANY other camera I have used. This has NO impact below water, as an AA filter is used to smoothe out pattern noise in repetitive details, such as fabric, building windows, etc. The image quality right out of the camera is not comparable to a Canon 1Ds or 1DmkII because there is very little noise reduction performed by hardware or the camera's firmware. JPEG's from the camera have very high contrast and lots of noise in the shadows. At anything other than the base ISO, I was not satisfied with the image quality. When used in the right conditions, even low light – I was VERY impressed with the image quality.

Battery Life: With a full charge, I can get 300-500 images o­nto my 4 gig microdrive before the battery needs charging. The camera has a 512 megabyte buffer, and of all the media cards, it writes fastest to the microdrive.

The Aquatica Housing

Size, Weight, and Construction

As mentioned earlier, the housing is very similar to Aquatica S2pro housing, so rather than describe the control layout in detail, I'll refer you to my review of the Aquatica S2pro:

The front of the housing, showing the large port opening.

The rear of the housing, showing the viewfinder, LCD windows, and menu buttons.

The housing I received came with the “old-style” TLC handles. I liked these handles a lot better than the contoured models that Aquatica has introduced recently. The TLC grips are smaller in diameter, which fits my hand better, and they are gnurled and a lot easier to grip with gloves. They slide back and forth and lock in place with a large set screw, so I was able to adjust them to the correct location to easily reach the shutter, command dial, and zoom knob. As you can see from the photo of the back of the housing, I asked Aquatica to put a plug in place of the Metering Mode dial (located next to the viewfinder) as I don't change the metering mode and I prefer to have a flush surface near the viewfinder. The prototype did not come with an o­n/off knob or an M-S-C switch. I asked that the M-S-C switch be omitted so that the camera can be removed from the housing, even with a large zoom lens and zoom gear mounted. The o­n/off knob will be added later, and will be exactly like the o­ne o­n the D100/S2 housings. You can also see that I added o­ne of the small “Leek Detectors” sold by MCD, the alarm LED is mounted in the rear lower left.

Above water, the housing is heavy, perhaps a pound heavier with the camera mounted. This is due to the fact that the camera weighs more, and there is slightly more aluminum in the housing back, as compared to the D100/S2 housing. As with all the Aquatica housings I have used, the material is extremely thick and the housing feels very solid. The finish is a paint that can be chipped off at sharp angles o­n the housing, but there are few of these. o­ne place that users have reported it to chip off is around bayonet port mount, and at the rear corners. This doesn't affect the housing operation or durability, and with Nexus housings, it's really an aesthetic thing.

The left side of the housing, showing the lens release lever, and two plugged control holes. o­ne can be used to control the camera using the firewire port.

Functions

The camera control options are identical to the D100/S2 housing, so I won't go into as much detail for this review. The front command dial, zoom knob, and shutter area easily accessed without taking your hands from the handles or your eye from the viewfinder. To access the rear command dial, you move your right hand to the back to turn the knob. The buttons o­n the back give you access to the camera menu, image playback, image size options, multi-controller, etc.

The sliding handles can be positioned for comfortable use of the shutter release and front command dial.

Here is the required Wiseman “hairy-hand” closeup showing the use of the front command dial.

Another “hairy-hand” shot showing the large gnurled zoom knob. 

Ports and Lens Combinations

Aquatica uses bayonet mount ports for all of their housings now, and the Kodak housing isn't any different. I feel that the ports are very secure when mounted, but other users who are used to threaded ports will need to get used to the system.

I shot the setup using the flat port with an extension ring for the 105mm Micro and the 8” dome port with an extension ring for the 17-35 f.28 AFS. Using the flat port and the 8” dome, and a selection of extension ring, you can shoot just about any of the available lenses Aquatica also supplies AF-MF shift collars, so that you can shoot the 105mm and switch to MF if conditions require it. I have used the flat port with the 60mm, the 105mm, and the 70-180mm macro zoom. Using the zoom, it's not possible to switch between manual and autofocus, but most users prefer shooting this lens in manual focus. The flat port can be fitted with either an acrylic or a glass front, depending o­n preference.

A front view of the housing with the flat port fitted. You can see that there is ample room for large lenses and zoom rings.

The 8” dome port is made of acrylic with a metal backing plate. It can be fitted with shades for use with wideangle and fisheye lenses. They slide over and secure in place using set screws.

When used with the fisheye lens, no extension ring is required. The 17-35 requires about a 1” extension . You can also see in this shot that the top LCD viewing window has been enlarged and is no longer angled; it's much easier to see now.

A top view of the housing fitted with dome port. For the back of the housing extends out about ½” further than the D100/S2 housing in order to accommodate the “Leno Chin” and extended rear of the Kodak.

Workability and Servicing the Camera

The camera mounts to a permanent tray in the front of the housing. This is convenient because it means that when the back is removed, it is easy to pop out and change the memory card. The battery slides out the left side of the camera, but the tripod mount screw needs to be loosened to do this. That's not too difficult as no special tools are needed, since the tripod screw has a large thumb-wheel as shown in the photo.

Changing ports and lenses in between dives was also easy with this unit, as the lens release lever makes it easy to take the lens off and replace it with another. I used a large zoom lens for my first dive with a zoom gear fitted, but because this unit did not have an M-S-C control, I was able to pull it out of the housing for a few topside shots, then swap lenses, replace the camera, and then put o­n the dome port. Because of the “Leno Chin” o­n the Kodak camera, Aquatica will need to redesign their M-S-C control to use it with this camera.

The camera mount is easy to operate and secures the camera in the housing without the use of any special tools

Ergonomics

Let me begin by saying that every diver has a different preference when it comes to housing weight underwater.  Housing buoyancy needs to be assessed o­n a system basis, and this includes: housing, ports and extensions, and strobes and arms.  Of note is the fact that Ikelite SS200's are positively buoyant and other strobes such as Inons are not.  I prefer a housing setup that is slightly negative, but o­nly by a few ounces.  That way I can set the housing down o­n the bottom if necessary.  

My first dive was with the 17-35mm AFS, the 8” dome, and an extension ring using Ike 200's. As stated, above water the housing setup was very heavy, but configured this way, the unit was almost neutral underwater! I was surprised – apparently the dome and extension trapped enough air to offset the weight. The balance was fairly good, but not ideal, with a slight tendency for the housing to roll backward. My overall impression of the unit for wideangle shooting was very good. I was able to easily pan with the sealions and the viewfinder was good enough that I could track my subjects and compose my shots.

I did my second dive with the 105mm Micro, the flat port and about a 20mm extension ring. This is where the weight of the housing really showed itself. I did not use a spring scale to measure the in-water weight, but I'd estimate the system with dual strobes weighed at least a pound. I was able to shoot macro with o­nly my right hand o­n the handle, but it was very tiring, and I don't think everyone could do it. Macro shooting also showed the problems with the viewfinder. It's not Aquatica's fault that the Kodak viewfinder is small and recessed into the body of the camera, but the end effect is that the viewfinder optic is not as close to the camera viewfinder as with other models. The image appears small and there is a lot of black border. In order to read the viewfinder information it's necessary to move your eyepoint up in order to look down. I had difficulty finding my subjects and locking autofocus where I wanted it because of the reduced viewfinder image.

Sample Photos and Image Quality

The following galleries show some sample shots using the 105mm Micro and the 17-35 AFS wideangle zoom.

105mm Micro

17-35 AFS

All of the images were converted from RAW files using Adobe Photoshop CS. Noise was controlled by overexposing when possible by o­ne stop (but still not clipping highlights) and using the shadows slider to darken the shadows until noise was acceptable. The saturation slider was not used in these conversions.

Here are a few selected images, showing 100% 450 pixel crops from sections of interest.

Wideangle:

A sealion at the Coronado Islands. F6.7 @ 1/125th

A sealion at the Coronado Islands. F6.7 @ 1/125th

A sealion at the Coronado Islands. F6.7 @ 1/125th

A sealion at the Coronado Islands. F6.7 @ 1/125th

A sealion at the Coronado Islands. F8 @ 1/125th

A sealion at the Coronado Islands. F8 @ 1/125th

A Garabaldi at the Coronado Islands. F8 @ 1/125th

A Garabaldi at the Coronado Islands. F8 @ 1/125th

Macro

A Garabaldi at the Coronado Islands. F19 @ 1/125th

A Garabaldi at the Coronado Islands. F19 @ 1/125th

A Garabaldi at the Coronado Islands. F22 @ 1/125th

A Garabaldi at the Coronado Islands. F22 @ 1/125th

A Gorgonian at the Coronado Islands. F19 @ 1/125th

A Gorgonian at the Coronado Islands . F19 @ 1/125th

Image assessment: I was very pleased with the image quality of the macro shots. Detail is better than with any other camera system I have used. Aliasing was not a problem, even in the gorgonian fine details. Color and saturation are excellent and in that o­ne dive I was able to get a contest winning garibaldi shot.

The wideangle photos are much more difficult to assess. The 17-35 performed very well behind the Aquatica 8” dome. I was able to focus very close, no diopter was needed, and corner sharpness is very good. Looking at the images themselves, apparently there is a lot of noise in the blue water as well as the shadows. Using the shadow slider in ACR I was able to darken the shadows to a point that was not too dark, but that covered up the noise. Of course, the samples shown here have been significantly resized and converted to JPEG with the ensuing compression artifacts. Looking back at shots from a few years back (S2pro) at the same location, I think a lot of the “blotchiness” in the photos is due to suspended particles. It would be nice to see some wide angle photos from clear tropical water before passing judgement o­n the wide angle image quality.

Conclusion

The Kodak ProSLRn/14n has been alone in offering F-Mount users a significant upgrade in resolution over the last 6-10 months. Furthermore the camera has the added advantage of being full frame, so we can use the venerable 17-35mm Nikkor for truly wide angle shooting and the 16mm for fisheye compositions.

Below water, the Aquatica housing performs well for wideangle photography. It's easy to maneuver and compose photos, and the dome optics yield excellent results with Nikon's best wideangle zoom and other “tricky” lenses to house. Because of the weight which can make the setup difficult to hold steady, I wouldn't recommend it as a macro system, without adding additional buoyancy, but this is my preference and other divers may feel differently. Because of the small recessed camera viewfinder and the work-arounds Aquatica has made, it's very difficult to find your subject and achieve critical focus. Like the D70, this camera is just crying out for an upgraded add-on optical viewfinder, such as the o­nes manufactured by Seacam and Sealux.

Aquatica took a bold step by developing a housing for this camera without already having a large user base of camera owners and they deserve kudos for it. The camera requires extensive knowledge of post-processing, so it's not a good choice for digital beginners wishing to shoot JPEG for instant results. Consequently, I'd characterize this system (camera and housing) as a specialty niche tool – for photographers who have already used a digital SLR and are familiar with post processing and digital metering techniques which are much different than for film and even other digital SLR's. In the right hands, and accounting for the camera's quirks, the system is capable of producing stunning 4,500 x 3,000 pixel underwater images.