Stenella

Thanks Chris, I appreciate it. Still pondering...! Thank you very much, nice to hear something positive about the R5! Yes, I had indeed been looking bat the Ikelite 200 DL housing for it already, as a (relatively!) cost effective option. This thread has caused me to hesitate a bit about going ahead though. The 14-35 RF lens is available here, and wasn't one I had considered previously - thanks for this suggestion, that could work for me! :-)

Thanks Tim. As you have surmised, my bank balance is not endless and I can't really afford to get two separate setups as wonderful as that would be. I am anxious about making the wrong choices and then finding I have to buy everything again from scratch because the housings or domes don't fit whatever replacement I discover I need! Also, where I work is pretty remote and its not as easy as just 'pop into a camera shop' or 'next day delivery'. I'd be waiting a couple of months for stuff to be shipped most likely (not a disaster as the dolphins aren't going anywhere, but it's all a bit of a pain). I think the main thing I have learnt in this thread is that I simply don't know enough to make an informed decision, because everyone is recommending crop sensor when I had assumed that full frame was the only thing to be certain of. Haha. So, it's back to another several weeks of reading for me I think! Thanks very much Mike Unfortunately I'm down in the south-west and quite a long way from Manchester or I might have taken you up on this! Interesting that you're not recommending the R5. My amateur-level research on the interweb informed me that the R5 was going to be a super-duper underwater camera but no-oneon this thread has supported that! Further illustrating my hopeless lack of knowledge on this topic... Thanks so much Chris for taking the time to post these comparisons. It occurs to me that I should produce a lifesize cardboard dolphin and do some experiments of my own with my various lenses, GoPros etc to get more of a feel for how things might look in practice I'm going to have a look into the possible Olympus setup you mention in your two posts - thanks for suggesting this. I must admit that, perhaps ignorantly, the one thing that I was certain that I needed for my underwater venture was a full frame sensor size because I am working with fast-moving animals in not great light (I'm very shallow, but it is often overcast, and sometimes turbid) and I need to optimise light and shutter speeds so as not to get blurry dolphins. Topside, that's why I ultimately opted for full frame to maximise light and good shutter speeds for my cetacean work, over the additional magnification of the crop sensor camera. I regularly work with 7D II and Canon 5D III/IV for my cetacean ID work above the water, and the image quality from the 5Ds almost always surpasses what I get with the 7D even when I have to crop the 5D images to zoom in on dorsal fins. Maybe its different underwater, this is what I am uncertain about now after reading all this replies recommending crop sensor or even the four-thirds system. Basically, I'm more confused now than I was when I started, haha. Thank you for your reply Wolfgang, and for recognising the specific context of what I aim to do and concerns re. sensor size etc. It's really helpful to know that I'm not entirely on the wrong path with the FF reasoning. Now we get into technical stuff that I know almost nothing about I am aware of WACP1, WWL, etc only from having seen them in this forum and some initial googling. I almost fell off my chair when I saw the price tag for a WACP1, lol. I guess I was hoping my entire setup would be around this price, not just one part of it (however awesome that part might be, and I understand it probably is). I will go and read more... Thanks very much for your thoughts and for the helpful photo links. One thing I definitely do need is some fast autofocus, but I am not a Nikon user anyway (for no reason except that I went the Canon route initially and then got trapped there my by lenses!). OVERALL CONCLUSION FOR NOW: I'm clearly not knowledgeable enough to make a good decision on this and your feedback was a little mixed (which I expected as opinions always vary, but I'm now less certain than when I started about even the choice of body!), so I'm going to keep reading some more. Thanks everyone for your input, its really appreciated even though I wish you would have all recommended the same thing and it would be simple and easy (haha)

Thanks Chris No, I didn’t yet purchase the R5. But I was thinking of that camera mostly because I could use it also for the other things I do, including aurora/night photography and landscapes and topside marine mammal work – i.e. it would be a solid multi-tasker. The lens and the housing I could buy specifically for underwater, but I kind of need the body to function a bit more broadly as my 5DIII has done for all these years? Yes, I am snorkelling within 2 m of the surface, so there is light (though its often overcast). Thanks for the door measurement info, that’s useful to know. I did see that Canon will soon release a 16mm f2.8 RF lens, but I was worried that might not be wide enough…I’m torn between thinking a 15mm fisheye might be too wide, and anything rectilinear and narrower might not be wide enough!

Thanks for your reply Tim Nice pics of the spinners. So, I am indeed able to get close. I don’t move much myself, but the animals I work with can be very interactive and approach me and often swim around at close proximity for quite a long time. That’s why I was thinking the 15mm fisheye, but in my inexperience then I do keep worrying that you are right and I might end up needing more zoom. But if a 1.7 m animal is within 2 metres of you (and sometimes within arm’s reach) then what would your thoughts be on a 15mm fisheye in that scenario?

Hi everyone, I was hoping some of you would be kind enough to offer me some advice, because after weeks of reading up on underwater photography then I am still struggling to decide what to purchase for my purpose. The purpose is a specific one – I am snorkelling with seals and dolphins, and I wish to collect identification images of individual animals for research purposes (so I am interested in stills, rather than video). Until now, I have used only a GoPro as my venture into underwater photography is a new one, but I am an experienced DSLR user topside. I was initially just looking for housing for my Canon 5DIII, but as it’s a decade old and housing is specific to one model, then I have decided at the same time to upgrade to the Canon R5 and buy housing specific to that in the hope that it will all be good for a few years. So far, so good. The ‘challenge’ is in deciding on a lens. The mammals I am photographing come close, to within a metre or two of me. I’m looking for a fast lens, to use specifically for this context. I will be photographing in ambient light and not using strobes, and I don’t want a setup that is too cumbersome. Initially I was looking at the Sigma 15mm fisheye, but after reading about compatibility issues with the R5 then I don’t think I can risk it – the Sigma website implies that it might have to be used on manual with the R5 which would make life more difficult with fast-swimming mammals? I’ve struggled to find information on the Tokina 10-17mm compatibility with the R5 too. So, the default option currently seems to be the Canon 8-15 mm fisheye, though it’s more expensive than what I really wanted to spend and I have a few other hesitations about it. I was just going to get a simple housing and a dome port. I’d be grateful for any thoughts/recommendations – have I missed any obvious alternatives? I’m not experienced with underwater work, and am just looking for something simple, effective and cost-efficient for this one specific purpose. Thank you so much.

Hello everyone, I work with marine mammals in various countries, and am here to learn more about underwater photography and hopefully improve my skills! I'm generally working topside from boats, but increasingly looking at acquiring underwater images for research and educational purposes. Nice to meet everyone