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Deep6

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Posts posted by Deep6

  2. Posted

    I am seeking some advice about any tricks to cleaning the inside of an ikelite dome . I have an Ikelite 8" acrylic dome and have a heck of a time keeping the inside clean. More specifically, streak free. I have been using a lens cloth and will spray a small amount of lens cleaner inside. I can never seem to get it looking great. It always ends up having streaks. Am I the only one that has this problem?

     

    Any tricks or advice would be appreciated.

    Lens cloth? I use a micro fiber cloth to clean eye glasses, lenses, and domes. Ensure that the cloth is very clean with absolutely no grit. Be careful not to get any o-ring grease inside of the port. I do not use lens cleaning fluid on the dome and only on lenses if they are especially dirty.

    Bob

  3. Posted

    I have used a 105 micro, 'pre=D' with no issues at all. The 'D' indicates the camera knows the distance to subject when in focus and can relate this to the flash. This has no impact on u/w work since its all relatively close with this lens.

    I agree. I have used the Nikkor 60 mm macro since '93. It is very sharp and fast focusing. I see no need for the "D" feature for u/w photography. Enjoy and save your money for other toys. OBTW, the Kenko 300 Pro 1.4 teleconverter will work with the older 60.

    Bob

  4. Posted

    I see someone had plenty of sleep yesterday ;) , I on the other hand, am not snoozing an extra day in New Jersey like Monsieur Parson, it's back to work for me, bleary eyes and not, making non disolving housing for the mass :)

     

    Alastair, I am pushing the engineering to get a 8-16mm Sigma ASAP.

    Don't you just love these tete-a-tete's!

    Bob

  5. Posted

    We're talking live view here.

     

    The d7000 has made *huge strides here* :( it is down to 1 second.

    A buddy brought his new D7000 in to the office today. AF is outstanding (near to oo), live view may be 1 second or so for near to oo. IMHO, 1 sec. lock is too slow for action. As mentioned before, we don't to near to oo much u/w.

    Bob

  7. Posted · Edited by Deep6

    Well a big happy birthday Steve. With 43 years of diving, I thought you might want to join the older than dirt club. I only have 36 years of diving, but I am older than you. I guess you young puppies will have wait a while. OBTW, I saw Stan Waterman at OWUW this year. He will be 88 next month and still can get in a dive a day. May we all be so blessed.

    Bob

     

    P.S. My bride & I will be in Dominica this November. Please post a trip report.

  8. Posted

    Steve:

     

    I shoot at night (day too) with a G9 and Ikelite housing and Ikelite Flash. The shutter lag is terrible. I have lots of photos of fish tails.

     

    In addition to shutter lag issues, the weight of the camera, housing, flash, spare batteries, adds to an already heavy peice of luggage.

     

    Any thoughts of a simple camera/housing/flash(perhaps built-in flash) that would have low shutter lag and also be very lightweight from an airline/luggage standpoint?

     

    Thanks

     

    George

    Vestal, NY

    IMHO, the only way to reduce shutter lag on your rig is manual pre-focus. With the small sensor, the depth of field will yield acceptable focus.

    Bob

  9. Posted

    thanks for the info

     

    you've made me feel better about possibly going for the older lens, im not really concerned about how quickly or slowly the lens hunt but quality was important for me

     

    is there a port that allows you to use this older lens in maunal aswell as autofocus modes?

     

    not sure if i can get anything together within 8 days but would possibly be interested in purchasing the used 105mm and port from you, are you leaving on a trip or leaving for good?

     

    craig

    I have the older 105 and use the Nexus multiport. This allows AF or M. There is a button on this lens that must be depressed so that the AF/M selection ring can be rotated. I got this lens in the 1990's for my F4 rig. I doubt that with the special port, that this would be a cheaper option.

    Bob

  10. Posted

    Generally you would want to use the F-stop that makes the water look nice and blue. It depends a bit on how sunny it is, but on an average day you'd be using something around F8 at 1/125th of a second. But it's not all that easy. It really depends on the circumstances. Point your camera at the blue (you can practice this on land), and look at the meter in the view finder. Try and get it in the center (or maybe 2/3th of a stop darker) and that should give you a nice blue background. Hopefully that also exposes your main subject correctly. If not you may need strobes (like with sea lions) and add some fill light for your main subject.

    I agree. That's what I would do. Select ISO [110, 200] and spot meter 60-90 deg. away from Sun. I perfer - 1 EV for RPV (film) and mostly for my Nikon DSLR. Determin what shutter speed & apt. you what and then adjust the ISO for the desired exposure.

    Bob

  12. Posted · Edited by Deep6

    Probably a stupid question, but one that has me contemplating. Ive got ~30 dives with camera under my belt (a Fuji F100 in OEM housing) and the majority of those dives were either shoredives or off a RIB, so getting the camera in was easy (either held close to chest and back roll, or handed in). I was in Egypt last year and did a few dives holding the camera close for the giant stride entry, not ideal but was ok with a small camera, anyways Ive just bought a strobe and as you can imagine thats increased the bulk of my camera, and am back off to Egypt in a week for a 10 days of day boat diving. Whats the easiest way of getting in with the camera when the boats busy or theres current, and its not easy to have the camera handed to you? Ideas guys ?

    Moose

    The lanyard dangle with a shock cord is likely more preferable than a giant stride with camera. That said, I can do a giant stride and not go deeper than my shoulders initially. Timing and a good kick is what it takes. Practice! One hand on mask & 2nd stage and the other arm holding the rig aloft (Statue of Liberty entrance?). I am older than dirt, so you young puppies can do this.

    Bob

  17. Posted

    I'm in the market for my first DSLR. SIZE is a big deal for me. I'm looking for as SMALL of a form factor as possible. (I have a real phobia about the size of these systems).

     

    Recently I've discovered two systems which seem comparatively small & compact compared to other systems out there (at least I think so). The Nexus and Nauticam set-ups both seem very well made and quite compact. I'm having trouble finding much info on either system. Thought I'd ask this panel of experts and enthusiasts your thoughts on the topic. (I'll likely buy the Nikon D90 or Canon T2i + 1 macro and 1 wide lens... I'm new to DSLRs and starting from scratch).

     

    I have lots of questions - so any words of wisdom would be appreciated. A few questions that come to mind include:

     

     

    [*]Are the Nexus and Nauticam systems the most compact DSLR's housings / systems on the market - are there other systems I should be considering?

    [*]Why am I having such a hard time finding meaningful specs / ratings on this gear? Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place??? Any good sources of specs /rating info?

    [*]What do you like / not like about these systems?

    [*]Why buy one over another ?

    [*]What have you learned that you wish you would have known before you purchased?

    [*]What add-on gear would you consider "must-haves" to go along with these housings? Anything you'd avoid?

    [/list

     

     

    Thanks in advance. I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

    I went through the same process several years ago and selected the D80 over the D200 that I owned and the the Nexus housing because of prior experience with a F4 housing, size and weight considerations. The D80 housing weighs < 2 Kg (4.4 lbs) and is lighter and smaller the the cooresponding D200 housing. That said, the housing is not that much smaller and heavier, but with the cameras installed, there is a notible difference in weight.

     

    I do recomend the optiional viewfinder and optical strobe trigger. With most housings you can get both optical & hard wire connections. I use the Inon Z-240 for macro & w/a. I have sTTL with the optical connections if I want it. Unless you are looking for a used system, I would go with the D7000 vs. the D90.

     

    Here's a link to some reviews.

    U/W Reviews

     

    There are many reviews here at WP and all over the net.

     

    Bob

  19. Posted

    I'm dying for one. The best live view auto focus available. So you have more flexibility underwater...

     

    I'm still waiting for some more reviews. The micro 4/3rds certainly is not quite as good IQ as dx. But not far off.

     

    I'm betting the the sony nex 7 will be released within a few months, and it will be a gh2 killer - same functions, EVF & live view, and great contrast detect auto focus, all on a dx sensor. Likely the same sensor as the nikon d7000 and sony a580.

     

    But then there are even fewer E lenses, than micro 4/3rds... What to do?

    Well Don,

    Thom Hogen has a "good" prognosis for Sony and the NEX(*) future. Scroll down to "State of Mirrowless" for his musings. You might just win your bet. That said, lenses, lenes, lenses, AND defunk the UI.

    Bob

     

    STATE LINK

  21. Posted

    Many folks suggest using the Tokina 10-18 with a 1.4 in the small dome with the understanding that the relatively infinite DOF will let you shoot like mad up close. There are occasionally some larger creatures but most are quite small. I went the 60 route, pre-focused. The next time I will go the 10-17 route with the 1.4 and see how it goes.

    Bill

    That's what I am thinking. If I do this dive again, may be the 10-17 + 1.4x TC or the Siggy 17-70. The Tokina would ceertainly be easier to use.

    Bob

  22. Posted

    I am planning this dive in late May/early June. Based on comments above, I take it my single 200 lumen Big Blue 1x5 is not nearly sufficient. Yikes! Not sufficient for autofocus only.. or not sufficient for taking pics at all?

    And adding a 500 lumen Fix is not sufficient either and not even a sola 600? I am not looking to spend $1000 for lights for a single dive

    Any suggestions for reasonably priced satisfaction on this dive?

    I used a LED 44 (220 lux) with an old model Nikkor 60 mm micro lens on a D80 body. The light is nowhere near bright enough, but sometimes it would AF. I mostly used MF & MF pre-focus. The light was bright enough for me to spot little critters. I suggest you use a wider lens than the 60 mm.

     

    Since you have a Nexus housing, you can MF or AF. Consider renting a focus light.

     

    Bob

  23. Posted

    I've played a bit with trying to compare guide numbers

     

    In a darkish room I set up my DSLR (28mm equv WA) on manual mode and a farly high F, i.e. 10-14 and fired the flashes from the same distance at full power against the wall, and adjusted F until i got about the same histogram on all.

     

     

    Yongnou 462 F13

     

    Yongnou 460 F14

     

    YS110 F10

     

    (i.e. not quite a full stop spread, right?)

     

    On paper the YS110 has GN22, Y460 and Y462 has GN32

     

    So, I suppose the crux now is the angle, the YS100 is 105degrees circular, while i dont know what the Chinese flashes are specified for, but i strongly suspect that the 462 that has zoom is specified at maximum zoom (smallest spread) and the 460 for at most maybe a 28mm equiv (about 75 degrees).

     

    Am i right to assume that this indicates that the Yongnous are probably very optimistic in their guide numbers? How useful would these ordinary yongnou flashes be as auxilary UW strobes with slave triggers? They are dirt cheap, and I can easily get a housing that they will fit.

     

     

    Cheers

    /O

    Hi Oscar,

     

    I know nothing about Yongnous strobes. If you will look at the pinned topics for this goup, you will find the following link to Strobe Finder. There is a wealth of information is past discussions. Try some research.

    Bob

     

    Strobe Finder Link

  24. Posted

    I'm going to go out on a limb here Bob......did you happen to hear that phrase from Lisa Choquette of DMC Charters? She used to say that a lot when they took the Lio Kai down south.

    Hi,

    No, My wife and I were on your lovely island last June. I think I picked up that reference from Andrew Doughty's "Big Island Revealed" guide book. I am older than a lot of your island's surface. Some of it is still smoking!

     

    Soft landings,

    Bob

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