sean

Not to be pedantic, but the larger one is almost certainly the female!

I have both a D60 and 10D; RAW files range from 6mb to just over 8mb on both cameras. A bit smaller on the 10D as the embedded JPEG is smaller. It will depend on your subject, ISO setting, etc; at ISO 100 it's closer to 6mb, at ISO 1600 more like 8. In any case, both cameras write them out TOO SLOWLY!

I was thinking of doing this next year. I'm eager to hear more details of your trip! Who did you go out with?

I don't know if this is appropriate to say in this forum, but I have a UK-Germany D30/60 housing I'm looking to sell (and a D60 as well). It's great but it's time for me to move to a different camera. Drop me an email if you're interested (I'm in Australia at the moment but should be fairly responsive). Apologies if this sort of talk is not allowed!

One thing that caught my eye in this review was the recommended use of exposure compensation of -2 -- that seems like an awful lot to me, is this what most people use? If shooting in AV or TV I typically use -2/3 and get excellent results.

The foveon technology sounds good in theory, but in practice seems to be somewhat lacking. More importantly, so far the only cameras that use it are rather disappointing in terms of feature set -- not to mention lens choice. There are better cameras for less money with better glass available for them, so I'm a bit flummoxed why anyone would be interested in Sigma's new camera.

I've been travelling and diving in NZ and Australia for the past two months, and I thought I'd share some of my photos for anyone who's interested. scalloped hammerhead shark stingray anemonefish (obligatory) the 'Busselton Jetty' nudibranch giant cuttlefish (which wasn't all that giant IMO) coralscape My travel journal and many more photos (topside and u/w) are on my web site, www.seanansorge.com, all the entries from this trip are marked 'new' and are listed in reverse chronological order (I went to New Zealand first, then Tasmania, etc). Comments are welcome. Topside photos were shot with a Canon 10D, u/w shot with a Canon D60, UK-Germany housing, single housed Canon 550EX.

I have a UK-Germany D60 housing and their strobe housing for the 550ex. It works pretty well I think. You can check out my web site for pictures I took in Australia last year: http://www.seanansorge.com/aus All the u/w shots were taken with this setup. One thing is I use the * button on the back of the camera to auto-focus, not the shutter button. This has a side effect of making the Canon e-ttl work in evaluative mode, making exposure a lot more consistent.

I used the Hoya RM72 IR filter. I bought the 62mm for $75-ish; the 77mm (which fits most of my lenses) was close to $300!! So instead I bought some step-up rings, much cheaper, and with the focal crop there's no problem using the smaller filter. The above shot was out of the camera and the auto-leveled in PS. I didn't convert to B&W because I liked the false-color effect. Interesting site on the digicam mods. I wonder how easy it would be to mod, say, a Canon S30, which can be had mighty cheap complete with an u/w housing...

I shoot with a housed D60 (I have a 10D but it won't fit in the D60 housing) with a single housed 550EX and I think it works pretty well. Usually I shoot in AV mode and set exposure compensation and strobe exp.comp. to taste. It seems to me two strobes would provide much better coverage, I have a second 550 but haven't housed it yet. One big downside is you can't switch the strobe off once housed, you have to switch it on and leave it. This seems to work just fine (I put it in 'SE' mode) but there are times I want it off, the only option is to just aim it away.

I played with this with my Canon 10D recently: The shutter times required are very long due to the IR filters inside the camera, 4-8 seconds (depending on ISO and f/stop etc) in bright daylight. Interestingly they're about the same in the shade (again on a sunny day). The aforementioned hot spot is also a problem. Eric if you can post any information on getting a modified or modifying a consumer digicam for this purpose that would be very interesting, even if just as a novelty.

This is the experience I had; I can get the 10D inside the UK-G D60 housing, but it's very difficult to close and some of the buttons I feel are must-haves u/w don't work. I already sold my D60 (for $1275! Ebay is amazing), but I'm thinking of just buying a used D60 for use u/w, in a few months after prices drop a bit more. That will probably be cheaper (and certainly a lot more convenient) than trying to get my housing modified to fit the 10D. As for where to buy the 10D; I got mine from www.PCConnection.com. They don't charge your card until they ship you the camera, I got mine about 10 days after the 10D first started shipping.

Then there's UK-Germany, which rumor has it will build a 10D housing -- I have the D60 flavor, the 10D doesn't quite fit, but some others find that a 10D fits in their d60 housing. My mileage varied and that makes me a sad panda. There's also the housings Ocean Brite will be selling (see news on this site).

Whoops, this was a mistake. Please ignore.

Well you do make a good point. At this point I'm very much thinking of just buying a used D60 (just sold one!) before my trip in september -- hopefully the prices will drop a bit in the next few months.