footlooseii

In the Sea2004 competition I won a certificate [value $1250] for 3 nights lodging, 2 days diving and 1 days island touring at Micronesias premier ecolodge and dive resort, Kosrae Village. This certificate has to be used this year and I don't have the time to utilize it. If anyone has a trip planned to there, I'd be willing to part with this certficate for a few dollars....... any offers??? :roll: Thanks John Durden

Hi all, A few months ago, the categories for the upcoming Picture of the Week contests were posted on wetpixel. Does anyone know whether this list has been updated and where it might be found? Thanks, John

I have the same rig you have with only the 60mm macro and the 24mm lenses. I haven't experienced the symptoms you have, though my system sometimes seems to take FOREVER to focus. (I think that's just a problem with lack of contrast/light on my subjects.) Anyway, forgive me if I insult your intelligence, but the two lenses you have both require port extensions. The 16 mm requires the #1 extension while the 12-24 requires the #4. Is it possible you forgot to install the extensions, or put on the wrong extension for a given lens? Just a thought. Hope you get to the bottom of it. John ______________________________ Nikon D100, Light & Motion Titan housing, Ikelite DS125 strobes

The choice of shooting modes had nothing to do with Steve. It's just that after a couple of days of shooting and careful analysis of the results, the ttl guys seemed to realize that digital ttl isn't all it's cranked up to be. I think it's ironic as hell to shell out 1500 bucks for a high quality digital camera with multiple auto modes, and then have to make all the adjustments manually. But that seems to be the way it is. I have always been forced to shoot manual with my D100, but I've had it in the back of my mind that I might one day get a Nikon SB80 or similar strobe in a housing. However, especially after Alex's comments on his new thread, I probably won't. I suppose if Ikelite were to come out with an iTTL compatible strobe, I might consider it, but I'm really pretty happy with the results I'm getting now. John

Hi All, We watched in awe the week before last as hurricane Charley churned across the Caribbean, plowed over Cuba, then, headed for the Keys. My fiancee and I had been signed up for months to attend the first-ever Stephen Frink Digital Photography Course, slated to begin on August 14 in Key Largo. We were really looking forward to it; but, for a while, it looked as if it wasn't going to be. Thankfully, residents of the Keys were much more fortunate than those of Punta Gorda and Charley passed safely to the west. The weather was great, and the course went as scheduled. Twelve of us attended, some coming from as far away as California and Washington DC. I discovered Steve has an almost cult-like following and the majority of the attendants had taken his film courses (some several times) and accompanied him on various liveaboard dive trips. Despite this, nearly all were digital newbies. Several had not even gotten their new housings wet prior to arriving in Key Largo. We were required to bring our own housed, digital SLR cameras, and the gear that people brought consisted of various Nikons (D1X, D100 and D70's) and Fuji S2's. These were carried in housings primarily from SeaCam and Sea and Sea. My L&M Titan housing and an Aquatica were the odd ones. Interestingly, there were none from Subal. (It was also interesting that most of the S2 users had chosen that camera because of its TTL compatibility; however, by the end of the week, invariably they were setting their exposures manually.) The week-long course was a photograph's boot camp. It consisted of morning dives followed by afternoon classroom sessions. The dive boat would leave the dock at 8:00am each morning for a two-tank dive, returning between twelve and one. The afternoon sessions began around 3:00pm. This format was similar to previous film photography classes Steve has taught. However, in those the students had a little time to relax before they'd meet to present slides that had been shot the day before and processed overnight. This time, we had barely two hours to clean up after the dive, grab a bite to eat AND download and review our morning's shooting (as many as 150 to 200 images for a photographer with a high-capacity CF card and a nimble shutter finger.) From these we were expected to select eight to 12 images, prepare them in PhotoShop and have them ready to discuss in class. That was the idea, anyway. Actually, it didn't happen quite that smoothly, and some of the sessions ran on into the evening as we grappled with PS and struggled to get our selected images ready to show. Nevertheless, it was very enjoyable and educational. Steve critiqued our work with diplomacy, and provided a detailed introduction to all aspects of underwater digital photography. He discussed makro and wide-angle techniques, image conversion, work flow, monitor calibration, camera maintenance and printing and so on. I found it interesting that Steve is shooting almost exclusively digital, now. He shoots film only when a client specifically requests it. Throughout the week Mike Haber and Mike Mesgleski of Underwater Camera Repairs shared their own expertise with us and provided comic relief. Mike Haber (also known as "Shark Bait") fed a school of nurse sharks while we clicked away, and got bitten on the hand for his efforts. The week concluded with a "week in review" party where everyone presented his/her favorite images from the weeks shooting. It was great fun and a nice way to wind up the week. I really enjoyed the course I would recommend it to anyone interested in getting into digital underwater photography, or honing their skills. John

You're right, the L&M housing doesn't allow you to turn off the camera without opening the housing. This is annoying, but doesn't seem to be a problem. The camera will go into a sleep mode after a user-selected period of non-use. The battery lasts quite a while, and I have never had any problem with it not lasting for a full two-tank dive with long surface interval and plenty of pictures shot underwater. My flashes are Ikelite D50 and DS125. I chose the Nikonos style bulkheads instead of the wetlink. They work fine. I have only experienced leakage one time at the housing end of the connector. Since then, I liberally coat the pins with silicone grease. I don't think any more moisture has gotten into the connection, but hopefully, if it should, the grease would shield the pins from corrosion. John

I went through this same decision analysis last December. It's was scary, because none of the local dive shops stock any of the higher end housings. As a result, there was no way to do any touchy/feely evaluation of the various models available. Anyway, I chose the L&M Titan housing. I bought it "sight unseen" based on L&M's reputation and reviews I found online. I've just returned from spending five months diving in the northeastern Caribbean from the Bahamas to St Barts. I made more than a hundred dives with this rig and have been very happy with it. My choice was based largely on the ROC. As I'm sure you know, Nikon's iTTL limits the use of u/w flash to essentially manual exposure. The ROC system provides 12-step control of the flash at the push of a button. This sounded really useful. However, in reality, I haven't found it necessary to change the flash exposure that much. (The independent control of dual flashes is nice, though.) What I have found to be very useful is the thumb control of the shutter speed and fstop. The focus lock button is also useful. I still don't have any hands-on experience with any of the other D100 housings, so I can't offer you a feature-for-feature comparrison. But, for me, I have been very pleased with every aspect of the L&M housing. I would buy another one. Good luck, John

Hi all, My name is John. My SO, Mary, and I are semi-retired and live aboard our sailboat Footloose II. We spend several months each year cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean. We are presently in St Maarten and will be going out on the Caribbean Explorer liveaboard dive boat next week - sort of busman's holiday for us. On our trip last year I used a Nikon 990 in an Ikelite housing with pretty good results. This year I upgraded to a D100 in a L&M housing. The improvement in our pictures has been dramatic. I do most of the shooting and Mary processes the results with Nikon Capture and Photoshop. We've really enjoyed all the great information available on this board. It has definitely shortened the learning curve for us. Keep up the good work. Thanks for listening John Durden & Mary Tripp

Hi Guys, I don't seem to be able to store the raw (.NEF) files from my Nikon D100 onto cd. Am I missing something? XP throws up an errow message whenever I try to copy them over. The only way I have been able to do it so far is to first winzip all the files. But, this is an extra step that I'd like to avoid. Any suggestions? Thanks, John

I have recently purchased this setup and interfaced it with my existing Ikelite DS-50 & 125 strobes. All appears to work well (land tests, only, so far) ..... the camera fires the strobes, and the ROC system regulates the flash intensity, perfectly. HOWEVER, the camera fails to recognize that the strobes are attached. In apperture priority, it selects whatever exposure times it deems necessary for the light conditions - several seconds, if need be. The hotshoe connector contains only the center pin and the ground connections. I assume this is why the strobes aren't recognized. Is it necessary to operate this system in a fully manual mode, or is there some way to get the camera to choose a proper flash sync speed? Thanks for your help.