mexwell

Thank you all very much for the critics and the praise. I am glad that I did well on my first dive ever with the new housing. Still plenty of room to improve for me! @Art Sorry, the only crustaceans I saw were some tiny lobsters and the pictures had not enough DOF and focus in the wrong plase. @herbko Upon a 2nd look you are absolutely right. I gave the new PS function "middle lights/tones" (I don´t know the correct english name) a try and got this as an result. After some playing with it -> Its a perfect tool for underwater use!!! @eric I normaly run it to PS by 1) the tonal curves, 2) saturation 3) unmask sharpening So nothing special. I am at work right now and only have the edited image at ahnd. When I get home I will üpost the unaltered shoot. By that you can judge the alteration process. @digitallywet I posted the pics in different threads. @davephdv the weather was very nice and the sea was calm. Viz was near perfect but the water was f+'$%§# cold. -> 12 C. I the base had not a hot shower I would have never dived 60 minutes per dive.

Beautiful shots!!! Congrats! How did you accomplish those "black background" shots of the soft corals with the 300D. I thought the neccessary very short shutter times aren´t possible with this camera... but maybe I missunderstood the technique....

I just posted some images of my trip to mallorca (med. sea) in the "Photo Display & Critique" board...

Hi, I just came back from my trip to the beautiful island of Mallorca in the mediterranean sea. I did my first dives with the EOS 300D and my new Ikelite housing + DS-50. Pictures are taken with Canon 50mm maco lens. 1/50 and f/10. Most are cropped, colour optimised and some backscatter removed. Please give my some insight of what you think...

Hi, I just came back from my trip to the beautiful island of Mallorca in the mediterranean sea. I did my first dives with the EOS 300D and my new Ikelite housing + DS-50. Pictures are taken with Canon 50mm maco lens. 1/50 and f/10. Most are cropped, colour optimised and some backscatter removed. Please give my some insight of what you think...

Hi, I just came back from my trip to the beautiful island of Mallorca in the mediterranean sea. I did my first dives with the EOS 300D and my new Ikelite housing + DS-50. Pictures are taken with Canon 50mm maco lens. 1/50 and f/10. Most are cropped, colour optimised and some backscatter removed. Please give my some insight of what you think...

Hi, I just came back from my trip to the beautiful island of Mallorca in the mediterranean sea. I did my first dives with the EOS 300D and my new Ikelite housing + DS-50. Pictures are taken with Canon 50mm maco lens. 1/50 and f/10. Most are cropped, colour optimised and some backscatter removed. Please give my some insight of what you think...

Hi NLAVD, I will try it in a few days without the lead attached and sync times between 1/60 to 1/200. Did you try different ISO settings? May I ask how your two DS-125 are attached to the hosuing? Do you use an dual-sync cord or additional controlers. Do you need to set the two power settings separatetly? I just think about adding a DS-125 to my Ds-50 and I have the manual controler but don´t like the idea of operating two flash settings indepently of each other. Do you like me also had a hard time telling if a shoots exposure is right on the cameras display? Regards Christian

New toys, new problems.... When shooting on land I always have the canon neckstrap attached to my digital rebel but of course I have to remove it when I dip it into the water. I guess it will be quit anoying to constantly attach and remove the strap during a holiday. How do all of you handle this? Is ther any quick-release strap out there or do you have your DSLR purely for uw-fun? Or is it even unmasculine to use a neckstrap No! I don´t have enough money for a second body!!! :wink: Chris

I went to the pool again... this time with the 15-55mm lens and the dome port. I found it more difficult to get well exposed pictures with this setup. I mostly had masking of the flash even at 1/60, f8-10 and iso200. I guess the range of my DS-50 isn´t wide enough for 18mm (makes 28mm with the rebel)... :-( even at distances of 3-4 meters. @lawrence1131: I don't shot auto mode. I will try M-mode from the start to get comfortable with my flash settings. @scorpio_fish: Yes, I tried those settings you mentioned but I guess those aren´t that good for wider angels?! I try again with the macro setup. @herbko: I removed the weight and the housing is still slightly (but far less than with the weight) negative. The buoancy is good BUT now its centerweight is the strobe and deppending on how I aimed this was not very comfortable. The hosuing tended to turn around because of the strobes weight. I guess a weight in between no weight and the supplied one would be perfect... Perhabs I can sort something out. @herb and james: Yes, you are right I am not limited to 1/200. I even tried 1/320. Find a sample attached (I left the exif intact). I am not sure if the masking at the lower border is because of the sync speed or my strobe placement?! I will try this again also with macro setup. I even tried ISO400 settings. Does anyone of you uses these underwater? This should bump the possible f-stops significant?! For my first real dives I will go for the 50mm macro lens only. I guess this is the most simple start for me to get decent pictures and get used to my system. Chris PS: Both pictures are unaltered, only downsized.

Hi Scott, ther are several self study cds out there. In english I know of the Total Training Series. I tried em and they are pretty extensive. On the downside they are quite slow in terms of learning speed. Chris

Yeah, Simon is absolutely right about the med sea. I like to add that there are very beautiful underwater landscapes, especially at mallorca. I will go there for a short holiday next week and hopefully can show off some pics afterward... Regards Christian

Hello folks, I just did some testing with my new housing and found it very hard to look through the viewfinder, set focus and compose the image... Quit different to composing with a LCD screen... I wonder what kind of masks you use and If you have/had the same problems?! Any suggestions are welcome! My guess: The less volume a mask has the nearer my eye is to the housing and the viewfinders picture gets bigger. Am I right? Best regards Christian

Hello alltogether, I just came back from the pool and did some macro tests. Some of you might remember my troubles in finding one single port to fit both my canon 50mm macro lens and the lens plus the canon lifesize converter. If not have a look here: http://www.wetpixel.com/modules.php?op=mod...iewtopic&t=4234 Well after assembling my gear I got a compact but quite heavy rig (appr. 7kg). Under water it is quite negative (with my DS-50). If I am right it gets more negative the deeper I go? If thats the case I try it next time without the lead in the base. Handling was easy and especialy the very sensible shutter lever makes me happy. You have total control about pressing the release button. Because it was my first time down there with an SLR housing I found it difficult to see and compose the image. The viewfinder of the 300D is already quite small on land but under water its worse... I have to get used to it and maybe invest into a new mask (but thats a different thread). I set the camera to M-mode, shutter to 250 and F10. It took me some shots to find the right flash settings which seemed right on the lcd. On land now I see that on step more on the flash would have been better. But thats what testing is for, isn´t it. I attached two shoots to show that both of my macro lenses/combinations work very well in the longer port that I choosed. Because of the 1.6 crop factor of the 300D I don´t have any vignetting when the 50mm is in the port alone. I AM HAPPY! Next time I try the 18-55mm kit lens and the dome port but shooting "wide" in the pool is like shooting the bluer sky :wink: I you have any question regarding Ikes housing fire them at me. I am more then happy to answer anything I can... Have a good time!!! Christian PS: I can´t wait to take my baby into the sea...6 days left... PPS: The seashells of course were collected on the beach not while diving...

Hello again, thanks to all of you and aspecially James and David for your input!!! Because nobody could guarantee me an solution for my needs I decided to get a bit risky... I ordered the #5505.45 flat port which physically fits my macro combo (50mm plus lifesize converter) but seems to long for the 50mm alone. Yesterday my housing arrived and really love it. Ike surpassed himself! I did some quick testing (only on land so far) and both the combo and the 50mm worked without vignetting. Please find a picture enclosed. I hope this will not change once I am underwater... I will get into the pool as early as possible to test everything in more detail and will let you know of the results! Best wishes Christian (who is a ery happy person right now )

It should be available at US retailers in the first half of february.

Well.... things aren´t getting easier... I choose the domes because of the review and several posts Dave Haas wrote. Personally I am not decided because I have no real knowledge about the optical differences between dome- and flatports. But the core question remains the same for my problem. If I choose the flatport route I could get the #5505.5 (up to 114mm) or the 50mm. Physically the lsz converter would also fit but will it work optical??? :-? Aaargh.... Anyone?

..some technical infos (from the canon hp) on the lens dimensions: life size converter Max. Diameter x Length, Weight: 2.7" x 1.4", 5.6 oz. / 67.6 x 34.9mm, 160g 50mm macro lens Max. Diameter x Length, Weight: 2.7" x 2.5", 9.9 oz. / 67.6 x 63.0mm, 280g If I add the two lenghtes I get 97.8mm. That would theoreticly fit into the #5503.50 domeport (for lenses up to 101mm). But that is only 2.3mm space... Can I savely move to the next larger port #5503.55 (for lenses up to 114mm) and will the 50mmmacro alone still work without vignetting? Ok, hope someone can help?! Christian

digitallywet: Sorry Giles, I did not want to sound harsh. I just forgot the smiley. I hope the reposted images in the other thread clear things up.

Hi folks, it´s me again. I am ready to oder Ikes housing for the digital rebel and get the #5503 domeport for the kit lens. In addition I have the canon 50mm macro which would fit into the #5503.50 domeport. So far so good. To make more out of my 50mm macro I bought the canon 1:1 lifesize converter which attaches to the macro lens. Can anybody (James?) tell me which port I need for that combination? Might it be possible to get one port (dome or flat) to fit both the 50mm and the 50mm+lsc without vignetting? Man those port choice are quite difficult.... I really hope that someone can help me and I can finish my order with B&H. Thanks in advance!!! Christian

Calm down. A picture with a rez of 1024x1536, truecolour and a size of 40kb has to show artifacts! I can assure you you will get great picture with the 300D. Anybody knows when Ike has his housing ready to ship? I just fired a mail to him to get the latest infos... Best regards Christian

I like the 1st one most. What really distracts me from the two main subjects (seahorse and face of the diver) is the yellow suit. I photoshoped it a bit and its far more "focused" on the main parts: What do you think? bet regards Christian

Me again, I gave it a quick try. Perhabs it gives you the idea what I meant. Still one of the finest nudi pics I have every seen! Best regards Christian

Great picture! Only thing I can think of to improve this shoot is to have the nudi more in the lower half instead in the upper half of the frame. This would be more pleasing to MY eye at last. Best regards Christian

Hi, I am considering the 17th or 18th but if theres any kind of wetpixel "come together" I can change my plans (I am living 25 minutes from the convention center away...) Best regards Christian