briangudas

Hi Dave, all excellent questions, good to hear the voice of reason ;-) ## So kids are 12 and 9 and pretty good swimmers, the younger one I will have in a life jacket just to be safe . We have a private tour, 5 hours with the 3 of us and another family of 3... Captain and 1st Mate so we should be able to spend time where we want too... If you stick with the G9 and get reasonable but not great pics.. will you wish you spent the $500-1000? How badly? - ## Burning inside until I can get back... If you spend the $500-1000 and do not get a great pic, will you wish you had not spent the money? How badly? - ## Not too bad... I like gear Will you dive/photo enough in the future to want a housing for the D7000? - ## Maybe, the problem is I live in Michigan and that lake is murky most of the time Here might be your chance to save the rental money and buy one. But its not an insignificant purchase..as you know. - ## Aqua tech housing for the D7000 is $999... not so bad, of course I would need a port. The other side of that is if I found I didnt use it in the next year I could sell the housing pretty easily I imagine, I am sure I would take a loss but likely less than a $400 rental for the week. If you spend the $ for the top gear, you might want to spend a bit more and rent a personal guide to keep the kids interested/safe. Then you can focus freely on the pics and only check on the kids on occasion. Your odds might go up quite a bit if you can focus on the pics only. Actually, I think I would go for the guide either way - split attention is often no attention - both for pics and for safety/fun. ## My expectation would be 2 hours minimum in the water with the stingrays, 600 shots would be a good goal. I feel good about my ability to capture the image with a little practice, lots of luck and good light, at a minimum I get great shots of the kids with the rays For this trip, shots of the rays super wide and shots of the kids with the rays will be my highpoints of my trip for sure, the broader trip is really for them (before they are too old and cool to spend spring break with dad) Here is my stream, just a note I am working on 2 personal projects, BW film (Rolleiflex, Leica M6, Holga ... ya know the normal 3) and a 1mp iPhone project so the current quality is not what I would call technically perfect and razor sharp. You have to look back a few pages to see my normal Nikon output. I only post 1 image per day but in a given year I shoot 50-70K... http://www.flickr.com/photos/briangudasphotography/ Thanks again for all the help Regards Brian

Wow, I just looked at the flickr pool for G9... pretty nice stuff. Maybe I go the cheap route and do that ... These decisions should be easy right? Thanks again for all the help bg

Nothing will sell me faster than images... I will talk to the rental guys and see if they have one for a D7000 and bring the 12-24 tokina (I have a lens problem... cant sell um) ... Your images are stunning, exactly what I am hoping to capture. Thanks very much for sharing your expertise Regards Brian

Thanks Guys, If I could get a good over/under shot I would go likely 30x30 image size and very possibly high contrast BW. So thinking about the D3 with the 17-35 I could rent an Aqua Tech for 7 days $325 and the housing for that lens port for another $55...That would be the equivalent to an 11mm on the D7000 and should be a plenty wide I would think. It is a flat port which surprises me now that I think about 17mm... is the reduced surface area going to limit my chances of over/under? Here is the specific port.. http://www.borrowlenses.com/product/underw...aquatech_LPNWZF Again I really appreciate the help, above water this is familiar territory... below is a whole different world Thanks Brian

Hi all, Would really appreciate some advice. I am going on a cruise in April (Tampa > Grand Cayman> Cozumel> Tampa) on Carnival Inspiration. I have a very small private charter (6 passengers, 5 hours) for stingray city in the Caymans and will do a reef snorkel in Cozumel. I own a lot of gear but I dont know exactly the best way to bring back a group of high quality underwater images without totally breaking the bank. I say that but I dont mind investing some $$ to bring back the image. We are going to snorkel and maybe SNUBA but my kids are still kinda young so I need to stay with them at the surface Here is what I have Nikon D3 Nikon D7000 50mm 1.4 85mm 1.4 28-70mm 2.8 17-35mm 2.8 Canon G9 with Water housing (Canon brand) Options I am considering 1) Rent a housing for the D3 or D7000 and the 17-35mm (About $500 for the week). I will already be carrying one of these cameras so only the housing is additional gear 2) Use the G9 with the Canon housing ($0 but I worry a bit about image quality) 3) Rent a D2x and housing from a place in the Caymans ($350) 4) Buy an Olympus E-PL1 (Pen) and the Olympus housing and then resell the set when I return. Used camera, new housing about $1000, likely resell for about $900. 5) Nikonos V and go old school film... I shoot a lot of film but I dont know this camera ($200) Honestly I am leaning towards the PEN with the housing as I have seen some great quality images in a small package but I am not committed to anything yet. We will spend a decent amount of time in the water, I really want a split screen shot with the stingrays from stingray city below and Caribbean skies above and I do like to print big so a low quality image will break down pretty quick. I really appreciate any insight you might have Thanks Brian