Mike L

I have not seen or heard of that one.

Olly, You are on the right track. As for lenses, a perfect set up for the 7d would be the Tokina 10-17 (cant get any better than this for wide angle), 60mm macro and 100mm macro. That covers all your basis. The 18-55 is versatile, but just isnt a real quality lens overall. You should take a close look at the new Nauticam 7D housings. They have many engineering firsts, very ergonomic, compact, versatile and all at a great price as well. It has fiber optics, and for $100 you can have Nikonos style sync cords. The Nauticam 180 Viewfinder is the first of its kind with a user adjustable diopter..and adapter rings to fit nearly all manufacturers housings! For ports, Id suggest going with either the 8.5" dome, or the Zen 100mm dome. If you want to use the 18-55, then you definitely need the 8.5" port. The Zen 100mm only works with the 10-17. Sea and Sea also has their 7d housing coming out in March. Its a very nice set up as well, a bit more pricey though at $3799.

Hopefully its a bit smaller than the XL1 HS. Just add a Nanoflash and you jave 4:2:2. Im waiting for someone to design a small housing for just the nanoflash with the HD SDI connection...that will be a nice improvement to all cameras with HD SDi or HDMI out.

Wow, shocked to see your dealer had one. All major dealers in the US have been out of them since mid November!! The 11-16 has been pretty much out of stock as well. Scary to hear rumors of discontinuation and see no products being delivered for more than 2 months.

I have designed several creative ways to pack SLR systems into a variety of think tank bags. We recently packed a full Nauticam D90 set up with 8.5 inch port into the new Airport Take off. If the system utilizes larger strobes such as the YS 250 or Ike DS160/161 strobes, then I like to go with an Airport Takeoff or International V2...and then use the Urban Disguise 60 as a secondary bag. In the UD 60 I can put the large dome upright, as well as both strobes...then have room for housing, all accessories, camera bodies, lenses, etc in the roller...and fit my mask and dive computer.

Hillary, where in CA are you located? As Lee said, the Inon S2000 is a fantastic, compact strobe for this set up. That, and the Sea & sea YS-110a are my recommendations for the S90 set up. S2000 is smaller...110a is more powerful.

Here is a short video we shot showing off how easy it is to use Manual White Balance with the new Gates HF S10/S11 Underwater Housing thanks to the ingenious design utilizing the Canon remote control. This is one of many video tutorials we will be producing this year. Gates HF S10/S11 Manual White Balance

Bo, is this regarding MWB for stills, videos, or both with the 7d? For all my video set ups, I use either the Amphibico White Balance slate, or we now have the DSC Color labs underwater white balance slates. Both work exceptionally well underwater and are easy to use.

For general wide angle work the Zen dome works perfect (big animals, reef scenes, etc). For only shooting with the 10-17, and if over/unders were not a priority to you, then I would definitely go for the Zen 100mm.

Very hard to imagine this wont sell at this price. The port alone is costs more!!

Definitely some pros and cons..however as a shooter who rarely shoots anything other than a 10-17 for wide angle, I love the compact nature and ease of traveling. That in my opinion far outweighs the difficulty in shooting over/unders. Really, it just comes down to two things. 1. Are you just shooting a 10-17, or do you want a versatile port. 2. What are you primarily shooting. Traveling with 8 and 9 inch domes really can be a PIA. The small 4inch makes it very easy to carry on the entire SLR system.

Nauticam viewfinders are compatible with nearly all housings, however mounting rings are generally necessary for each housing. Currently there are mounting rings for Ikelite, Sea & Sea, Aquatica and Nexus housings.

Congrats Keri!! Id love to see the pic!

Im never a big fan of changing lenses while still have it mounted in the housing. All it takes is that one drip of water still lingering in a housing control or crevice, and it falling into the camera body during those few seconds the lens is off. Is it really worth the risk at all for the extra few seconds it takes just to remove the camera body from the housing? To me its not, and I always teach our customers to take the extra step and remove the camera.

Bo, to really take advantage of the 7d's fast continuous shooting, hard wired strobes are the way to go. A little over a a year ago, Eric did a test with the Canon 1d MKIII and Sea and Sea YS250 strobes. His test is a video (posted here on WP somewhere) showing the YS 250 strobes firing for approximately 6 of the 10 frames...VERY nice for shooting fast action, but would definitely be slowed if using fiber optic ttl. Although TTL itself is not always extremely accurate for wide angle shots...being hard wired will allow your strobes to fire off more times then not when shooting in continuous mode for big animals. Sharks, whales and dolphins are my thing too...so in that case its hard wired only for me. For macro, the camera's internal flash recycling is much less of an issue.

No more viewfinder Gordon??

Ahhh how I just love Moorea. Such an amazing place. Will you still be there in the late summer/early fall for the humpbacks?

Its looking great Chris, keep up the good work! I cant wait to get these bad boys in my hands!! @Saudio, As for specs on the housing (correct me if Im wrong Chris) they are not yet released...but will be VERY soon.

The Gates GP32 port is also 85 degrees. As for the Light and Motion Bluefin C housing with optional 135 degree wide angle lens, the wide angle lens does offer a 35-40% zoom through capability. The lens does of course come with a price tag of $1500. Although it has zoom through capability, it will not give you macro like capability as you seem to be looking for.

Nice Eric, now all we need is a housing for it.

South Pass Fakarava, French Polynesia...its a MUST dive for shark enthusiasts and for those looking for an adventure.

As Jack stated, both will work and they will work in the same port. I would definitely suggest going with the new AF 60mm. The autofocus system is a VERY nice improvement and well worth the cost difference.

When you say for "local TV" do you mean your personal TV, or for local broadcast?

It wont let me edit the post. Here it is again, not sure what happened. Catalina Cleanup 2009

Inon and Sea and Sea strobes will both work with Ultralight arms, just require the appropriate strobe adapter. For an Ultralight arm set, with the tray and handle, expect to spend in the range of $200 or so. Well worth it! These items will go with you for all future systems as well.