Roger-Botting

A dumb mistake I made a few dives back. I accidentally, during a dive, set the camera to auto bracket. Yes, normal, one stop under, one stop over exposure. But seeing your last post, if you are sure that you have made sure everything is set properly, borrow someone else's identical equipment and then test to see what is the problem peice.

If i understand what you are asking, you want to know how to do flash underwater and balance your subject exposure with your background. With the flash on manual, set the correct F stop for the distance of the flash from the subject and the ISO. Then, manually set the shutter speed to give you the exposure that you want. A higher shutter speed will make the background darker, a lower shutter speed will make the background brighter. So far, easy. If the shutter speed gets above the maximum sync speed of the camera you will cut off some of the flash exposure. If the shutter speed gets too slow, you might get subject movement or camera shake. Do yourself a favour. Practice this above water to see how things work out. You might find you want to change the flash power or change your ISO before you get in the water.

I have one from http://uwcamerastuff.com. It works great, now. Mine had a slight leak at the glued seam between the dome and the black plastic base. Upon contacting the seller I was told how to seal it properly. It has been water tight since. Double check seam before first dive. You can do that in a sink. Optically? works best for me with a 10.5 fisheye lens. Works decent with a 18-55 lens and a +2 diopter. doesn't work that well with a 12-24 lens. The dome port share, make sure its on straight when using the fisheye. It will get scuffed during use, it polishes up nicely Novus plastic polish.

I only use the screen on the back to determine if the flash went off, etc. Looking at the histogram is a good answer, but if you are really going to count on the screen on the back of your camera when using it underwater do this. Take a photograph of a ten tone step wedge or X-rite colour checker. Take a look at the screen on land. Next dive, take a look at what it looks like in the water. I am sure it will look very different. remember the differences. That will tell you how much your screen looks off while in the water. The colours will definitely shift, thats your brain trying to out think you, but the more important is making sure that you see the steps as being separate and not all bunched together at either end. If sos, adjust your screen.

I had an earlier version of that lens. It worked fine on my FE2 in an Ikelite housing with a small dome port. But that info is 30 years out of date.

The 'old cracked door flood' got me on my first dive with my DS-51. I washed the battery compartment and the flash worked properly. I later sent it to Ikelite trying to resolve other flash issues. It turned out my brand new housing for a Canon G16 was the issue. I bought new battery compartment covers and all is fine now. I also had a similar issue with my DS-160, It flooded the first time out. Bought other battery packs and all is fine. And then there was my Substobe M. Flooded first dive. Main compartment. Took it back to the dealer, still flooded. Serviced properly the next day. The dealer was an Ikelite repair station. The moral of the story? water will seek out anything electronic, double check everything before going near the water.

I hate to put a damper on your ideas but I think you would be further ahead by either getting a wet proof point and shoot like an Olympus TG-5 or get a waterproof cover like an Outex for your camera. If you had to get your housing serviced it would be several hundreds of dollars if Ikelite would consent to doing it. And, you might find the dome port awkward for focusing if you are trying to do the over/under types of shots. A flat port would work better in many cases. And take a good look at the types of housings that surf photographers use. I don't know the brand names, sorry. They might be what you really need.

Do get a housing before you flood the camera. I know people who use the Olympus housing with continuous lights. Some of the get great results. The water is a bit dark here. I use Ikelite housings and flashes. They work well but do remember that they are part of a system and to switch systems can get expensive.

I have the Bill Liebcap vacuum system on my Ikelite housing. The vacuum keeps it closed even if the latches are not done up. And the warning lights let me know if there is a leak. The warning lights are important. I had vacuum sealed my housing, went for a dive and noticed moisture in the housing, The lights warned me. A slight crack in the dome, where the dome was cemented to the base was letting in a slight amount of moisture. I, at first thought it was condensation but the salt crystals surprised me. Leak is now fixed.

You are asking for everything without realizing that there are compromises to be made. I assume you have very clear water, otherwise wide angle won't be of much use. For wide angle you might want to look at a Tokina 10-17 lens but you will need a dome. And to get your desired macro effect you will need to get very close to your subject. For macro? get a macro lens. For your camera Nikon has 4 choices. 40mm, 60mm, 80mm, 105mm All are good lens. You will need a suitable port. The longer the lens the less need to get close to get the image you want but you get less of a wide angle for non close up photos. Where I dive the water is reasonably clear, at times. I use a D7000 and a Nikon 18-55 lens. Somewhat wide angle when used with a dome port, sort of close up when zoomed out to 55, and its a reasonable compromise lens. Sometimes I have used my old 55 Micro Nikkor, manual focus for close ups. But of course that is when I see an opportunity for a wider angle lens.

I would venture that it depends on your finances and your ability to rationalize spending. I bought used, I bought a refurb D7000 and used housing for several reasons, limited income, not planning to sell photos, and I could easily buy another D7000 for much less than my other camera, a D750. And I doubt that you would really see the quality difference.

Yes, its an old thread but, does anybody have a current link to suitable replacement batteries for the battery pack for Ikelite strobes. I clicked on a couple of the old links but they are dead. Thankyou

When I worked in camera repair back in the early 80's we used contact cement. Paint some onto the body and some onto the covering. Let dry for a few minutes and then stick together carefully. Let harden. Advantages are that its fairly easy to clean up, the solvent works well, but lighter fluid also is a solvent. Downside, I never tried it on the rubber type grips found on newer cameras. If you are really the squeamish type, try it on an older camera to see if it works. And yes, I have heard that Nikon cameras have issues with the rubber coming loose from the camera.

I had this for a while. I then used a focusing light. It sped up the focus and the delay disappeared. Not enough light makes the auto focus slow. You aren't using live-view are you? That can be extremely slow in low light conditions.

Tim has the correct answer. To convert my 10.5 Nikon fish eye lens to give a full circle image on my D750, I used a Dremel tool to remove the lens hood. It makes the lens almost unsellable but it does give me a full circle image. If you do decide to modify the lens think about it for a day or two and proceed carefully. You can easily convert your precious lens into someone else's collection of spare parts.