ce4jesus

Fork out $130 bucks for a pelican 1510 it meets all the airline carryon requirements and you could store your housing in there. I usually put the housing and strobes inside the pelican and put the camera and lenses inside a lowepro backpack. The rest of the piece parts go in checked luggage.

Excellent!!! Thanks for sharing.

Shameless bump

Yeah from the looks of it I wouldn't have had to worry about whizzing off the stern or space on the boat for that matter. Once I took the wetsuit off it would've created its own buffer zone.

If you need a macro port for the 50mm I have brand new Olympus for sale in the classifieds....sorry for the shameless plug

Mike, excellent collection. I loved the DOF in some of those.

Seeing those shots makes me want to see more! Very nice, thank you for sharing!

$300? This thing retails for around $500 at most places. Forgot to add this does come with the focus gear as well

I'd recommend contacting www.reefphoto.com as they will rent gear.

Somebody owes me a new monitor as I blew coffee all over it reading this thread PS...can you say the word "bomb" on a thread?

I like the seal pic although I'd crop out the blown out highlights on the surface in the upper left and the piece in the lower left. The shrimp photo seems a bit soft. The last photo is nice. I like how sharp it is and its a nice perspective on a starfish.

Brand new in box. Asking $350 or best offer

Cal your star is rising faster everyday...that first shot is excellent...you can feel the eery creepiness just looking at it!!

Mr. Gudge....I've routinely called you the fish whisperer due to the fact these fish seem so composed around you. I'm going to have to ask Jeff how you do it when he gets back!!! Again, awesome capture!

Ikelite also usually makes housings for Oly cameras...don't know if they support what you're looking for. All of the micro 4/3 stuff will probably have zero shutter delay due to no mirror and an EVF instead of an OVF.

Hi Tim, I think you just pop the top on a lively debate...haha. I'm an olympus user, here's my flickr photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/25230308@N07/ done with the Olympus E410. I've never owned anything but Olympus DSLR's starting with the E500, E410, E510 and now the E520. I'm probably going to stick with the E520. I've enjoyed them all but none of those cameras were designed to compete with the 5D and neither would the E620. Don't get me wrong, they're nice cameras and are highly dependent on the great glass in front of them as well as the person behind them. I'm an enthusiast who enjoys both topside and underwater shooting and haven't found a reason to change from Olympus. The cropped sensor, 2X, makes filling the frame a little easier on Macro with a 50mm lens. The 7-14mm is a professional piece of glass that gives excellent corner sharpness on WA shots. I think what you lose is dynamic range due to pixel density. This is also the reason that makes ISO 1600 with my E520 (not seen the results with the E620 but heard they're similar to the E30) impossible to shoot. However the cheap, well layed out housing and port system is nice. The compact nature, ultralight system makes packing and using very easy. The new 9-18 WA zoom has a 4" dome port...I'm still waiting to get the port so no photos yet. You also might email wetpixel's tropical1 as he is an expert on the Olympus system and has done several writes ups. Now, I'll sit back, open a bag of popcorn and read all the responses!

E510 body and other auctions check the other auctions I have out there for the E510 body, E3 battery adapter, and 18-180 lens. 8mm is sold but other items still available - 5-04-09

I've stayed at the Iberostar. It is outstanding if you have kids (kids under 12 are free and there's entertainment and baby sitting) but not so for photography. They dive in groups and the DM's get a little edgy if you stay too long to take a photograph. The resort is nice and the food was better than most for an all-inclusive. Keep in mind you're not locked into the dive package offered by the resort and you can often match that with an independent group like Dive with Martin or some other operator. They will usually pick you up on the boat dock of your hotel by the dive boat. If it were just my wife and I and all we need is a roof over our heads while we're not diving there are much more photo-friendly operators South of San Miguel (The Iberostar is 7 miles North of Town).

I haven't done Bonaire but heading there in July. Boston, right now, has the cheapest airfare to and from so its worth taking advantage of. If you've never dived the Keys its nice as well but I've rarely gotten out of Florida with my family as cheap as going to Mexico...for what its worth. Hotels, Car, food, tourist stuff, expensive dive packages usually add up over a week.

Color me old fashioned as I like looking at black and white photos against a white wall.

Congrats Jack, that's a great achievement

Congrats on the contest! Isn't obsessing over our gear horrible? Its enough to make you crazy BTW, if your strobes are Inon's, sometimes that internal capacitor takes awhile to charge fully and I've seen it take over a couple of minutes on some occasions where my strobes are stored for awhile. The stupidest thing I've done is scratch my port on a rough shore trying to get a photo op. I knew there was surge but forgot that every 10th or so wave is worse than the rest. That one sent me crashing against a shore wall port first I was so mad at my stupidity. You can work out a small scratch in acrylic with elbow grease and some solvent. With glass, it takes a plastic VISA card to work out the scratch.

You won't be sorry with the 50mm lens as it is an excellent piece of glass. Oly recently started to make their housings with a cam and bore seal which is much better than previous generations. Their ports screw on and are very secure. The system is light underwater which also a plus. I'd have to second Phil's nomination of the optically fired Inon Z240s. I've rarely had a misfire or no fire using the fiber optics. Additionally, travelling with extra fiber optic cable is cheap and easy. The 14-42 is a very nice lens underwater I'm not sure what is gained by going to the 14-54. If I were going to move up, I'd have to go with the 12-60 as the next lens. Here's my flicker photos taken with an E410, Inon Z240s, 50mm lens with a woody's diopter on some of them. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25230308@N07/

I know my old P&S had some internal memory as well as a card slot. It wouldn't automatically select the card when storing and was a manual function. If set incorrectly it would read "memory full" even though the card was empty. So if your Fuji is similar make sure it is reading the card and not internal memory.

What kind of DSLR are you looking to shoot? What is your budget?