diverdon

I can not comment on the S&S I have the Subal D-200 and the ergonomics are so good that the camera is easier to use underwater than on the surface.

Marc I have lost half my hair trying to figure out similar problems. I wonder: How whould the exposure look if you mounted the SB-800 in the hot shoe (ON DRY LAND) and took some shots. if you have the same symptoms, and you should, it might be easiset to play with the settings toll you work it out on the beach. I am sure you have allready checked the flash exposure compensation? And that you are set up for front curtian? Good luck and please let us know when you work it out. BTW what housing are you useing for the SB-800? I bought one of the fantasea housings, took one look at it and the ttl cord that came with it and never had the courage to take it in the water.

Very Cool! Thanks a lot. You can not only see my building but the location of my office within the building.

One thing which seems like it would be of interest to many members which has not yet been discussed on this thread is the weather the D3x is likley to fit in D3 housings. I am just ignorant on this. Between the D2h and the D2x do they fit in the same housing?

Like most aspiring under water photographers I have always wanted my own website. Now I am well and truly started on my website. It is by no means done, and the progress is slow but I have something up and both I and my webmaster Jovelyn would appreciate your comments and suggestions. If you have a moment please take a look at www.UWWorld.com and share your thoughts and suggestions with us. Images will be larger sized in final website and they will also be supported by more text and stories.

Others may disagree, but it looks to me like the cannon could use a little help to boost the color. Perhaps I over do it!

Very cool! Yes it works, now how do you do it?

I think both of those lights work with the pre flash emitted by many prosumer cameras houses in transparent cases not the main flash. I do not thing the electronics would work with the single main flash my DSLR emits. I do not thing there is a good way to get a preflash out of a ikelite DS-125. If their is I do not know it. Still the idea had merit, it would be great if some one came up with a way to use the cameras internal focus lite to trigger an external focus lite.

I would make him your very best best of video. I would put my heart and soul into it. And I would hope he sold a million copies. Because every frame of every copy would have my name, logo, and email address on it. Not in a big ugly way just down in the corner. That way every copy he sells he is really promoting you. I would also be careful what I believed from what other videographers in the same location told, they could just be bragging that they got a better deal than you, or they could be feeding you a line hoping to sabotage your relationship so they can get your deal.

Craig-Thank you again its nice to know that the lenses I was thinking about will not be the answer in so far as the speed issue is concerned. So many of my shots are time critical. Darting fish or the need to keep a group of non-photographers in site, often mean many of the best shots I have a chance at must be taken in an instant or the opportunity is gone. It sounds like I am not going to get any better in the speed dept. than the 105mm I am using now. And thats exactly the information I was looking for. Thats what I thought. Indeed you must be correct. I will have to reexamine all my precepts and assumptions. I must have made a series of errors which led me astray in this matter. Mostly ISO 100. Unless I forget to tape the strobe connection into the hotshoe or there is some other reason that the strobes are not working I have been shooting in M not P, A or S. I have to agree with eskasi, I have not found that works well except in certain situations on night dives. I am not aware of anything like that for underwater use, do you have more info you can provide?

Mike I have the fish eye focus lite, and you are correct it, with it on the focus is tack sharp. But it leave a pool of mixed yellow and white light in the center of the image, I can not get rid of it no matter what I do with the WB in raw because it is just a different color than the flash. It has always seemed to me that at settings like f8 and 1/100 sec that their should not be enough yellow light to bother me. But there it is, big as life right smack in the middle of the pic. Perhaps I should try using the focus lite at a lower setting. What king of light do you use? What f stop and shutter are typical? do you have a yellow spot in some of your images? Thanks, Don

Scott Yes this system does take great shots, but is also seems to take a lot that are not in sharp focus, the ones that are in focus are pretty nice, when I have done my part in subject selection and composition. What mode do I shoot in? I bought the Ikeaite ttl but it don't work. I don't know why, so I shoot manual and use the Histogram to show exposure, which works ok. If I am not trying to balance the light for a blue background or something I usually shoot 1/100-1/250 sec adjusting fstop to get good histogram at subject distance. Does that make sense? I will certainly try Chris's technique. And I am certainly listening very carefully to what everyone is saying, thats why I started this thread, because I need some new ideas and believe me when I tell you that I appreciate them. Thanks, Don

Chris, Thanks that is a slight variation on the technique I have been using. The problem I am talking about is in the just plain out of focus category. I am aware that depth of field is controlled by f-stop and focal length & sensor size. What you seem to be doing different than I is using the AF lock to recompose. I have been using the joy stick button to steer the auto focus sensors to the subject area, the way I understand you method is that you believe the center 5 work best so you use them with the auto focus lock button to get best results. I will try this. I don’t know what to expect, and I’m not sure if I will be able to fully appreciate the extent to which your method helps till I next get wet. But I will print it out and start playing with it now. Thanks, Don

Thank you Craig your first paragraph has a lot of very good info/ideas. I am in complete agreement that, you have to learn how to use your system. Yes I have considered manual focus, and rejected it. For macro use I simply can not see well enough to use it quickly enough for fast happening underwater action. For others it may be the solution for me it would be a step backwards. I loved manual focus with the old Nikonos V and the 15MM lens. Set the lens to f8 ant he camera to ttl and focus to 2’ then hunt for a subject and make the necessary adjustments as you approached. But for the macro shooting I am doing today the depth of field is to shallow, and my eye site and reflexes make this impractical for me, I will defiantly get more good shots the way I am doing it now than that way. Others may have faster reflexes, better hand and eye coordination and may get better results. For me it has to be autofocus. Of course I understand it will be necessary to go to a longer lens to maintain the same perspective with a full frame sensor. I also understand that this will further contract the depth of field, those things are determined by the laws of physics, not the performance of the camera electronics. Yes the D200 has settings which will not allow the shutter to trip until the camera is in focus. I have found that underwater or in low light with the 105mm lens that basically means that you just are not going to trip the shutter much, almost never at the peak of the action when you need it to go off. The 50, f1.4 solves this problem at weddings and such where you are shooting people. But, it’s not a good lens underwater. I think there are a couple of good macro lens of appropriate for both DX sensor use and full frame sensor use, 70-180mm and a 200mm, I was hoping to get some opinions from those who have used those lenses as to weather they are faster or more accurate focusing than the 105mm.

Currently I shoot a D-200 in a Subal housing with dual Ikealite DS-125 strobes. I only use two lenses the 10.5mm and the 105VR. A lot of my shots can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/diverdon most of them were shot with the 105mm VR lens. Right after I download the days pics to the laptop I discard about 70% of them, mostly for focus. I am sure there is a better way to use the system I have, but I think there is an underlying problem with the D-200/105mm VR lens. I like macro shooting most, I just need to solve this focus issue. I think I have gone as far as I can go with the current system so I am considering some incremental or a total system upgrade. So what I have is a lot of questions, I think many of them are of general interest so I will list them off. For underwater macro shots which gives better faster more accurate focus Nikon D3 or Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III? Which current production macro OEM lens would work best with each camera for under water use? Will one of the Nikon full frame compatible lenses work better with the D-200 for fast accurate focus? This would be very nice to here because it would give me an incremental path to upgrade getting a new lens now for the next trip and then getting the D3 with new housing after they become a bit more common. A unrelated (but possibly more controversial) question: I was checking out Getty images underwater images for sale the other day and they all seem to be more than 12MP resolution. Typical might be size/dimensions/dpi: 49.4 MB / 17 x 11.29 in. (5100 x 3388 px) / 300dpi Do you think these guys are really shooting those resolutions or are they upscaling in photoshop or similar?

So here are a few of them. You can see the whole lot of them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/diverdon If any one knows a good way to get better focusing and depth of field performance from a D-200 on shots like that last one I sure would like to hear about it.

How can the D300 weigh less than the D200 when measured in grams but more when measured in pounds? Weight (no batt) 825 g (1.82 lb) 830 g (1.8 lb)

Is the first fish a Stargazer or a stone fish? any way great shot! DO you have any good advice on where to stay or who to dive with in Anlio, I have spent a lot of time in Sabang, and I would be interested in doing Anlio someday but I would like to make sure I end up diving with a nice operation, and that I get good value. In Sabang I pay P900/dive tops and I get to dive my gauge and my computer with no hassles. Most of the places I see on the internet in Anlio seem to want to charge more? I would like your input.

I have been reading this thread with some interest. It is quite unlikely that I will ever have a housed MF camera. I currently shoot a D200 (sub 35 mm sensor.) The next UW setup will likely be a d300. I am sure that the posters discussing pictures from flicker must understand that only low resolution pictures are available there. For example here is one of mine, http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=511968522&size=l this was shot with the 105mm distance about 12 inches. I had this exact picture printed 16X20 and donated it to my friend who owns a dive shop www.dipndive.com while I do not hang out there much I am told that many of my friends customers are stunned or inspired by this image. Surely all of the posters to this thread understand that the copy of the same image posted to flicker is but the merest hint of the print. And yet in terms of what this image is a knowledgeable photographer can discuss Focus, Aperture, shutter speed, ect. that in the second a photograph is made the photographer freezes many choices for all time. Had I the opportunity to shoot this image over I would like to try shooting it at smaller aperture. We can easily see the impact of all of those factors on the image. Given an equivalent focal length, and camera setup how would you expect this image to be different had it been shot in MF?

Very nice pictures Tim. I have been to Sabang, Subic, Northern Luzon and southern Leyte. I see I will have to put Bohol on my to do list. Did you really see three separate blur ring's in the same trip?

Let me second the recommendation for Sogod bay I stayed at Peters dive resort. www.whaleofadive.com Peter has a few of my pics up on his website. You are really out on the sitcks but they treat you well and the scuba is out of this world. The face time the divemaster Thomas gets you with the whale sharks is something which would not be believed if I told it all Suffice it to say that I have over 40GB of raw files from the D200 containing whale sharks!!! This is serious Yahoo diving. Peter and his wife are really nice people. The divemaster is very good. The diving is out of this world. The dive boat is good.

A cuttle fish I Shot in Manila Channel near Sabang beach. Nikon D200 105mm, Subal, Dule Ike 125 ULCS arms Images are available in higher res and raw Some Nudies I shot in Manila channel (same dive) And here is a nice little Blue ring I also saw while I was in Sabang

I would like to thank each of the responders for posting their ideas. Words fail me as I attempt to express my humble gratitude for the quality and completeness of the ideas posted herein in response to my request for information. Alex Mustards estimates of the size of the market are of particular interest. I doubt that he is off by much even given the great uncertainties involved in making any such guess. Several posters discreetly point out the size of the undertaking and the value of the intellectual property of the existing manufactures. The amount of engineering, drafting, programming, machining, preparation, assembly and quality control to jump into this market as a housing manufacture are not to be taken lightly. C4jesus mentions the possibility of building a camera which dose not require a housing. While this is far beyond my capabilities, clearly it is not beyond the capabilities of Nikon or even cannon or Olympus, this must be a nightmare of every housing manufacture. If Nikon were to introduce new state of the art digital camera in the Nikonos V this would have to have a huge negative impact on all of the housing makers. If anyone has further ideas or thoughts to add please feel free to add them.

I have been pondering the idea of entering the business of manufacturing and marketing UW housings for SLR cameras for some time. I have always been astounded by the depth of information available on this board so I thought this would be a good group to try to get several types of information from. First to establish my bonafides I am currently a manufacture and a machine shop owner. I am partners with my brothers in our business endeavors and I would need to get them on board if we were going to proceed with this project. I am indeed a dreamer. But some of my dreams have assumed substance in the past. Here are links to websites describing some of our current products. www.jbrake.com www.fluidampr.com www.VibratechTVD.com www.buffaloturbine.com www.HBPLLC.com www.CattcoUSA.com I would like to hear the opinions of those who would care to share them on whether the industry needs another UW Housing manufacturer? Does any one know how many Housings are sold by any of the top manufactures for a popular SLR camera? What are the most important features a Housing should include?

I have a Subal D200 Ikelite system depending on how it is set up for that dive it can be perhaps 10K. I would never use a lanyard. Its not hard to hold the system in either hand or between my knees. In my thousand or so dives I have never been close to panic. But if I were to get into a panic situation the camera is just another ditchable weight. If I were ever doing a CESA from 100 or more feet I may not bring up a camera! If it gets to the point where I am in doubt of my ability to reach the surface I may drop the camera. If I am still capable of rational thought through out the process of the emergency it is my plan to hold my camera in my right hand and pull the right hand 4 lb weight from my BC as I begin the CESA. If it starts to look like I might not make it drop the weight. If it starts to get really scary release the camera. On the other hand most accounts I have heard from people who have done it are that its not that hard to do with out dropping wt and that the most likely out come is that by the time you get to the 20 foot point you I will be able to see that I will be able to make it easy and may even be able to slow the accent a little in the hope of avoiding deco illness.