MaximDim

I'm using S90 with Ikelite, Inon UWL-100 and pair of old Inon D-180 strobes. Both UWL-100, strobes and optical cables are straight from old Canon point and shoot setup and they works pretty well. With UWL-100 you will get some black corners on maximum lens width (28mm) so you would have to zoom to 35mm or crop in post processing. All in all it was very worthy upgrade. I can post some shoots I took with it, if you like.

Couple years ago I've got Sony TRV-900 and Ikelite housing for around $1000 all in from eBay. Old but still quite capable camera. Has MWB, 3CCD. Could be a good option if you're don't mind buying used and don't need HD.

Wow, wasn't aware of this Inon converter. Looks like it should be possible to use my old D-180s with Canon 5d in Aquatica housing (it has Nikonos bulkheads). Good news. Thanks!

I'm just curious how you're going to convert from Nikonos to optical? Do you have both on your housing?

Which halogen system you're referring to for that price? I might be interested to look at it as well.

Well, I was driven completely by cost. For the price I paid for the pair of Darkbusters (~$600) there wasn't anything comparable. I didn't want to spend much on my first lighting system before I can figure what I need/want etc. And as Wagsy mentioned you can also use Darkbusters for camping ;-) My opinion is that it's all depends on your needs and environment you're are using it in. What works perfectly for close up shoots in clean water might not be the best option for big wrecks in the lake and so on.

I switched my TRV-900 to '30' shutter speed for those dives, that seems to help to capture ambient light. Otherwise camera goes to +18 gain almost all the time when lights are further than few feet from the subject.

I don't think we have same brands of yogurt here I have actually used very thin single-use plastic plates, because all yogurt I've seen here is made of much thicker plastic. I attached standard ULCS arms to my lights, with very simple modification of ball adapter.

Hey, no real complains - I'm happy with them for the price I paid. I'm pretty sure with diffusers in clear water they works great, especially for closer shoots. Some of videos you took with them are simply amazing! Can't have everything and don't pay much I guess.

If I point them to converge at closer point there is just too much back scatter from particles in the water. I was actually trying to point them slightly outwards. I'm using yogurt diffusers, thanks to tip from Wagsy. They work great, but only on the short distances, like feet or two. Here is the shoot with diffusers on - you can see lights only when I'm close to the subject: http://vimeo.com/1440332

My only complain about Darkbusters is hot spot. Without diffusers hot spots are very pronounced (can see it here for example at the beginning of this video I took: http://vimeo.com/1695473). With diffusers light output is greatly reduced, especially in bad visibility. I think reflector size on Darkbuster is noticeably smaller than on 'proper' video lights.

Thanks for response. Link fixed. ND filter is off obviously and I don't use any color filters. Well, I guess there are no magic tricks, are there?

I'm using Sony TRV-900 with Ikelite housing. Shooting mostly in the Great Lakes, where it's usually quite dark below 60 feet or so. Shooting so far on all auto, except white balance and noticed that camera keeps shutter speed at 60 and using full +18dB gain if it's dark enough (sample can be seen here http://vimeo.com/1261703. I wonder if I playing with shutter speed, say setting it to 30, would make any difference? Or may be there are some other settings I should look at? Would appreciate your thoughts.

Would it work with Sigma 15 mm 2.8 FE? How much is shipping to Ontario, Canada?

You could upload them to Amazon S3 and send links to editor. It won't solve uploading time issue though.