Islandbound

Vinny I too use one strobe generally. My left arm was severely injured in an accident a year ago and the nerves/muscles have not regenerated or were damaged. I cannot support a alot of weight as a result and consequently try to stick with on strobe, although I do own two. As an aside, in 30 minutes I am receiving 4 awards at a local photo contest all of which were taken with a single strobe including one which is an internal strobe in an Ikelite case no less (G7). I am not up to the standards of many members of Wetpixel but do well enough to get pleasing pictures for my wall and in this case, a local competition. Good Luck!

Sorry I didnt see this earlier. The most obvious difference to me is that a picture that starts with more megapixels will have more to crop for a particular print size and still have enough resolution to look good. I crop all my photos to 8 x 10 size for framing around the house/office and this is an important aspect to me. I also have plans in the future to have much larger prints made to be framed and again, the more native megapixels the better the image.

Alex In your review of the Nikon 105VR you said that your 3rd party TC would allow the VR lens to autofocus. What brand and strenght was the teleconverter that you used?

Very cool! Is that a little shrimp at the 11 oclock position of the 2nd picture?

Tuga, how did adding the Woodys help some? Do you mean with the lighting distance?

Ryuku Islands of Japan.

We have whale sharks, giant mantas, bulls, lemons turtles not to mention WWII wrecks, live ordinance and even an unexplained ancient civilizations remains 100 feet underwater complete with roads, walls, sundial etc that nobody archeologically speaking has been able to define. The islands have bunkers, castles and history going back 2000 years and more. There are 1300km of island groups stretching from Islands like the Keramas, Ie halfway to Guam. Plus, there are nice people here!

I enjoyed your pictures Mark, that last grouper photo has some nasty looking teeth!

Anyone, non-VR 105mm lens...?

Okay, I give up, what was the lighting technique?

Claude, would you be willing to post an your closest 2:1 photo thats uncropped in any way? I am also considering this 60mm/2x setup and have never seen an uncropped example of how much of a closeup can actually be taken. As for the lighting issues, do you use 2 strobes or one? Often I only use one as 2 strobes have an awful lot of drag. When I freedive deep sometimes that begins to affect me a bit.

Woohoo! Freedive photography, now your talking!!! Cant wait to see your pics once your back.

I didnt have time to formulate a reply earlier but like Bardo's friend, I too have the same 50% solution. I have been using a YS110 as a slave optically fired from a DS51 and have the DS51 set to -1 to make the YS110 fire. If the DS is set to a higher output the strobe wont fire at all. Once the YS fires it is a very bright strobe at full output and I usually end up setting it at about half power for macro shots on a D80 at F18 with a 60mm lens.

I am no expert and have siginificantly less experience than you but your question intrigues me. What do you expect to gain from switching to a more expensive camera that you dont already get at this time? If you were using a PNS then the desire for more precise focus, light control, RAW etc would be evident but the camera your using is a good one from what I have heard. I understand the benefit of more light for exposure as well as a focus light for focus though.

Arnon, are the very close macro photos in your Eilat album with the 60mm/2x combination?

I still dont understand what a "fill" strobe is compared to the other strobe. Is it at less power, different angle...?

Bruce, when you do use the 60 with the 2x could you please start a thread with your findings and some photos? I am very interested in what you find out in the water with that particular combination.

Like CADiver posted, "When you use the Kenko X2, which Ikelite port do you use ?" Also, what are your average working distances with the convertor (and what is the max distance you can shoot clearly?) and is the lighting an issue? What are your normal Aperture and Shutter speeds for your macro shots with the 60mm/2x setup?

I really thought that there would be more answers. The other lighting post there were enough people adamant on both sides of the diffusor issue that it would seem almost certain that your pictures would have been easy enough to determine your lighting style. Post the answers, it will be interesting to see just how close/correct a posted response will be.

I thought there would be more guesses! 1) strobe outside the left of the sponge but partially over the opening with soft diffused light 2) very soft textured light-diffused? placement of single strobe close to port at the 11 oclock position Thats my best guess for both from an uneducated amateur! At least it gives me something to think about while the wind is howling, Man-Yi turned into a Super Typhoon an hour or so ago with 150+mph winds and the water is trying to come in through every door and window... yuck

What would be interesting to me as a beginner would be to have some examples from the more experienced photographers on the site with "anonymous" strobe information. Then see if there is a consensus of opinion on how the lighting was achieved before the actual technique is revealed.

When you put the 500D on the camera are you then resigning yourself to only very close photos for the dive? Do you carry two cameras?

Jack, do you know how big the port size is for an Ikelite?

Is anyone using the non-VR 105 lens and if so, how does it work? I can get one for less than half the VR cost and am seriously thinking about buying it.

Other than RAW I dont see the Sea&Sea doing anything that isnt already on the market now. The G7 will do everything except for the raw and can shoot 1024x768 at 15fps as well, has a hotshoe for TTL with an Ikelite housing and even has two custom C1,C2 settings so you can preset the camera for Macro and WA quickly. In addition to the Macro setting it also has optical telephoto presets at 1.4 and 2.3 you can use for very tight macro shots too. If someone doesnt like Canon I would think that the Nikon coolpix would be a nice camera as well as the Olympus. With Casio already in the market with a 12.1 megapixel camera it wont be long for all the other companies push the technology envelope soon as well.