D800 - worth it to put it in a housing still?

[underwatermatt 0]

HI!

i am a semi professional photographer and after years of dreaming am finally ready to start shooting underwater. I currently have a d800, and it’s days as my primary camera are coming to an end, but it is still very functional. I am debating if it is worth it to buy a housing for it or just wait until I get a new camera ( I have no idea when that will be, could be another year still) does anyone still shoot with an 800 underwater? Is it a good underwater camera? 

I was looking at the Ikelite housing for it as the price is right, does anyone have experience with it? 

Would anyone happen to be selling a d800 housing?!

thanks!!

[bill1946 16]

Top of the line full frame! If you plan on keeping it, might as well get a top of the line housing as well. Check out the Sea & Sea D850 Underwater Housing the smallest of the aluminum D850 housings with easy to reach controls. It is lighter than the Sea & Sea D810 housing. The controls have been upgraded to a spring-loaded system to prevent any slippage from gear wear or slight camera dimension differences. TTL converter with the optical flash trigger can be purchased separately.

Good housings are worth the money and can cost more than the camera. Now, strobes and arms!?!?!

[onokai 20]

Depends I shoot with a d800 in a subal housing. If I was starting out fresh I would have a nautical hosuing as the parts are easier to get now than Subals. I have had 4 subal housings so I kept the ports thru most of them until Subal changed to larger ports I went with them back then. Now Subal is experiencing prodution issues and financial issues so parts are a bear to get.

I know a pro who is shooting the D850 as he wanted the newer features of that camera and he will stay with that camera most likely until he done shooting he said. 

I am very pleased with my Subal and D800-I personally do not like the plastic housing Ikelite makes-in the old days they flexed and controls bound uop at depth (Truk lagoon deco dives) I would stick to better housings-Sea and Sea are short on full controls-wear as Subal and especially Nauticam gives you all the contol functions .Nauticams are especially well thought out and maybe a bit over engineered-they are easy to get parts and service-not so much with Subals anymore.Seacams are also under contolled in my view-(not all funtions work)

In housings you get what you pay for.Whatever housing you start with after buying all the ports (glass ones are best) you tend to keep the ports and change the camera and housing body as time goes buy.

The D800 is a super camera no question-maybe a D850 if starting new? of course you will need two bodies right?

 

[Kraken de Mabini 204]

If you can get a good housing for your D800, by all means do so.  I have one, and am happy with it.  Takes great pictures of subjects big and small.  

Wetpixel classifieds and eBay are good places to start looking, ReefPhoto in Florida sells excellent used equipment.  Good luck!

[TimG 62]

I agree with KdM.

I used a D800 in a Subal housing for several years and thought it excellent. The price of housings for that body will now be significantly lower - I still shudder at how little I sold mine for - so I'm sure you could get something really good for it. 

Yes, the D810 and D850 are probably better but I doubt you'd be disappointed with the results from the D800. Definitely worth housing it, I'd suggest. And if you decide to move on, you'd only (!) be upgrading the housing and camera body - assuming you stay with the same housing manufacturer.

 

 

[phxazcraig 123]

The D800 in a good housing should be just fine underwater.  I shot a D810 for years underwater, and a D800e for years above.   The main advantages of the D810 are mostly lost or unnecessary underwater.   The sensor is 36mp, and it's good.   Shoot at base ISO as much as possible and have great fun processing the raw files!   Last year I moved up to a D850, and the one advantage that really jumped out is focus speed and accuracy.  

[PeteAtkinson 53]

I use a D800 in a Nauticam housing. It is excellent, completely reliable and produces files big enough to crop if I need to. But with (my) advancing age it's getting a bit heavy for me. I have several ports, the 180 viewfinder etc. So I am looking to downsize. So my housing will be on the market shortly. You can find me on a Google search!

[Ol Dirty Diver 1]

@underwatermatt:

I'm sitting on a Sea & Sea MDX-D800 in excellent condition. It's actually never even been in the ocean...Only the pool a few times. I bought the D810 when it first came out...But come my trip it was so fresh that no housings had been released for it yet. The D810 was so similar to the D800 that I gambled on buying the D800 housing in hope that most of the buttons would line up, which they did for the most part. But after I returned from the trip for which I bought it, proper D810 housings started becoming available and I opted for one of those and forgot about the D800 housing. And I didn't end up having the time to bring the housing into the ocean during the trip anyway.

You can inspect the images I've attached. Please PM me an offer if you're interested!

[phxazcraig 123]

If you already have the D800 and can find a cheap-but-decent housing, go for it.  But if you could do the same for a D810 rig (perhaps someone selling a package), there is an advantage I hadn't thought of before.   A D800/800e only goes to ISO 100, while a D810/D850 goes to ISO 64 and gives another 2/3rd stop of dynamic range.  That is important in post-processing.  You can feel that dynamic range disappear extremely rapidly as ISO goes up.