Sony F707 / Amphibico Surveyor

I just came back from St Croix with pictures taken with a Sony F707 and the Amphibico Surveyor 707. I used 2 Amphibico lights (HID 10w Arc Lights) and attached everything to a Ultralite Control System (2 arms and tray).

I've read articles in all the forums and seen the arguments for strobes and the issues with strobes and digital cameras. I had not seen any pictures taken with lights so I am posting the ones I took.

This is my first underwater setup and my first set of underwater pictures. With that in mind, I know that I now own 2 really good flashlights but also know that with a few more dives, I will have "more" good pictures as I learn to aim the lights better.

On my daytime dives, I found the best pictures to be under 1 meter. On night dives I could be 2 meters away and still have good color. All pictures taken with camera on full auto including white balance.

My next purchase will be the Amphibico LSD (Light Sensing Device) and 2 strobes. The LSD will simulate TTL or can be used in manual mode (different power settings). LSD comes with a Nikonos five pin connector. I will probably continue to use the lights in conjuction with the strobes for better lighting effects (backlight or something) as well as for night shots.

Water temp was 83f and vis was 60-80ft (not great). They had a storm go through a week before and a few dives looked like it was snowing with the sand coming off the wall.

Some pictures can be seen in "Members Photos" or you can goto

my gallery on Pbase.

Pictures are © 2002 Mark H Ellingson

I have no experience operating this setup but I did purchase one and return it.

The Amphibico housing seems to be designed for use with video lights rather than strobes and that was a deal-breaker for me. I own the Amphibico wide angle lens (100 degree) and it works beautifully with this housing.

The reason I say it is not designed to work with strobes is the implementation of white balance. You cannot control the whether you use white balance presets or custom white balance. For ambient light shots, you clearly want to use filters and custom white balance, but once you do you cannot use flash effectively for the rest of the dive. With video lights you do not have this problem. Your choice seems to be giving up white balance or giving up strobes. To make matters worse, they fail to implement the review function and the camera only displays the picture for an instant.

I've read the comments on strobes vs. lights and I am very skeptical. Strobes clearly have more reach and are superior in mixed light shots.

For macro I don't buy it. There is no technical reason why strobes would be "higher resolution" that video lights, and lights are much easier to operate.

I am primarily interested in wide angle, so lights are not a good option.

Perhaps strobes are better for macro, but we haven't seen evidence of it here. My advice is to use what you have and weigh your decision on strobes carefully. At very least, let Amphibico shake the bugs out of the LSD first. They have a habit of shipping products before they are ready. If you do use strobes, pay close attention to white balance.

BTW, Amphibico will tell you that you cannot use diopters with your housing. This is not true, get a 58mm-52mm step-down ring and use 52mm diopters. A +4 works great with this housing as far as my testing goes. Also consider getting the .55x port at the very minimum.

Glad to see someone using this housing. Sorry it isn't me!

Craig, thanks for the info. Now to show my lack of knowledge in photography. The .55x lens assembly, what does that get me and will the 80degree wide angle assist in anything (will it attach)? And with the .55x, can I still do Macro or at least close-ups?

The .55x lens will provide a 64 degree field of view underwater according to the Amphibico website. That is much wider than you get today, but not all that wide by still photographer's standards. The nice thing about the 707 is the wide zoom range. You will be limited in how small you can get, but not as much as you might think since the minimum focusing distance of the 707 on telephoto is .9 meters. With the .55x, your focal length will be cut in half but you will be able to focus much closer. I think the small stuff will still be OK. To get the best macro performance, I think you will need to use a +2 or +4 diopter with the existing flat port. Without the diopter, the flat port provides greater working distances, but probably not much magnification advantage. Note that I say all this without a single dive on your housing (but a great deal of Amphibico video experience).

Overall, I suspect the .55x lens may be the best solution with the 707, but the flat port lowers the package cost and most customers will want it anyway. If you buy the .55x, you may have to remount the sunshade since the bayonet mount is inverted on the Surveyor. This is very easy but I thought I'd mention it.

The 80 degree wet mount lens is useful and I do own it. I suspect it would work fine with the flat port but would best be combined with the .55x. Whether you like it or not depends on how important wide angle is to you and how sensitive you are to the cost (which is pretty high). 80 degrees gets into the range that most wide angle photographers are looking for, plus you can remove it during the dive (much easier than a threaded adapter) and still have a 5x zoom.

New lenses will probably serve you better at this time than strobes. One of the Amphibico strengths is the combination of the white balance control and the external Aquacolor filters. These are really only useful in natural light or with video lights, as I said before, so I think you should play to the strengths of your setup.

Nice pictures! I was waiting to see your pics since I have been looking at this setup. The Sony 707 is a great camera. I'll be using mine for more than just u/w photography. The color is very good in some of the shots. I am surprised that the HID lights didn't give the shots a warm color overcast. By the way Armatos in NY has the WA for the Amphibico for $100 less than direct from Amphibico. Double check that price though. Amphibico said that the LSD would be ready for shipping in about two weeks, around the end of Nov. That also stated the the SB105, Sea & Sea YS90dx and one other strobe works the best with the LSD. I didn't know that you can't use the white balance presets with the housing. Is that correct? Do you use a white card to set the custom white balance at different depths?

Once again keep shooting and post some more great pics.

The picture attached shows the white object I use. Of course it needs to be closer to camera for setting. This was taken to show it. Is designed like the sunshades for cars. One twist and it is about 6in diameter. Had to make it myself. Is pure white nylon.

Nice little white balance card. What did you use for the ring part -a car sun shade? Also how do you position the card in front of the camera, at an angle, normal to the lens and how far away? That's alot in one sentence. One more question. Are there any manual controls on the housing? The reason I ask is because I can't seem to find good close up pictures of the housing in detail on the web. I would like to hear from others that are using this housing too.

The reason I am asking so many questions is because I am planning a trip to the Galapagos Islands next summer. So I am doing all the research I can early on.

Keeping shooting.

Thanks everyone

Ok, Have posted pics of my setup in my gallery

White balance card ring was from sunshade. Had to rip out the spring-steal, cut it, make white circle and edging, insert steal, crimp.

White balance was set (when I used it) at a small angle with lights. Only worked when up close 1~2ft. Most shots taken with full camera Auto.

There are no "pre-set" white balances in the F707 unless you count "Outdoor/Indoor/Auto". You can not control the mode from underwater. Mode must be set prior to entry. If you plan on setting white balance via large button on lft of housing, cam must be in white balance "One Push" mode.

Left the camera in Macro mode. Was able to focus on distant objects (>15ft), and allowed me to get up close. If not in macro, is very difficult to get closer than 2ft and focus in on the object to be shot.

Manual controls: Strobe On/Off/Auto; White Balance set; Metering mode; shutter.

Let me know if you need any more pictures. I know it's difficult making a purchase not being able to hold the housing and all the parts. I quized all the my vendors and dealors on dimensions, layed everything out in Visio with actual resized images. I went crazy. After I received all hardware, I created a box with the dimension of the Pelican 1550 to make sure I could fit it all in. Glad I did, couldn't have put it in a smaller box and didn't want a larger box I would have to check at airport. Carried as "carry-on" no problems. Did get searched but I expected that.