last sunday with DX-D50

Greeting from Indonesia to all wetpixel members!

I just want to share my experience last Sunday with my brand new S&S DX-D50.

Last Sunday, I went diving at Lampung, near Krakatau Volcano Island (South of Sumatra Island). The visibility was about 30 feet (10 meter), therefore I decided to use macro set-up.

Equipments that I used last Sunday:

S&S DX-D50 housing with compact macro port base and macro port base 79

S&S YS-90 Auto

S&S Sea arm VI

Nikon D50 + Sandisk Ultra II 1 giga (WB auto, RAW setting)

Sigma 105mm F2.8 macro lens

The housing was quite heavy on the land, but as soon as I hit the water, the housing feels very balance.

The shutter release button was very responsive, it’s very easy to get the feeling of “half depressâ€

I was shooting in manual mode last Sunday.

I set my shutter speed at 1/125 for all my shoots. I just played with the aperture setting.

Since there is only one wheel at the back of the housing the move the rear dial (Nikon D50 doesn’t have the front wheel dial), I need to depress the (+/-) button on the top of the housing, locked it in and move the rear wheel in order to change the aperture. If I don’t press and locked the (+/-) button and I moved the wheel at the rear of the housing, the aperture setting won’t change! Instead, the shutter speed will change.

(Note: Mr. Jonas Vanar, the author of S&S 350D review, already explain about this in details)

I didn’t find this as a problem for me. Since I already set my shutter speed at 1/125, I just leave the (+/-) button locked in the entire time when I’m diving. When I need to change the aperture setting, I just move the rear wheel ïŠ

Here are some examples of the shoots that I took last Sunday.

With this setting last Sunday, I didn’t have any problem on auto focus. The auto focus was very fast and accurate and I love using 105mm for macro shooting. It can provide me some distance between the subjects.

Some negative points about this housing

- the view finder is only cover around 90% of the view, so I need to move “up and down†a bit to be able to see the whole thing.

- The housing is not TTL ready. I need to buy S&S TTL converter for Nikon (external) for about $400

Next Sunday, July 23 if the weather nice, I’m planning to try out Nikon 18-55dx with S&S compact wide port L or Nikon 10.5mm with CX compact port dome.

However, if the visibility is not nice? Let’s say around 30 feet/10meter, is it still a good idea to use wide angle setting? Or just go with macro set-up again? Please advice

Thx you

Andree

Thanks for the report. The price point of the D50 makes it an attractive option and, as your report points out, the lack of a front and back command wheel is really not a problem. Nice images as well.

I have shot wide-angle in much less than 10 meter vis. The 10.5 will make the vis appear much better than it really was. Concentrate on close-focus subjects where there is very little distance between your dome and the subject, use upward angles and shoot in shallow water.

thanks for the report.

I am hoping to put my S&S D50 housing in the water for the first time this coming weekend - weather permitting.

had a question about housing buoyancy.

Care to speculate on the buoyance characteristics of this housing with camera and a 10.5mm or 12-24mm lens and the S&S 8" dome without strobes?

there was a review of the S&S dx-d200 housing in issue 31 of the e-zine Underwater Photography and the author reported that to be slightly negative when configured as described above. I can't imagine there would be that much difference although the D200 body is a bit bigger - or at least that is what I am hoping.

while "land" shooting with the housing, I too was very impressed with the responsiveness of the shutter. In fact, my plan is to set the camera to shoot in "continuous" mode, as I found it very easy on land to pop-off a single shot while in that mode, but still have the option of rapid fire if the need arises. Will see if that works underwater.

Hi Lionfish

Thank you for ur advise. i will try 10.5mm with compact dome next sunday. i will follow ur instruction, to get as close as i can to the subject.

Hi Bfdc

about the boyancy characteristics of this housing.

Last sunday, when i use macro set-up, the camera was slightly negative.

the front lens always want to point up ward a bit.

i never try this housing with 10.5mm + compact dome.

I will try it out next sunday, but it's kinda too late for you (cause ur going to try it out this coming sunday)

By that time you already have the answer

Andree

well, just got back from my weekend trip. Blownout on Saturday, but got two dives in today - 110' and 90'. My impressions of my first dives with my brand new S&S DX50

0. It didn't flood! Went from deep sink to ocean without a hitch. Phew! always a point of nerves until one gets confidence in the equipment. Had DAN insurance to back me up.

1. I was shooting available light with 12-24mm Nikon and 8" S&S dome

2. Housing was slightly positive and tended to flip "dome up" when tethered to attached. When being carried - hands on handle, the housing was very light and you didn't have to fight to keep it pointed in the right direction; very easy to handle underwater - can be one-handed very easily. (note: see #5 - the housing flipped with or without the cover on - just more so with the cover, particularly when not at depth, as depth compresses neoprene)

3. I had the shutter on continuous mode and that worked great; shutter was sensitive enough to easy distinguish between single shoots and mulitple shoots when required;

4. AF worked well - even in chunky green 30-40 ft viz on the first dive; much faster and more sensitive than the 8008s I was coming from

5. I was very paranoid about scratching the big dome going up and down the anchor line to the wreck so I tried entering the water with the dome cover on and taking it off on the bottom and then replacing it when I ascended; taking it off was easy; putting it back on was a bit trickier, but overall worked well. No dings or scratches

6. One of the rocker buttons doesn't appear to work on land- alignment a bit off, but did work underwater; interesting - it is the "3 o'clock" "select" button; I dived not expecting it to work and discovered it did while messing with the camera on my deco stop on the 2nd dive. go figure

7. I shot raw - first time ever - so I don't know how the pictures will turn out as I have to buy an upgrade to photoshop to get ACR or buy Bibble; I am used to fooling with WB on my scanner and using film, so it will be interesting to see how eliminating the scanner tools will effect things. A quick LCD review makes it appear the usual blue. Some interesting camera "picks" on WB caused some odd variations - that may be a metering issue or something. Shot matrix. Center maybe better.

8. I shot program mode, 400 iso, WB Auto, mostly just to get used to see what the camera was doing in that mode; I was going to set WB on the bottom, but I didn't think that button was going to work (see above), so I forgot about it. Should have tried it.

9. Used 2GB 60x SD cards and inspite of reports that 133x doesn't make a difference, I felt the camera was writing the raw files slower than my 1GB 133x card. I will try the two SD cards on land and see I can see a difference.

10. Once I get my software upgrade tomorrow, I will post anything that appears worthy of a look

11. Was disappointed that I didn't get to use my 10.5mm, but was still a little cautious about opening the housing and switching lens on the boat; my other housing were a snap - this has a bit more water hugging parts than my old Stromm housings.

12. did use the zoom function quite a bit. started to get the hang of it pretty quickly; little be slower than I would like, but with practice, I was able to zoom, compose and focus on a moving target;

13. the viewfinder is a bit smaller than I would like and I kept placing my eye in the wrong place - motor skills to relearn from my old housings. But I think it will be functional. I think it would be hard to manually focus with this viewfinder, but will have to try it once I get a flat port for my 60mm and 105mm

overall very pleased with the handling of the housing and camera....don't yet know about the most important part - the pictures!

thx

Andree,

Hi, your report been very useful, I'm about to buy the S&S DX50 for my camera, I have second touhgts about the Ikelite or the S&S...

I'll be watching out for your reports...

PD, I'm a newbie in UWP

Thanks,

Rosella

here is a typical shot from last weekends first dive with d50 and S&S housing w/big dome - one of a series as the shark approached; not really cleaned up - chunky water - converted from RAW and was playing with WB; 24mm (Nikon 12-24mm) f5.6/125; iso200; program mode; available light;

thx