Help in selecting 1st underwater rig

Hello

I am new to both this form and underwater photography. I am a moderately experienced land DSLR photographer (Canon 30D with several lenses), and want to start underwater photography. I am a moderately experienced diver (AOW with about 40 dives).

As I did with land photography, I want to start with a very basic low cost, simple to use system to learn the craft. Initially I do not want to spend for a housing for my 30D, and want to go with a small, light point-and-shoot rig. After some research, the following are on my list of possibilities (wanted a camera with at least 5 mp – more than 5 mp at this time is a nice to have):

1. Sealfe Reefmaster DC500 Elite set with strobe and wide angle lens

2. Sea & Sea DX-750 with YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

3. Sea & Sea DX8000G with YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

4. Canon SD800IS with Canon housing and Sea&Sea YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

5. Canon SD800IS with Ikelite housing and Sea&Sea YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

6. Canon SD800IS with Ikelite housing and Ikelite DS-51 strobe

The above are arranged in roughly increasing costs. I would prefer to stay as low in cost as possible, but still have a rig that will serve me well for about 9 months to a year. I would like the rig to be useful for both macro and open water shots.

Any comments on the above with or suggestions of other packages in the same rough price range (under about $1,400) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance to all responders for your help

Henry Davis

Henry Henry Henry....you have a great camera already!...wrap an Ikelite around it for a good housing with a low cost! I'm not sure about the prices of the camera/case combo's you have listed but I'm sure they have to be close to 1k for most of them...the Ikelite housings are usually around 1300...its really not that much of a difference and I believe you will be sorry if you give up such a great camera. Start with one strobe to keep your costs down. Just my 3 cents but I think this would be your most cost effective solution and yield much better photos...especially if you are very familiar with your rig already. G-luck!

John

Hello

 

I am new to both this form and underwater photography. I am a moderately experienced land DSLR photographer (Canon 30D with several lenses), and want to start underwater photography. I am a moderately experienced diver (AOW with about 40 dives).

 

As I did with land photography, I want to start with a very basic low cost, simple to use system to learn the craft. Initially I do not want to spend for a housing for my 30D, and want to go with a small, light point-and-shoot rig. After some research, the following are on my list of possibilities (wanted a camera with at least 5 mp – more than 5 mp at this time is a nice to have):

 

1. Sealfe Reefmaster DC500 Elite set with strobe and wide angle lens

2. Sea & Sea DX-750 with YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

3. Sea & Sea DX8000G with YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

4. Canon SD800IS with Canon housing and Sea&Sea YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

5. Canon SD800IS with Ikelite housing and Sea&Sea YS-15 , YS-25 or YS-90 strobe

6. Canon SD800IS with Ikelite housing and Ikelite DS-51 strobe

 

The above are arranged in roughly increasing costs. I would prefer to stay as low in cost as possible, but still have a rig that will serve me well for about 9 months to a year. I would like the rig to be useful for both macro and open water shots.

 

Any comments on the above with or suggestions of other packages in the same rough price range (under about $1,400) would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance to all responders for your help

 

Henry Davis

Some additional input is that of all the camera combos you listed, all of them are "point and shoot" types except for the DX8000G. This is important, as underwater you'll want to change your aperture and shutterspeed yourself.

I'm sort of with John on this one. It seems to me that you should get a housing for your 30D. Alternatively, if you really want a compact setup, then get one with a Strobe that you'll be able to carry over and use efectively with your 30D.

I'd suggest a Canon S70 w/ Canon housing and Ikelite strobe, or an Olympus SP350 w/ Oly housing and Ikelite strobe.

Cheers

James

Thanks John and James for your replies. They helped point me in a different, better direction. After reading them, I considered for a short time getting everything to put my 30D underwater. However I quickly realized that this was going to run me $2,000+ which was $500 over budget.

Yesterday I fell into an excellent deal that solved my problems for now I was able to get an Olympus 8080 with macro lens and 1GB memory card (only slightly used), a brand new Ikelite housing for it, and an Ikelite DS50 strobe on a ball arm with sync cord in excellent condition all packed in a Pelican 1600 case for $1,100. Based on my research after you replies the Olympus 8080 seemed to be one of the very best point-and-shoot cameras for diving (much better than either its SP350 little brother or the Canon S70 or S80).

I feel that this will probably serve me well for 1 or 2 years and if I do put my 30D underwater I can still use the strobe and the Olympus will be an excellent back-up rig.

I will keep you posted on how it works.

Thanks again for your help

Henry Davis

Don't be fooled. I thought this a few years ago, with a Nikon Coolpix 5000 in a Subal housing, but I lost lots of money by upgrading after 18 months to a DSLR: the added flexibility and control, not to mention the optical advantages of a physically bigger chip, are even more obvious underwater than on the surface. I would recommend investing in a DSLR system: you can always start without strobes and use filters, which is a new development that's really catching on.

Compact:

DSLR:

Filter:

Tim

B)

Henry,

The 8080 is a great topsides camera, but poorly suited underwater use because of its long 10x zoom lens.

Cheers

James Wiseman

Henry,

You will be somewhat limited as James says at the wide end, but the camera CAN produce nice photos in decent light where the AF (auto-focus) will work better.

Here's Ikelite's own guide to menu settings on the Olympus C8080:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/gide_o8080.html

Tim is also correct on the difference between a small sensor as in your Olympus C8080, compared to the Canon 30D! But you'd expect that! Once you are getting good exposures you can easily make a nice 8" X 10" print and maybe larger.

When you house your Canon 30D you will also be able to use all the cords, arms, and DS50 strobe to get started, so this will be a decent investment as you learn to shoot underwater.

Hope this helps......

dhaas

Hello

I want to thank everyone for there response, and I find all the comments very helpful. Just one correction. The 8080 is a wide zoom that is only 5X and not 10X. It goes down to 28mm on the wide end which was one of the selling points of the camera for me. The main limitation on the wide end will be the housing not the camera - the housing only allows a 54 degree width of coverage while the camera is capable of a 76 degree of coverage. I could increase the width of coverage to a full 76 degrees if I aquired a dome port for the housing (now discontinued by Ikelite).

My reasons for the purchase were largely captured by dhaas. I need another good point-and-shoot camera (for my wife) and wanted one of the wide zooms since most of her point-and-shoot shots will use the wide rather than the tele end. I feel that the 8080 is still one of the best wide zooms available - better than either the Canon S80 or the Nikkon 8400 in my opinion (cost oc camera about $450). I will be able to use the strobe, arms, sync cable for along time (this is about $550 worth of gear). The case is worth about $100, so by my math, I am getting the housing "free". This will allow me to make a serious start in underwater photography for a very reasonable investment.

I do agree with Tim and John that I will get better pictures with my 30D. However, when that time comes, I can sell the housing for the 8080 and still e slightly ahead (since my wife will still use the 8080 on land).

Thanks again to all for your help and interest

Henry Davis