Total newbie

Although a professional photographer i have yet to live the dream of underwater photography.

As i read here somewhere it is probably better to splash out than to buy cheap then yearn to upgrade. i am currently using a canon 20d and will probably end up going for the ikelite housing.

My main question is - are strobes essential to begin with (im looking at 20m depth max) as i read an article about a filter that colour balances to 30feet and the results seemed impressive.

My second question is - the naff canon 18-55mm lens, is it any good for diving. of the lenses i have it's the only one I'm prepared to risk or could someone recommend a general all rounder stater lens.

cheers for any help

Andy

HI Andy

What sort of diving are you going to be doing? Tropical or local British?

What sort of things are you interested in shooting? Wide angle scenes, little critters? A mix?

If you are going to concentrated on shallow wide angle scenes then yes, a Magic Filter is a nice compliment to natural light photography. It will give you great results under the right conditions which are shallow and lots of light.

However, if you want to shoot small stuff or a mixed bag of options then i would suggest you definitely need one if not two strobes. If you are going with Ike housing then i would suggest the DS125 strobes, you can get TTL with that combination too.

As for lenses, if you are looking for just one sort of do it all lens, how about the Sigma 17-70? It has macro capability as well as WA. The close focus is much superior to the kit 18-55 lens.

Have a look at some Magic Filter examples in the gallery section of www.magic-filters.com