D60 housing

Just got back from a dive trip. The photo pro was shooting a Cannon AE2 in an Ikelite housing. He was shooting a D30 top side and complaining that the camera shop had not delivered his D60 before the trip. He told me that the D60 will fit in his Ikelite AE2 housing. Can't use the buttons by the monitor but says he wouldn't use them UW anyway. Something for you potential D60 users to think about.

Ikelite does have a housing that fits the D30/60, but it is designed for battery-grip cameras, which means that there is a small airspace at the bottom (below where the camera sits), and about half of the LCD is blocked.

The good thing is that you can pop up the internal flash and shoot wireless TTL.

Man...

A $1200 D30/60 housing would probably fly off the "shelves" right now.

Hint hint...

Ike probably wants to kill us "digital guys." We ask for a new housing every week!

Cheers

James Wiseman

[Edited on 4-22-2002 by jamesw]

I think it, it will kill my wallet before it kills anthing else!

Our Coolpix 990 with housing is only

one year old now and I already have

this graving for the next generation

stuff... Will this digital addiction end

in a financial disaster?!?!

"My wife says If I don't quit underwater photography, she'll leave me."

"I'm sure going to miss her."

For the potential D60 convert, it would appear that the lenses of choice would be the 16 to 35 mm wide angle zoom and the 100mm macro.

Would you agree? What do you use? Ballpark investment?

Hi Jeff,

Hard to tell from Eric's Kona page: http://www.echeng.com/travel/kona2002/ , but it apears he's mostly using the 14mm for wideangle and maybe the 50mm for macro. I currently use a 20-35mm zoom with my Canon film camera and normally just set it for 20mm and try to get closer. The coverage of my 20mm (with +4 diopter to focus on Ike's dome) is about equal in coverage to the Nikonos 15mm. The 14mm wuld give you about 21mm coverage with the FLM factored in. I, too, am curious about the macro thing. Due to the FLM, I would want to be able to use both the 100 (or the outstanding Tamron 90mm f2.8, which I currently use on my film camera) and the 50. I see that Eric has both, but only one flat port -- I seriously doubt that one flat port would fit both lenses. . . Finally, is there a manual focus / zoom capability with the UK-Germany ports. I find that I almost never use autofocus for macro with the 90mm so a manual focus ring is a must (the new Canon 100mm has a full time manual focus ring BTW -- very cool!) and a ring to zoom would be nice for the 16-35 mm . . .

Canon 14mm 2.8L USM ~$1900

Canon 16-35 2.8L USM ~$1500

Canon 50mm 2.5 macro ~$240

Canon 100mm 2.8 macro ~$500

I am wondering whether to go with the Titan and an E-20 or a D60.

The Titan looks like a marvelous housing, I like the looks of the ROC strobe control, and I like being able to go from wide to macro on the same dive. But, I have heard that the E-20 is slow and the images that I have seen from the D60 seem to blow everything else out of the water.

The other side of the equation is that (starting from nothing) equipping a D-SLR enters a whole new category of spending!

It looks like about 50 to 60 scuba bucks IF you can use your existing strobes and arms. That's budgeting 20 SB's for the camera, 20 for lenses, and 10 to 20 for the housing.

Here's another option (and you're gonna love this one Jeff ):

Wait and buy a Nikon D100.

Then you can use the Nikon D-TTL protocol, a whole ***-load of lenses, and the Ikelite housing and ports.

I was looking at the Ikelite N-80 housing system and it's about half as expensive as the UK-Germany setup, or the Titan.

I'd budget 10 scuba bux for the Ike housing and 2 ports.

The camera body and lenses are a wash - I'll bet there will be less than a 10% diff between the Nikon and the Canon.

But then again, this may just be an academic discussion - you can't buy the D100 yet.

Cheers

James

Having never owned either (except my Nikonos), I have viewed the Nikon/Canon wars from the sidelines.

I will probably wait until both have been out there a while before I do anything, but it would be nice to have one before our Fiji trip in June.

Yes, the D-100 is another option with another set of trade-offs (e.g., the CMOS vs. CCD debate (to dust or not to dust or to send the camera away to be dusted, etc.)). If one is starting an SLR system from scratch, this is a very big decision. In general, you're right about the price differences being minor, but read this: http://www.stephenfrink.com/seacam/D1Xjour...urnal.shtml#VII before you decide whether your U/W strobes will work with "D-TTL" (Also, from the camera specs: "1) D-TTL (Automatic Balanced Fill-Flash controlled by five-segment TTL Multi Sensor) with built-in Speedlight and external Speedllight such asSB-80DX/28DX/50DX: three modes available; 2) Non-TTL Auto Flash with an external Speedlight). With what is available now, it seems that to get TTL you need to synch Ike's strobes to the pop-up flash (assuming you get a housing that lets you sense it) or house the SB-28DX (or the Speedlite 550EX, in the case of the D60). Also, be careful with the assumptions about what Ike will make available or whether the D100 will fit into the N80 housing so easily. Who's to say he won't make a housing for the D60 and who's to say he will automatically do it for the D100? Also look into what lenses will fit, with full controls available, into Ike's port openings. So far, the lenses I've chosen have fit into my Ikelite housing with only slight Dremeling to the appropriate rings, but I have heard of lenses being too big in diameter . . .

[Edited on 4-23-2002 by MikeO]

At B&H, if you prepay in full today, you might get your D60 in 3 to 6 weeks.

Seems Canon hit one out of the park.

Not sure if we will offer such an animal, but following URL will show what we have built for a few people:

Canon D60 housing

ike

Looks good, Ike.

Any chance that the LCD blockage could be reworked? I'm not sure I even know how to use a viewfinder anymore.

That's one of the tradeoffs of using an DSLR.

You'll have to frame the picture using the viewfinder.

The imaging element is a different type of circuit.

No video mode; therefore, no instant update of what's

in front of the lens on the LCD.

You'll still see the results right after the shot.

The other downside is the electronic shutter is also

gone. No more 1/800 sec exposures. I think the max

X-sync speed of both the Canon and Nikon is around 1/200.

I still think higher dynamic range, better lens quality

and much lower shutter lag is worth it.

Herb

Thanks, Herb. Didn't know that.

Point E-20.

But.. if you can see the LCD, you can adjust your exposure in the following shot.

I use a Sigma 14mm and Canon 50mm/2.5 compact macro. The 100mm macro is really hard to use, since it's 160mm equivalent (if you're used to 35mm cameras).

Canon's 14mm is too expensive. Go with the Sigma.

I'm trying to get a port for the 16-35L, but it's taking some time to hear back from Uwe.

Problem with E20 is same CCD as all the other P&S cams, (so less dyn range, higher noise, compared to DSLRs), and slow CF interface, so inter shot delays are longer than other, cheaper P&S. It has other good qualities, but now that the D60 is here, and the d100, almost, I have to ask what the point of the E30 now would be. Assuming you don't already have one, that is...

Say, is the Jeff Farris, the NED fame?

Don

Say, is the Jeff Farris, the NED fame?  

Huh? I must not be, 'cause I don't know what you are talking about.

No, I don't own an E-20. Just my trusty C-4040-Z. If I make a move, it will be to a very well thought out and very complete system. I don't "need" to make a change. I am perfectly happy with my set-up. Well...almost. I would like to be able to shoot the sun and get "God rays" like I can with my Nikonos 15mm. One thing I will surely miss if I move to a D60 or D100 is the zoom lens, but I guess you can't have it all.

Oh, I thought there was a Jeff Farris on Scuba-L, friends with the Network of Egghead Divers, etc.

Must be a different one, or maybe it was a slightly different name.

All the best, regardless!

Don