Need help - can't decide what setup to use

My wife and I have been diving for about 11 years. We got into underwater photography early on with the Sea & Sea Motor Marine series film cameras. We liked the external lens choices, especially the 2 macro lenses. About 6 years ago I went digital / Olympus C4000 / Ikelite housing / Sea & Sea YS 90 strobe on slave via optical cable. I am ready to make a change.

I have a Canon 20D SLR with an EFS 18-55mm lens that I could house. Expensive to do.

I am considering:

A) House the 20D in an Ikelite housing using existing lens and strobe with a TTL sync cord. Upgrade later to 1 or 2 DS125s using eTTL and adding other lenses and ports.

B) Purchase the Sea & Sea DX-1G camera with a YS110 strobe and wide-angle lens.

(Does this camera shoot TTL?)

C) Purchase the Canon G9, house it in an Ikelite housing and use my existing strobe or a

DS125 set up.

I currently have a wide-angle lens on the housing for the Olympus, can I use the same

lens with the G9? Also, Ikelite states that you can shoot eTTL with the G9 when

using their DS125 strobe set up. True?

I know these are a lot of questions and would really appreciate any help and suggestions.

We have a trip planned for Bonaire in December so I need to make a decision. Really struggling here.

Thanks in advance, Mike

Mike,

A) House the 20D in an Ikelite housing using existing lens and strobe with a TTL sync cord. Upgrade later to 1 or 2 DS125s using eTTL and adding other lenses and ports.

* Lots of 20D housings out there as two newer models have come along (30D, Rebel XTi / 400D and now 40D)

18-55mm EF-S "kit" lens can work well with initial port choice, also allowing a few other lenses, mainly wide angle to get started. A singel DS125 gives you excelllent eTTL2 and Manual control and works very well.

B) Purchase the Sea & Sea DX-1G camera with a YS110 strobe and wide-angle lens.

(Does this camera shoot TTL?)

* Not sure, may be Sea and Sea's version of TTL ????

C) Purchase the Canon G9, house it in an Ikelite housing and use my existing strobe or a

DS125 set up.

* G9 is excellent allowing eTTL and hard wire control with Ikelite strobes. It is not as big (or fast) as a dSRL, but also is cheaper. Housing has 67mm threads but you must get a short port to take advantege of wide angle thread on optics (what size is your current lens?)

I currently have a wide-angle lens on the housing for the Olympus, can I use the same

lens with the G9? Also, Ikelite states that you can shoot eTTL with the G9 when

using their DS125 strobe set up. True?

* Circuitry is put in their TTL capable housings when used with Ikelite DS series (digital substrobe) units as other manufacturer's strobes use totally different circuitry.

Good luck!

dhaas

Definitely buy a housing for your 20d. It's a little more expensive but well worth it in the end. Much better quality , less shutter lag interchangeable lenses and fast focus etc. I've used the sea&sea digital camera and found it hard to control. I found the images to be very noisy. I was very disappointed since it was a $1600+ set up.

Definitely buy a housing for your 20d. It's a little more expensive but well worth it in the end. Much better quality , less shutter lag interchangeable lenses and fast focus etc. I've used the sea&sea digital camera and found it hard to control. I found the images to be very noisy. I was very disappointed since it was a $1600+ set up.

Thanks for your feedback dhaas and scubarobot.

It costs more to buy a point and shoot and house it. After some research the Sea & Sea DX-1G seems like it would be lmited.

I noticed on the Ikelite port chart the EFS 18-55 uses the same flat port as thre EFS 60 Macro. Is it better to use a flat port or dome port for the 18-55? Would be nice to use the same port for both lenses.

Great forum. Lots of usefull info.