Nikon Coolpix 5100

I'm trying to decide what digicam to use underwater. I'll be migrating (downgrading) from a Nikon D100 in a Sea and Sea housing. I realize that the quality will likely be different, but I have had one too many strained muscles carrying my huge pelican case through airports and customs. I was also considering the Canon G9. Are there any other cameras I should be considering?

I'm not sure if you've checked out the Oly E-410. Its a DSLR that is quite smaller than most and with an Oly housing wouldn't be too much bigger than a digicam in an Ikelite housing. Right now you can probably get the camera, port and housing at Ryans for less than you paid for your D100 housing. Just a thought. cheers.

I'm not sure if you've checked out the Oly E-410. Its a DSLR that is quite smaller than most and with an Oly housing wouldn't be too much bigger than a digicam in an Ikelite housing. Right now you can probably get the camera, port and housing at Ryans for less than you paid for your D100 housing. Just a thought. cheers.

Hmmm.... can you put external strobes on the Olympus housing? Thanks!

I'm not sure if you've checked out the Oly E-410. Its a DSLR that is quite smaller than most and with an Oly housing wouldn't be too much bigger than a digicam in an Ikelite housing. Right now you can probably get the camera, port and housing at Ryans for less than you paid for your D100 housing. Just a thought. cheers.

I guess this is the housing you refer to, right? https://emporium.olympus.com/innards/empPro...?sku=260520-410

This is an interesting option to a compact, how much would a decent package cost and what do you need to get in terms of WA lens?

Hello ooblick

im currently using the coolpix p5000 which is the same as the p5100 except it is 10mp.i have it housed in a ikelite housing with 2 inon strobes , a inon dome lense and 3x inon macro lenses for very close up shooting.

im quite happy with its peformence underwater , when shooting wideangle it does blues nicley . macro peformance is vgood when using the inon ad on wet lenses.

here is a link to shots taken with my setup

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8825200@N08/

as you stated another system to consider is the G7or G9 housed . or i would also look at the sea&sea dx1g which is a housed ricoh , from personal experience the ricoh cameras usually have very good macro and wide angle peformance . also low shutter lag.

what ever system you choose make shure the housing allows for ad on lenses,

i hope this info helps

regards

Matt

jugglematt

Amazing results there.

That is one of the best sets I have seen with a P&S.

Some of the macro, are simply fantastic. Well done.

This puts the P5000 up there with the E900 & S80 based on all the galleries I have seen.

I am really surprised as the reviews have not been good in general about the p5000.

Would be very interested to hear more of your thoughts regarding the P5000

Hello ooblick

 

im currently using the coolpix p5000 which is the same as the p5100 except it is 10mp.i have it housed in a ikelite housing with 2 inon strobes , a inon dome lense and 3x inon macro lenses for very close up shooting.

 

im quite happy with its peformence underwater , when shooting wideangle it does blues nicley . macro peformance is vgood when using the inon ad on wet lenses.

 

i hope this info helps

 

regards

Matt

What kind of battery life are you getting with it underwater?

I'm getting rid of my Oly SP-350 as it only has about 20 min of on time underwater and am considering the Nikon 5100.

What kind of battery life are you getting with it underwater?

I'm getting rid of my Oly SP-350 as it only has about 20 min of on time underwater and am considering the Nikon 5100.

I just started shooting with the P5100 in FantaSea housing. Still learning the camera and controls and my results were good but nothing as stunning as Jugglematt's. I was able to get 4-6 dives (45-60 min each) with one battery charge. I set the monitor to turn off after 30 seconds. recovery from this sleeping mode was very quick and helps battery life.

I just started shooting with the P5100 in FantaSea housing. Still learning the camera and controls and my results were good but nothing as stunning as Jugglematt's. I was able to get 4-6 dives (45-60 min each) with one battery charge. I set the monitor to turn off after 30 seconds. recovery from this sleeping mode was very quick and helps battery life.

I'd be interested in knowing how long the battery would last with the monitor on all the time.

Or is there an optional battery available - sounds like the 1100 mAh Nikon battery is small.

Or is there another underwater camera [ TTL ] and case that would have bigger battery.

I had a lot of problems with Olympus - they screwed up my camera and in the end refused to fix it. I'll NEVER deal with OLYMPUS again!!

Irishman

hey guys

Hi flirishman

Re battery life.... i get 2 dives out of the p5000 battery, i usually set the monitor to go to sleep after 1 min of inactivity. i fire the strobe by the sync cable not the strobe , i think this also helps conserve battery life .

when i was in malaysia recently and was shooting many(100+ )images a dive i changed the battery after each dive to be safe. so batt life is good ,,,, could be better but its not a deal breaker for me .

there are after market batteries available some are even lower capacity o be carefull before you buy .

hi chuckm,,, i was also looking at the fantasea housing , but it was not available when i was purchacing my setup. PM me if you would like some suggestions on camera settings :-)

hi kevster,,, thoughts on the p5000, well at first i was very dissapointed i just could not make it work , i was coming from a full automagic p&s camera to manual controll. but i spent time and played with different settings and worked it out .macro shooting is my favourite at the moment , using 1,2 &3 inon stacked lenses there is a method i use that helps to get good shots , the more lenses i add the more i zoom in,,i moove the camera in and out to get image clear in screen before i prefocus , once you get the hang of strobe placement /zoom controll /camera position its fairly easy and repeatable . also the more lenses you add the less DOF. im happy now , but still striving for better images .

thanks for the positive feedback all .

here is a nudibranch i shot this morning with the 3 stacked inon lenses .

regards

matt

Jugglematt.

Thanks for info. Your Tiger04 photo is excellent.

I have decided to take the plunge and go for the P5100.

After reading the G9 reviews and the lack of WA option lenses. Its just a shame my current AD lenses cannot be used with the P5100. I have the Inon UWL 100-28AD & UCl165AD.

Can i ask, are you using the AD adapter or just the Inon 100 for the 67 mm threaded port.

At the cameras 35mm do you have to zoom in slightly with the UWL100& dome attached? If so how much. Any comments on blurring when using the UWL& dome?

Also macro with & without the UCL again what is the focus like using the zoom, 50-80mm?

My old S70 macro focus was terrible as soon as i touch the zoom. Never tried the double stack due to smal DOF.

On my old S70 i used to shoot in Manual & set D2000 in TTL. I also found it difficult getting used to working with strobes ensuring they were pointing in the right direction. The focus light is very helpful in this respect.

Shame the P5100 does not have a live histogram.

I will also have to get used to manually setting the WB as the S70 had raw.

Thanks in advance

I am getting ready to buy a set up and this is one of the ones that I am considering:

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/16983/coolpix-p5100-housing/

( P5100 + fantasea housing + strobes)

does anyone have this exact rig with the strobes and all?

are there any more comments about this camera and its capabilities underwater?

thank you ahead of time to anyone that can help with some words of experience.

by the way Jugglematt your 004 in section 7 of the sea star was awesome... do you know remember how it was shot? wide angle lens? i used to be able to take shots like that with my 20mm wide angle and my Nikonos V. I miss it --but not the film part!!

tarzana

I've just bought my girlfriend a Coolpix 5100 and housing for Christmas. Rather than the Fantasea, I went for the Ikelite housing which has the add benefit of ttl via a synch lead when used with an Ikelite substrobe (I bought a DS51). The Ikelite also has a 67mm thread making it easy to find direct fit quality WA and macro lenses.

Daniel

I've just bought my girlfriend a Coolpix 5100 and housing for Christmas. Rather than the Fantasea, I went for the Ikelite housing which has the add benefit of ttl via a synch lead when used with an Ikelite substrobe (I bought a DS51). The Ikelite also has a 67mm thread making it easy to find direct fit quality WA and macro lenses.

 

Daniel

thanks for your response Daniel...

Is this D551 + Ikelite housing a relatively heavy set up? I am trying to avoid weight but still get quality.

Does your choice mean that the Nikon housing/flash set up did not give TTL and you cannot use wet lenses?

The Fantasea 5100 is smaller and lighter than the Ike. As such, there isn't room for a bulkhead for hardwired sync to provide i-ttl. The Nikon FSB800 strobe will work with it and any other digicam, but only in manual mode with a fiber optic sync cord.

My customers are having good results with this setup using the Sea & Sea YS27DX. It's a powerful manual strobe that works well.

Jack

The Fantasea 5100 is smaller and lighter than the Ike. As such, there isn't room for a bulkhead for hardwired sync to provide i-ttl. The Nikon FSB800 strobe will work with it and any other digicam, but only in manual mode with a fiber optic sync cord.

 

My customers are having good results with this setup using the Sea & Sea YS27DX. It's a powerful manual strobe that works well.

 

Jack

Jack,

I would like a strobe that has TTL capabilities. Is a heavy Ikelite system one the only one for the Nikon P5100?

tarzana

Hey Guys

sorry i havent posted for a while., to ans a few questions

kevster: thanks for you kind words, the tiger shot is one of my favourites. also re the AD mount lenses , the ike housing can only take the 67mm thread lenses.

re zoom and macro focus , when using the inon macro lenses i use the method thet DR bob uses for his fuji e900 . one lense zoom 1/3 ,,two lense zoom 2/3 ,,three lense zoom up to 3/3 or alll the way . i usually get good focus and am fairly happy with the results , it is important to select you subject and then moove the camera in and out till the subject is quite clear and in focus BEFORE you pree focus ,,, then pre focus and shoot . if you dont moove the camera in and out before prefocus the camera will just hunt for focus and not achieve sharp focus .

focus with no inon ucl macro lense but in macro mode is quick , (do use your focus light though). when adding 1,2 or 3 lenses focus is slower and DOF is much finer,, but it can be done . and the rewards of shooting nudibranch head shots are worth the time it takes .. also i find tht image quality drops using 3 stacked lenses when the water is murky due to the silty water your shooting through in your wet lenses .. im happy to get 1 or 2 really nice shots from a dive when shooting super macro.

Hi Tarzana

thanks for your kind words also .

yep i do remember the how i shot image 004 . i used my ricoh rr30 in a sea&sea dx3000 housing ,a 3.2mp camera which had a nice sharp wide lense , this shot was taken using the 20mm sea&sea ad on lense with a inon d180 strobe.

also as far as i know the only way to have ttl with the p5000/p5100 underwater is with the ikelite housing with a ikelite strobe fired by sync cable . all my p5000 shots wete taken with the inon strobes using manual settings i hope this helps folks .

i like the p5000 , im not saying it is perfect but it can achieve some very nice resuts , i particulary like the way it does blues in wide angle shots.

by the way here are a few shots,, 1 taken today and 1 taken a few weeks back using the inon uwl100 with dome attachment . camera in manual WB setting , no strobe

regards

Matty

Re. the P5000/5100

Actually you can mount AD lenses on the Ike housing. You just need one of THESE.

And for those questions on battery life, I stumbled across THIS the other day. It's a 1500mAh battery. The Nikon original is 1100, so this one should last a good 36% longer and it's only $15.

@matt: your pictures are awesome. Since I really did want to upgrade my camera, your pics convinced me that and that the p5000 really is far from as bad as some of the other forums make it out to be. So I got (what I think is) a good deal on a used p5000 off ebay and am now anxiously waiting for my "coyote" to bring it to me here in Chile.

Now I'll just need to get a housing for it. Considering that: I'm happy with the other Fantasea housing I have now, Ill be using an optically triggered strobe, the Fantasea housing also has a threaded lens port for add on lenses and since it's smaller and half the price, I'm pretty convinced that I'll be going with the Fantasea housing.

@Jack, it looks like you'll be getting a call from me soon.

Hmmm.... can you put external strobes on the Olympus housing? Thanks!

You have several choices the best of which is an Inon Z240. You can also use a hardwired converter from Athena or Matthew Heinrichs to use Sea&Sea strobes. The housing is compact but allows the internal strobe to pop up to support the Inons.

I guess this is the housing you refer to, right? https://emporium.olympus.com/innards/empPro...?sku=260520-410

 

This is an interesting option to a compact, how much would a decent package cost and what do you need to get in terms of WA lens?

Ryan from Reef Photo can get you into the housing, port, kit lens and camera for around 2K. Olympus has several lense ideal for underwater. Here's the lenses I see most of.

14-54mm - older lens but very versatile

50mm macro - Seems to be the choice out there for macro shots.

14-42mm kit lens

7-14mm fisheye

11-22mm WA

There is also a new lens 12-60mm that really looks like a nice option.