searching for camera, lenses, house and strobes for N-Atlantic photos

After trying to find out what kind of camera and house would suite for my North Atlantic dives I am still at the beginning point. I am talking about cold ( 0-10 celsius ), dark water with particles and then there will be cold hands in thick gloves . It will manly be wide angle photos since there are few interresting small creatures here. I want to make 1 photo of wreck made from many photos. What about lenses. Visabilty is from 2 meter to 10m

I am afraid that I make mistake when buying all these expensive equipment and later discover it is more suitable for tropical diving or something else. Price is a not issue, it is better to spend more and be happy.

Can someone help me

gassa

I dive in similar water in Puget Sound / BC and also use dry gloves.

I'm using an Ikelite housing, dual DS-125 strobes, Canon G9, fisheye 48 LED focus light, ULCS 5 & 8 inch arms. System was right around $3000. Advanced point and shoot, with manual controls, and some room to grow creatively. It has a limited f-stop range compared to an SLR but the package was significantly cheaper than the Nikon I was considering -- and it still does great pictures.

If you You may want to read the reviews on Wetpixel of the Stix bouyancy arms or consider floatation arms by ULCS etc. I've added the floats to my arms and the system is still negative.

The controls are large enough to be able to use most of them easily with gloves. On the camera and housing there is a spot where there are 5 buttons in close proximity that are a little difficult, but manageable. Ikelite also makes a short port for the Inon WA lens.

One key for the strobes in water with lots of particulates, like we have, is to get the strobes out away from the camera around a 45 degree angle. This will greatly reduce the backscatter you'll get. My strobe arms are 15 inches with the clamps and I'm still thinking of changing my 5 inch for an 8. I wouldn't need that tropical or clear, but when it gets murky. . . .

The G9 also does have a stitch mode where you can tie a series of pictures together by overlapping the edge of the last picture. This was set up for panorama shots so it should work Ok, but I'm not certain how easy it is to use UW in a housing. Works in my living room.

Finally, if you're thinking of really taking wide angle shots of a ship the strobe won't do you much good. Too little light, too much surface area. You might consider natural light and stitch mode. That may save you some money on strobes as well.

Good luck.

Hi!

I am looking into a coldwater/Atlantic equipment as well, I live in Norway. Currently I am working with a Canon Powershot A620 in the Canon housing, with an Inon Z-240 strobe gun. Works fine, but it is only a P&S setup without too much possibilities to extend it. Pictures are on my homepage: www.wolfgang-mathis.at -> Diving -> Pictures

Just bought a decent second hand D200 this week, and I am looking for a housing these days. I am going towards Aquatica (from Canada, should do well in cold water) or Sea&Sea.

Regarding gloves: I use 7mm wetgloves, and with them it is a bit troublesome to operate the small dials of the Inon Z-240, especially towards the end of a dive when the fingers are cold. This is the reason why I want to use a TTL adapter, so that I do not have to care about the flash all the time.

Regarding the WA/Macro: I find it very exciting to look for small creatures in our cold waters. And there is lots of stuff around, much more than I ever thought. I have to say, that I only moved to Norway a few months ago, before I lived in Austria where there is no coast, only freshwater diving. No big point of a good UW-camera there. I think in dark, low visibility water there is a bigger chance of success if I start with macro. WA photography is supposed to be much more difficult, especially with low natural light and low visibility.

I also use the ULCS arm system, and I can only recommend it. It is not the cheapest, but worth its money. It is easy to use even with thick gloves.

Just my opinion, I hope it will work out for me.

Cheers, Wolfgang

Thanks guys.

I am as well looking into used D200. I want to shot WA photos. For me it is more interresting and i love looking into photos of wreks. Clear water is not an option here in Iceland exept in jan-mars and then it is not that clear. By that time the water is about 1-2 celcius. Numb fingers will make it just short dive, about 20 - 30 min. Of course somebody can resist longer. I dived in Bali/Tulamben and it is amazing. But it can also be quite amazing up in the north even it is totally different. It is just harder to find those places and maybe thats why it is so much pleasure when finally you hit the spot.

keep diving.

Gisli