Hi!
My 1st post here, although I'm not new in U/W photography. Looks like there's a lot of useful information collected here. But the hour or so that I just spent searching the forum did not bring me on much.
I'm trying to find out which digital compact is the best one for underwater macro photography. In the past I used a Minolta Dynax (Maxxum) 8000i film SLR with the 100 mm macro in a Hugyfot housing. I shot some nice photos I guess. Some can be seen in the Underwater Galleries on the Eastern Samar website (scroll down to the bottom), if you're interested.
In my opinion, one disadvantage of my old setup is the small depth of field in the extreme close range. This should be much better with a compact digital because the sensors are so much smaller than 35mm slides. And therefore I now consider to use a housed compact, although I will of course continue to use SLRs over water.
Another reason that speaks for the compact is size and weight. SLR housings are big and heavy, and unfortunately here in Europe we don't enjoy the piece concept for airline luggage that seems common in the US ... so whenever I flew to the Red Sea, the Philippines or Indonesia with my old setup, I had a weight problem and had to pay for the overweight luggage.
1. The camera:
At present I'm looking at Canon's G9 - after all the reviews I read about it I'm sure it's a good camera, but how good is it for macro photography, under water?
Is there any better choice for this particular application, among the compacts?
One disadvantage of most compacts is that they have the minimum focus distance at the wide end of the zoom range. For the G9 this means that you'd have to get as close as 1 cm to the object - not practical under water. How close can you really go, or more precisely asked, what is the smallest area that the G9 can capture under water?
Are you aware of any compact that does not have this limitation, and allows focusing real close even at the long end of the zoom range?
2. The housing:
Should be good for at least 60 meters depth, preferrably more, allow connection of underwater strobe(s).
The housing must give me control over all functions of the camera.
I looked at Ikelite, Patima and the Sea & Sea found on digideep (but strangely can't find on Sea & Sea), but am not determined.
Any other suggestion (also for other cameras than the G9)?
3. The substrobe(s):
Should be small and lightweight, and ideally have built-in lamps for night dives. Must support TTL control from the camera.
From experience with my old setup I know that a single flash often results in unevenly lit pictures, therefore I think it would be much better if I had 2. Question is, is there any system that supports TTL control of 2 strobes from a compact camera? How would this connect? I have not seen housings for compacts with 2 strobe connectors - are there?
It would be nice if you could share your views with me. Thank you to all who will!
- wus
