White Out with Nikon D 300 Tokina 12-24mm + Ikelite Ds-125

Ran into another problem last weekend. Was shooting with D300 in Ikelite housing, 8 inch dome port with 5510.16 port body (as specified in Ikelite table) using TTL DS-125 strobe. Camera settings: ISO 200, f22, Aperture priority, centre weighted. White balance was set to auto (I think). exif file says white balance 0. But can't remember if I set it to flash white balance.

The attached pics illustrate my problem. I took a test shot on the boat before the dive, which apart from some water drops on the dome was OK. Then, as soon as I was UW, every shot I took was a virtual white out. The first pic was taken with strobe - big burn out, the next one I am posting was taken without strobe firing. Now by then I had turned off the strobe to see if I could shoot with ambient light..things were little better, still burned out ..even at f22 down at 24 metres!

Subsequent dives were made utilising Nikkor f1.4 50mm in a flat port (I decided against persevering with the Tokina/dome port combo) and no problems at all.

Any ideas..I thought perhaps for the first shots I had the strobe too close to the dome, but I had positioned it well away (although perhaps in parallel with the plane of the dome connection to the port and angled slightly away from the line of focus. For the non-flash issue..well I'm stumped. I scoured through the DSLR forum for similar issues, but not sure they help me.

On the boat

At 5 metres with strobe firing

At 24 metres no strobe, f22, Iso 200

Couple of questions :-

TTL ? or manual and what was the shutter speed ?

Does the Tokina work on land ? as it looks as though it may not be shutting the aperture during the shot.

Paul C

Couple of questions :-

 

TTL ? or manual and what was the shutter speed ?

 

Does the Tokina work on land ? as it looks as though it may not be shutting the aperture during the shot.

 

Paul C

It was TTL, 1/60. The Tokina works/worked fine on land as the dive boat shot showed..although I did take two shots when I surfaced and 1 was OK, the other showed same problem... attached are the 2 pics taken literally 42 seconds apart, post-dive as I moaned about a wasted set of shots!

Shot 1

Shot 2 (40 seconds later)

So if its not shutting the aperture, would I still get such a white out UW at 24m with ambient light at 1/60 ?? I can understand it above water, but is there enough light that deep ...maybe? I made some lovely some ambient light shots a few years back on the wreck of the Duane in the Gulf Stream, off Key Largo. That was about 90-100 ft deep, using a very nice ultra wide (weitwinkel) angle rented for the day from one Mr Stephen Frink's shop, but using my trusty Nikonos V with Kodachrome 64 slide film.

Two possibilities:

-something wrong with the camera's control of the aperture

(mount the lens, set camera's aperture setting to f/11, then use the DOF preview button to exercise the aperture. Watch for aperture not closing down to f/11; try the same test with other lenses, no failures with other lenses = no problem with camera)

-dirty (slightly oily) aperture blades in the lens itself. (get the aperture blades cleaned at a good photography shop)

Take Care,

ChrisS

Two possibilities:

-something wrong with the camera's control of the aperture

(mount the lens, set camera's aperture setting to f/11, then use the DOF preview button to exercise the aperture. Watch for aperture not closing down to f/11; try the same test with other lenses, no failures with other lenses = no problem with camera)

-dirty (slightly oily) aperture blades in the lens itself. (get the aperture blades cleaned at a good photography shop)

 

Take Care,

ChrisS

Camera seemed fine for the 2 days and with other lenses (50mm , 105 macro, 18-200 VR above and below water), so I suspect a trip to my local KL camera shop to check out the Tokina...

Thanks for yr help

Steve

Steve,

Based on what you have said so far, my guess would be the aperture tab on the lens sticking as Chris suggested. This would mean that you are actually shooting at maximum aperture f/4, instead of what the camera thinks.

You should be able to jiggle it yourself and see how freely it moves.

How many times have you tried the Tokina on the D300 (above or below water)? It would be good to stick in on the camera and try again. My Tokina 12-24mm works fine on my D300 in an Ikelite housing - although I'm using a 6" port.

Steve,

 

Based on what you have said so far, my guess would be the aperture tab on the lens sticking as Chris suggested. This would mean that you are actually shooting at maximum aperture f/4, instead of what the camera thinks.

 

You should be able to jiggle it yourself and see how freely it moves.

 

How many times have you tried the Tokina on the D300 (above or below water)? It would be good to stick in on the camera and try again. My Tokina 12-24mm works fine on my D300 in an Ikelite housing - although I'm using a 6" port.

Yes - the aperture diaphragm blades are sticky! Amazing, would never have thunk it ! Ok, so off for servicing it goes before the next dive...

Thanks a bunch guys...helped me out a lot !