Nikon D90 dSLR

I'm contemplating the jump from point and shoot. I'm looking into the Nikon D90. Would this camera be a good option for underwater photography for the money? Cost is somewhat of an issue for me. Camera's over this price range is not an option, given that I also have to purchase housing, lenses, etc.

Any comments on good or bad are welcome.

Thanks

Kirk

Ikelite has a housing for it, so you're covered there. Personally it strikes me as a very good value entry-level camera, and of course the lens selection is very good. You have lots of third-party manufacturer options for lenses too.

I'm considering this as well. I'm new to buying UW components for a camera so I was wondering if someone could advice me on what to get?

I was planning on getting the D90 and using a wide angle. I'd get the Ikelite housing, however I am unsure about which ports I would need. Also, what kind of strobes would work with this housing and camera? I really know very little about putting the housing and strobes with the camera so any help would be greatly appreciated.

- Adam

I was planning on getting the D90 and using a wide angle. I'd get the Ikelite housing, however I am unsure about which ports I would need. Also, what kind of strobes would work with this housing and camera? I really know very little about putting the housing and strobes with the camera so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

- Adam

I little research on Ikelite will help you alot. As far as the ports go, It depends on which lense you are looking at. Check these links out:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2port_nikon.html

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2portflat.html

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/dabigadoma.html

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2port_standard.html

As far as the strobes go, Ikelite stobes will give you use of the TTL / Manual dial (The Ikelite hosung manual lists the Ikelite stobes that will work). You can also use some of the Sea and Sea stobes as well as the Inon stobes, but these will not give you the function from the TTL / Manual Dial in the back. For more information about this, check out this link:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/inoncords.html

Also, the Ikelite Housing manual will help clear some of these questions:

http://www.ikelite.com/downloads/instructi...pdf/Nik_D90.pdf

This is what I have come up with my research. Since I'm also looing at making the jump from P&S to dSLR, we need some of our dSLR experienced members to chime in about the Ikelite housing and the specs on the Nikon D90.

I would also like to ask the group about lenses. It appears that the Tokina 10-17 fisheye is a lense to get and I'm looking the the 60mm macro Nikon lense, so I guess the question would be, do I need a wide angle lense? Alex Mustard said in his review that at 17mm, you lose the fish eye effect of the lense. Would this setting be good enough or should I add a wide angle lense?

Kirk

I little research on Ikelite will help you alot. As far as the ports go, It depends on which lense you are looking at. Check these links out:

 

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2port_nikon.html

 

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2portflat.html

 

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/dabigadoma.html

 

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2port_standard.html

 

As far as the strobes go, Ikelite stobes will give you use of the TTL / Manual dial (The Ikelite hosung manual lists the Ikelite stobes that will work). You can also use some of the Sea and Sea stobes as well as the Inon stobes, but these will not give you the function from the TTL / Manual Dial in the back. For more information about this, check out this link:

 

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/inoncords.html

 

Also, the Ikelite Housing manual will help clear some of these questions:

 

http://www.ikelite.com/downloads/instructi...pdf/Nik_D90.pdf

 

This is what I have come up with my research. Since I'm also looing at making the jump from P&S to dSLR, we need some of our dSLR experienced members to chime in about the Ikelite housing and the specs on the Nikon D90.

 

I would also like to ask the group about lenses. It appears that the Tokina 10-17 fisheye is a lense to get and I'm looking the the 60mm macro Nikon lense, so I guess the question would be, do I need a wide angle lense? Alex Mustard said in his review that at 17mm, you lose the fish eye effect of the lense. Would this setting be good enough or should I add a wide angle lense?

 

Kirk

Kirk, thanks a lot for the response, those links are very helpful. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been shooting underwate rwith point and shoot before you decided to move to DSLR? I've taken probably close to 1000 photos underwater with P&S and am very dissatisfied with the level of detail in the image.

Kirk, thanks a lot for the response, those links are very helpful. If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been shooting underwate rwith point and shoot before you decided to move to DSLR? I've taken probably close to 1000 photos underwater with P&S and am very dissatisfied with the level of detail in the image.

1st let me say, I haven't moved to dSLR yet! I think we are both at the same point, but since moving to dSLR is a huge investment, I'm looking at every potential cost (i.e. lenses, housings, ports, domes, port body, extension, zome gears), which can really add up.

to answer you questions, I have been using the point and shoot for 2 years, including trips to the Florida Keys, Curacao, Roatan, North Carolina, and The Great Lakes. I typically do 1-2 reef trips a year and take more wreck trips. If I were to guess, I've taken 2-3K pictures, keeping roughly half. I do use photoshop Elements 6.0 which can spruce up some of the colors you may be having problems with.

What I have found is that I would like to have control over the Apeture, shutter speed, and high ISO to get better pictures in tricky lighting conditions. I also see that there is a role for RAW photos since I use PSE. Since I wanted better pictures, I started getting underwater photo books. For B-Day this past May, I got "The Art of Underwater Photograpy" book by Abdrea and Antonella Ferrari. It's a descent book that I enjoyed, but what I really liked was the way it was laid out. It has several pictures with info such as Camera, housing strobe, and lense. This kind of gave me what kind of equipment I may need to get good pics. I didn't know until I read the book that to get the half above and galf below the water youy needed a Fisheye lense. I'd attemtped unsuccefully with the P&S wide angle lense with no luck. I also noticed that with the fisheye lense, that you had to get right on top of things to get the pics with good results.

I received last week The Underwater Photograper 3rd ed by Martin Edge. If you don't have it, I would HIGHLY recommend that you read it and review the posts here befpre making the plunge (I know I am). This is a pretty big investment as far as money goes for me.

Since I don;t have ANY experience with dSLR, I depending on the members on Wetpixel for their thoughts on this camera.

Kirk

I am also where you all are in the upgrade department, although from a different route. I have been shooting film with a Nikonos for about 6 years and have finally had it with difficult processing and film availability plus all of the advantages that digital has to offer.

I think the D90 is an extremely good choice. I almost committed to it mentally (waiting for the body only), but I have since been seduced recently by Canon's offerings. In particular, I am really interested in their new 5D Mark II. I know that's out of your price range, but other Canons are possibilities as well. I am a lifelong (38 year) Nikon user, but some recent data and advice suggest Canon has closed the quality gap, if not surpassed Nikon. At least one underwater photo pro I talked to recently said that if he didn't have a substantial investment in Nikon lenses, he'd go Canon in a heartbeat. So don't omit to check out their offerings as well. But the D90 is hard to beat at that combination of price and features.

As far as lenses, you've probably heard by now that it depends on what you're planning to shoot. As a warm, clear water diver, I was focusing (no pun intended) on the Tokina 11-16 (wide, but not fish eye) and the the Nikon 60 macro. Because the Canon 5DII is a full frame sensor (i.e., not the same format as most digital SLRs), neither of these lenses is an option for me, so I have to start over. But they would be for the D90. As you've probably also been advised, be sure you check with the housing manufacturer to see whether the lens you're thinking about is compatible with the ports they have available. If you go the Ikelite route, their web site is very easy to navigate to match up lenses with ports.

I shot UW with a Nikonos for 20+ years on and off before moving to a point and shoot (Nikon CoolPix 4500). I used that for 3 years and shot a few thousand underwater images. I was generally happy with the results but frustrated by shutter lag. In 2006 I housed my D70 (Ikelite housing with DS50 and DS125 strobes). The improvement was amazing. Early this year I upgraded again, this time to a D300. Even further improvement.

The D90 is basically a D300 without a few features (which you probably won't miss) and so would be a fantastic camera underwater. I use a Tokina 12-24mm for wide angle, but I believe the 10-17mm fisheye is probably better. As already discussed by Kirk, you need to match the port with the lens you plan to use. Some ports can be shared between multiple lenses, depending on the physical length of the lens. It is easier just to look them up on the charts.

Hi,

Another choice of d90 housing will be Patima. Information I have is Patima

will display a proto type d90 housing at Reefphoto booth in DEMA show next

week. I also, heard Patima is working on Tokina 10-17 port & gear for d90

housing.

Sam

Hi

I own a D80 with Sea and Sea housing.

I just bought the D90 .

The D80 was an excellent camera , the D 90 seems much better !

I wait for the sea and sea housing , and I hope it will be released before mid January , as we are going to Soccorro , and it could be great to take pictures AND MOVIES as well from the mantas.

If anybody gat any information about the sea and sea housing , could he share it ?

I did sent a mail to Sea and Sea , but they did not send me the slightest answer.

What could be great , would be that they sell only the back of rhe D90 housing as the front of the MX 80 fit perfectly the D90 .

I agree with you that Martin Edge 's book is excellent , I've learn a lot with it , and I'm going to read it again , as now I understand better what does he means !!

If anybody gat any information about the sea and sea housing , could he share it ?

I did sent a mail to Sea and Sea , but they did not send me the slightest answer.

I e-mailed Sea and Sea this question about a month ago. They e-mailed back stating the they have not had any discussions about coming out with a housing for the D90 yet. If you don't mind, please post in this forum, Sea and Sea response to your e-mail. I would be interested.

Thanks

Kirk

As I said I did not get any answer to my questions , which is very unpolite !!!

I'm sure that they will built a housing for the D90 , but which one that is the question , polycarbonate or aluminium ??

I picked up a D90 and a Tokina 10-17 recently and am very happy with it :-) A big step up from my Canon G7.

This DSLR business is an expensive game though.. I'm going to take my G7/Ikelite/Inon set up on my next trip to Thailand in Jan, then I'll think about selling it and housing the D90. Hopefully there will be a few more housing options available by that point.

Tim