105mm w/ Fuji S2/Ikelite

Hello,

I just received the Nikkor 105mm lens and Ikelite port 5508.05. I'll be using it for the first time next week. Any tips out there? I'm planning on shooting in manual focus and TTL.

Does anyone have examples from the 105mm?

Thanks,

John

I just received the Nikkor 105mm lens and Ikelite port 5508.05. I'll be using it for the first time next week. Any tips out there? I'm planning on shooting in manual focus and TTL.  

Yeah, lots of examples on my website (www.deepseaimages.com). The 105mm is a nice lens, but it is a little tough to use underwater on the DSLR - manual focus is definetly the way to go. Hope for lots of REALLY small subjects - this lens makes little things look big.

In truth I switched back to a 90mm Sigma lens which I call my "Goldilocks" lens - it is a nice compromise between the 60mm (not close enough) & the 105mm (too close). It was a woeful lens with film, but has really pulled through for my S2.

Oh, and settings - ASA100, F16, 1/60 or 1/90 and fire away. You'll need lots of strobe power to compensate for the small aperture - don't be suprised if occasionally you need full power. Also I like to experminent with TTL on the right strobe and 1/2 power or 1/4 power on the left strobe to see how it effects lighting.

M

I've shot the 105m on my D100 with AF. It worked fine accept at dusk when it got hard to focus lock. Even with the field of view crop, I thought it did pretty well. I carry plenty of strobe power and have easily shot at F/22 with strobes at 1/2 power.

Here's a couple of shots with the 105mm.

Both of you, thanks for the info.

Scorpio Fish,

Wow, great shots. I especially like the mandarins. They seem to jump out at you. Did you use AF for these? I'm using a single DS-125. Should be enough strobe power.

Looking forward to posting some shots,

John

Great mandarin!

Yes, I used AF for the Mandarins, but it was quite difficult. The fishies were jumping all over the place. They were under a coral head where it was dark. The visibility was poor and it was around dusk when I took this shot. I needed the aiming light on the strobe to get a focus lock.

I also find that AF is all I need on the 105mm (with my D100 - presumably same AF as the S2). I also shoot it entirely on TTL (well DTTL in my case) and rarely have any issues.

I only used it once on my last trip to the Red Sea (because of the lost camera incident...) but even on that into dusk dive (18:30-20:15 local time) I found AF was no problem and took 100ish images.

Images and explanation for lost camera are here!

Alex

I loved the 105mm with my film camera (Nikon N90s), but it really rocks with the D100's cropping factor. On my trip to Little Cayman in May, I wanted to leave it on all the time, but I made myself use the 60mm a few times.

I always used AF and DTTL, and I had pretty good results. Once I was trying to get a lock on a little spotted drum and just couldn't do it (he was flitting around under an overhang with very poor light), but most of my shots had the focus dead on.

Here are some examples.

I'm a new S2 shooter with an Ikelite housing, one ds125 (another is on order) a nikkor 60mm micro and a 14mm sigma w/a. My first attempt with the w/a was at Cozumel on a drift dive. None of the pics were in focus. I assume that was because of the current. Any tips (be gentle please!!)

My second dive was at Grand Cayman, using the 60 mm. I got several decent shots, but seem to have difficulty aiming the flashes (I also had a ikelite ds50 loaded). I shot in program mode, with asa 100, with the flashes in ttl. As I'm going to Turks and Caicos in 3 weeks any and all suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanx!

Peter

P.S. anyone successfully using the new nikkor 12-24 in an Ike housing??

PK

PK - I would recommend that you don't use Program Mode underwater. "P" is okay for casual shots on land, but for underwater it is too much of a compromise between shutter speed and aperture. I recommend that you shoot in Aperture Priority. To get an idea of what aperture to set, divide the strobe guide number (look in the manual, and make sure to get the guide number for the ISO that you are using) by the distance from the strobe to the subject. Then open the aperture about one stop (smaller f number) to cover yourself in case you misjudged the distance or your strobe is not pointed correctly.

Underwater, depth of field is usually critical, so you want to control it with the aperture setting.

Have fun!