Experience topside photographer - Snorkeling advice

Hi everyone,

This site is an amazing wealth of information with a lot of helpful people. Understandably, most of the focus is on diving, and techniques and gear suited to normal diving depths.

I seem to be in a somewhat unique situation - I am a pretty experienced photographer on land, but have had disappointing results in the past underwater (rental p&s w/o strobe, so it makes sense).

I'll be on vacation in the Big Island of Hawaii for 2 weeks in April. We plan to snorkel (no diving) every day - so I'll be in the water a lot. Much of the advice on the forum for occasional snorkeling photography is to get a cheap p&s and housing and settle for snapshots. I'd really like to get a couple of great keeper shots I could print as large as 20x30.

I currently have the following gear:

Nikon D700

14-24

28-70

50 1.4

85 1.4

105 VR

200-400

6x17 Pano film camera

From my research so far, I've narrowed my options down to 3:

1. Purchase G9/G10 with housing & 1 or 2 strobes

2. Purchase D300 (compliments my gear well, so that would be great), with Ikelite housing & 1 or 2 strobes

3. Use D700, purchase Ikelite housing - and use available light, or more likely, 1 or 2 strobes

At snorkeling depths, I'm not sure how critical the strobes are.

Below are a few examples of my work (and thus taste & expectations). Given what I've shared, any suggestions? I may dive a bit in the future, but for now I expect to use it snorkeling.

Thanks for your time!

If you are only snorkeling, I would suggest you consider a Ewa-Marine bag with your D700 and available light.

Otherwise, if you're set on making an investment, I'd suggest the G10 option

I guess my recent situation was very similar to yours. While I've been certified since '78, I never really took an interest in u/w photography until last April - likely due to a convenient collision between my discretionary income and my fledging interest in taking my camera swimming with me. In April of '07 my wife and I went to Maui for the first time and being a relatively able free-diver I got the incredible urge to shoot u/w - so in time for a trip to Kona last April I got a housing for my Canon 30D. I had (and continue to have) no interest or knowledge of P&S cameras - despite the many great images some are able to produce. I'm not an SLR snob... I've just never used a P&S before.

Anyway, my original intent was to only use the camera and housing with available light and did so on the Kona trip (some photos attached). I found that while I could dive deeper without the camera, 20-50 feet was about the usual range for available light photos on one breath. I very much enjoyed the experience, but on a subsequent trip to Maui in September, my wife got certified and now it's all diving all the time - with the camera. My advice would be, given the quality of your above water photography (which are excellent), that you may be better off with a housing for your D700 or a D300 - especially if at some point you can see yourself scuba diving. Shoot some available light for your first trip, then consider adding a strobe. I purchased a strobe for the September Maui trip which allowed for more options while diving. I plan to add a second strobe after our three week dive/photo trip to Bonaire in early April.

For DSLR quality and options, and if you intend to dive at some point, I'd go with a housing for your Nikon. I'm thrilled I did.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos made with available light in Kona.

And this one while diving with a Ikelite DS-160...

There are a number of factors to consider - are you snorkeling from a boat or from the shore, distance you wish / need to cover, currents, how good a breath holder you are (i.e. how deep are you going to go), how fit you are etc. Make no mistake about it, a DSLR housing particularly with 1 or 2 strobes can be a bit of a beast to bring snorkeling with you, the smaller compact type cameras are far more convenient (the same could be said for transporting them). As Newmanl says, if you ultimately intend on scuba diving then there is a good arguement to start putting together a good DSLR system, otherwise I would agree with Loftus and keep it smaller / easier. I have in the past used an Ewa-Marine bag with a side mounted topside flash - great if you stay near the surface, but perhaps the G10 is a better bet for snorkel diving.

Nice shots, very nice.

To add to what was said above. The big difference between P&S and dSLR (or at least a main one) is shutter lag so a P&S may take some time to get used to. But if you look at some of the G9/G10 shots around here there are some amazing results and the cameras shoot RAW. They are relatively small and I like having the G9 as a carry camera when I do not want to haul things, such as going out and about for a dinner but you still may want to shoot something.

You also need to balance out the cost/amount of times you go snorkeling, but that is a personal decision. If you do it very often and will really have a chance to practice UW and get things down it is one thing, if it is once or twice a year for a couple of days, probably different. (Of course that does not stop many of us here from buying toys anyway )

Not sure what rentals you used, but that may have some impact on your results depending on the model and how you set it up (and your snorkeling abilty also). The G10 with a Canon housing will run about $700 list but probably can be had for less (maybe $450 for a camera and $180 for housing) so you wind up with a pretty good totable camera and if you wind up going further, a small back up system if you decide to start hauling a ton of other stuff later . Throw in a magic filter and you are good to go. The other options you listed will be alot more, plus there are enough people that like the G10 that you can probably come back here and sell it for not much more of a hit than a 2 week rental I would guess.

Also I am not sure of the Nikon lens compatibility and which lenses that you have which will work with the D300 if you go that route (I shoot Canons right now) so keep that in mind (you may have already done so and since it was not metioned earlier it probably is a non-issue, but I figured might as well put that out there.)

It also maybe worthwhile to post some of the images that you have taken, even if they are not good ones [and where they fall short in your eyes], so some people here can give you a pointer or two and get a sense of where you may have run into issues and which option may be more what you are looking for..(?)

Thanks everyone for the feedback, this is exactly what I was hoping to get.

The photo examples are very helpful, as is the suggestion to post examples upon return for feedback.

Over the 2 weeks, I expect the majority of the sessions to be from shore, in relatively protected areas.

Everyone has given me more to think about - if anyone else has suggestions/examples - keep 'em coming.

Thanks again everyone!

The photo examples are very helpful, as is the suggestion to post examples upon return for feedback.

Also now of the ones you do not like (and maybe why you do not), so you can go with tips ahead of time and perhaps see where things went awry before.

Anyway have fun and looking forward to seeing the shots. As mentioned, really like the above water ones you took

Having snorkelled the waters around Oahu on several occasions I can tell you that you will get opportunities for nice shots. Turtles should be abundant and if you hit the right areas a monk seal wouldn't be unusual. I would keep your rig as small as possible and the Canon would work well. The Canon OEM housing isn't that expensive and would protect the camera a little better in surge. If you're going to add a strobe (I'd almost recommend not getting one) then you also have to consider the tray and arms. Free diving with a camera, tray and strobe would be a challenge. Furthermore, for the strobe to be effective you need to be within 6ft. If you're just going after fish pics, then maybe you add a strobe. If you're looking more at wide angle, maybe you just get a WA lens and use natural light while shooting RAW.

Before you house a DSLR..you really should visit a shop and look at the housings. I found it quite a shock going from a P&S to a DSLR. The housings are just very large and bulky. I don't think I'd consider taking mine snorkelling.

There are a few people that do freediving photography, such as Fred Buyle, with tremendous success. Fred uses a DSLR (which recently went through a boat's prop) and gets great results in available light, even down to 55m. Although a P&S might be smaller and cheaper, you may find yourself disappointed with the results compared with what you can do top-side. Just a thought.

Once again, I'm very thankful for all the knowledgeable replies. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

At this point I'm leaning toward getting an Ikelite housing for my D700 and working with available light.

I believe the 105VR would be a good choice for macro on the full frame (out playing around with it today - photo below).

Given the long thread on corner sharpness on the 14-24 (as well as difficulties finding ports that can fit it) - any advice on the wide angle? A port recommendation for the 14-24? Or a full-frame wide angle alternative?

Thanks again! (love the Fred Buyle links, amazing photos and crazy close call with that boat, scary)

Fabulous shots by freediver Fred Buyle, but Fred is one of the worlds best freedivers and can probably hold his breath for five or six minutes. The better snorkeller you are the greater the opportunities you can have. The average snorkeller is only going to have a very brief amount of time underwater, and unless your bouyancy is pretty good, trying to get macro shots of anything other than at the surface is going to be very difficult. There are of course very nice things to shoot close to the surface where perhaps you can shoot whilst still breathing from a snorkel. I do think trying to take macro while breath holding is going to prove very frustrating for the average snorkeller, and that perhaps a view to wide angle photography might be a better bet, especially when using ambient light.

Fabulous shots by freediver Fred Buyle, but Fred is one of the worlds best freedivers and can probably hold his breath for five or six minutes. The better snorkeller you are the greater the opportunities you can have. The average snorkeller is only going to have a very brief amount of time underwater, and unless your bouyancy is pretty good, trying to get macro shots of anything other than at the surface is going to be very difficult. There are of course very nice things to shoot close to the surface where perhaps you can shoot whilst still breathing from a snorkel. I do think trying to take macro while breath holding is going to prove very frustrating for the average snorkeller, and that perhaps a view to wide angle photography might be a better bet, especially when using ambient light.

Yes, Fred is a pretty handy diver and in reality has a static breath-hold of likely over seven minutes. Mine is six and I'm not at his level. Regardless of your freediving abilities, macro is probably going to be disappointing and won't compare favourably with work done by SCUBA divers with external lighting. Wide-angle, natural light photography down to ~20m is going to yield the best results. Bouyancy control and freediving ability can be learnt, but I really think wide angle would be the way to go. If that style of shooting isn't what you're after, than that could be a problem