Upgrading to Canon 10D, any suggestions?

As a professional photographer (www.rud-gr.com) I have been making underwater snapshots with a basic Canon S40 digital compact camera the past two years. It's a nice camera, makes pretty good pictures and is great fun to fool around with.

However, working with a compact is a pain if you're used to fast digital and analog camera's in everyday's work. So, it's time to really go for it and get some decent equipment. As I also have opportunities in publishing my underwatershots it might even bring some extra business as well. The thing is that a underwaterhouse for my digital 1D costs a fortune that I don't want to spend :freak: .

So, the 10D is the obvious other choice as 99% of my workflow is digital anyway and I could do with a backup digi.

I have about $4.000-5.000 to spend on camera, u/w house and strobes all together. Can anyone give my any suggestions on a decent setup to go for. My knowledge of digitial u/w equipment is pretty poor so if I can avoid any pitfalls by any of your suggestions it is very greatly appreciated. If anybody has suggestions please also let me know what you spent and where I can find good places to buy them.

Any help is very much welcome!

Approx. for a 10 D:

1800 10D

2000 Housing

500 Ports

500 Arms

2000 2 x DS 125

300 50 mm Macro

400 WA zoom (for example Sigma 17-35) up to 1800 for Canon 16-35 or 700 for Sigma 14mm

------

7500 - 9000

This Prices are only very quickly approx. If you allready have the lenses you can substract 700 - 2200

If you start with only one strobe you can substract 1000 and also save a little on the arms.

but you probably also want a second 10D Body as a Backup when you do expensive Phototrips with this setup.

I still don't have my D60 Housed for this reason. I'm also using a S40 with a DS125.

A good next step would be to buy 1 or 2 Ds 125. When you are a Pro photographer i would advise you to get the manual controllers. They will also better for use with a housed DSLR later.

Simon

I'd like to add some info to this post:

All available 10D housings can be found here

http://www.digideep.com/product.php?pType=...a&mID=7&pID=394

Also there is currently a special offer..

10D camera body

+ 1 GB Microdrive

+ JONAH UW housing, rated to 90m

= 3.599 EUR in a bundle offer

Depending on what lenses you want use,

you have to pay between 239 EUR - 599 EUR

for JONAH port combinations.

I recommend to house a 420EX for macro and

medium range single strobe. The nice thing is

that you can shoot E-TTL then.

You can pick one of these three strobe housings:

SUBAL = they have for the D100 but not Canon yet

SEALUX = price and modell not announced yet

UK-GERMANY = cheapest and only currently available at 398 EUR

JONAH POLYCARBONATE = price and modell not announced yet

For Wide Angle you can use two subtronic strobes, Ikelite or

Sea&Sea. But you have to order N5 connectors with the

Sea&Sea strobes or get the Ikelite Adapter for N5.

For strobe arms again... Many options. We bought them from

subtronic with our strobes but I know many people who swear

on the ULCS arms and trays. Cable and strobe arms can bring

you easily to another 300 EUR. Other brands which need to be

mentioned are Kilgus and Sealux. SUBAL sells ULCS I think.

Most of the things I mentioned are part of our configuration. B)

Good luck with your choice.

Actually, I need to correct Andi on a comment. The Subal housing is available for the Canon 10D.

For about $4300, you can get the housing, a 50mm port, and a lens collar for the 100mm. (Cha-ching!) Keep in mind, you will not get a wide angle port nor any other required accessories, such as strobe arms, etc.

Additionally, Ikelite and Sea&Sea are both working on housings for the 10D that will be available towards the end of the year. You can figure the basic housing will run about $2000, and ports will cost you extra.

Sorry Andi, but I had to give some love to Ikelite - even when they knew I couldn't use their product they still bent over backwards in the customer service department to answer questions and help me out.

$4300! That's a bit steep isn't it? The D60 housing lists for $2900 at Marine Camera, I don't think the EXR-50 and the FP-90 will add up to $1200, unless the C10 housing is selling for much higher than what the D60 and D100 housings are going for....maybe $3300?

Stu

Actually, I need to correct Andi on a comment. The Subal housing is available for the Canon 10D.

Hey Jason, I was talking about strobe housings when I mentioned SUBAL! I know they have the SN-80D which is designed for the Nikon SB-80DX. But I recommended Rud-gr a strobe housing for the Canon SB-420EX wich they do not have yet. But I think they will go for it soon, since the size is very similar. All they need to do is put S6 plugs instead of N5 to make Canon E-TTL work with it.

For about $4300, you can get the housing, a 50mm port, and a lens collar for the 100mm. (Cha-ching!) Keep in mind, you will not get a wide angle port nor any other required accessories, such as strobe arms, etc.

European prices are different due to the VAT and export. We list all prices we know and the current shipping status at digideep.com but are always pleased if people help us to keep all the infos current and up2date.

Additionally, Ikelite and Sea&Sea are both working on housings for the 10D that will be available towards the end of the year. You can figure the basic housing will run about $2000, and ports will cost you extra.

Boing! You know more than me... Can anyone confirm the infos on the Sea&Sea 10D housing. I am still not sure if they will leave it and focus on the new EOS 300D instead. To me it looks like they left out one modell, because usually they are quite fast.

Sorry Andi, but I had to give some love to Ikelite - even when they knew I couldn't use their product they still bent over backwards in the customer service department to answer questions and help me out.

Why sorry? I cannot really follow you? Everyone knows that Ike's service is said to be the best in the world. You can see many examples in this forum. Even if I do not own or use his products I have seen them in action (for digital video) and think they have many advantages and a good pricing.

I still don't have my D60 Housed for this reason. I'm also using a S40 with a DS125.

Did I get that right Simon? You want a second D60 camera body before buying a housing. Ohhh Lordy, Lord... Well but I might have an interesting info for you. Uwe Kiehl from UK-GERMANY wants to sell his last D60 housing together with his camera, he used for positioning the controls right. If you call him maybe will make you good price.

Before I read this I was just about to tell you of this nice offer a photo-guy in the United Kingdom is running. I think it was for around 929 EUR *while stocks last* and mentioned in another thread a few days ago.

No sorry , I put the sentence withe the Backup Body in later. The Cost of 2500 € for Housing and Ports + 300-500€ for Tray+Arms is the Reason I don't have my D60 Housed yet.

The 2nd D60 Body will come later. I still can use my S40/50 as Backup.

Simon

Sorry about that Andi... I didn't realize you were talking about the strobe housings.

And Stu... YES!!!!!!!!! The Subal housing is very, very expensive. I actually had one on order and I am absolutely positive of that price.

And by the way, don't forget the Jonah housings for the 10D. They will be available soon as well and I know a lot of people are looking forward to getting them (they are already available for the Nikon D100 I think... is that right Andi?)

The Jonah housings are priced around $2000, I think. Definitely in the same price range as some others, but the advantage is that the Jonah housings are machined metal!

Hey Andi:

Phil Askey beat you to it with this one!

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0308/03082605...a10dhousing.asp

Cheers

James

Wow, overload... overload....

Thanks for all the info so far. Must say I'm getting a bit dizzy though!

Andi, I looked for that package deal which sounds very nice to me (although I already have a pretty good supply of memory cards) but I could not find it on the site (maybe it's because I'm still dizzy... )

Also, James Wiseman made me a very nice offer to buy his hardly used UK Germany D60 housing that will fit the D10. I don't know though if that will support (E)-TTL strobes. Anybody?

By the way, I meant 4-5.000 euros, not dollars... but it's flexible anyway.

Rutger

Also, James Wiseman made me a very nice offer to buy his hardly used UK Germany D60 housing that will fit the D10. I don't know though if that will support (E)-TTL strobes. Anybody?

If it has a S6 socket you will be able to use E-TTL with it. I don't know how Uwe configured, James (initially Eric's) D60 housing. But I think it was modified to accept Ikelite strobes via Nikonos 5 sockets and the adapter. If it only has Nikonos 5 sockets you would have to send it to Uwe Kiehl in Germany to drill another plug in.

Note that you will also miss some controls when housing a 10D in a D60 housing. I don't know if you as a pro want to live with that? But as far as I know James offer is very good concerning the pricing! Housings usually don't age much B)

PS: James, we have the Jonah housing pics online since 2003/08/20 . But the news on dpreview are a surprise * I bet, tommorow every American will buy one.

INON is developing 10D housing system as well.

More details soon.

-Mark R. / INON

With the UK Germany housing, it is a 5-minute job to change bulkheads to whichever one suits you. I made sure that Rutger knows that only 80% of the controls on the 10D are available - the important ones (IMO).

Mark, Thanks for the info on the Inon housing! Sounds intereseting. Please post some more details as they become available.

Cheers

James