Advice welcome before purchasing a complete rig

Hi,

I have almost decided on what underwater kit to purchase for my Nikon Coolpix 995, but maybe someone can help me with some advice before I go for it. This is my first foray into U/W photography, and I would really appreciate feedback to ensure I have all the bits and pieces I need, and that they will work well together.

Housing – Ikelite #6177 (reason: the transparent case allows TTL flash should I want to use it, versus the Aquatica housing. Plus I’m not too sure about the 45 degree angle of the screen in the Aquatica. Other housings were too pricey, also I have read that Ikelite have excellent service)

Strobe – Sea & Sea YS-90 DX (reason : substantially lower cost than the Ikelite DS-125. Plus 9 power levels should give a lot of flexibility.)

Sync Cord – Sea & Sea #17100 5 pin cord. (reason : two-way communication with strobe, plus no need to use the internal flash to trigger the strobe will help poor CP995 battery performance)

Arm – I have no idea what would be the most suitable arm for this setup. Can anyone advise on a moderately priced arm which will allow future upgrading? (if such a thing exists!)

And maybe

Wide Angle Lens – Sea & Sea #58070. (The Aquatica equivalent is more expensive, but I believe both would fit the Ikelite housing)

I would really appreciate feedback on the above. Have I left anything out? Will the setup work well?

Many thanks,

Hi,

I've got two extra Ike arm sets (plus some other Ike arm parts). They are the ones Ike sells with the DS-125 setups -- not very upgrabable I guess, but I'd be willing to sell them cheap (I use ULCS arms)! Not sure if you'd need an adaptor to connect the strobe to the arms. Contact me at moelrich@cox.net if you're interested.

Mike

[Edited on 5-23-2002 by MikeO]

Hi,

I am the worlds biggest Ikelite fan, and I know you will be happy with Ikes stuff. but I think that you can get ttl with the Aquatica housing.

I thought that housing had a sync cord port built into it, and unlike my G2, the coolpix allows for external flash via a cord?

Correct me if i am wrong?

Mike,

How do you hook up your ds125 sensor on the UL arms? Doesn't it move every time you adjust the arm position? I would love to get a flexible arm system, but I cant figure out how to set one up where I wont be forced to reaim the sensor every time I move the arm.

Bob

Hi Woody,

I'm sure no matter what setup you get you will be happy with your coolpix. It's perfect for someone just "taking the plunge" because you can hook it up w/ the sync cord and shoot in TTL.

To shoot the 995 in TTL, you need 2 things:

1) A sync cord

2) A housing that leaves the flash sensor "exposed" to meter light coming back to the camera from the flash.

So the big question is does the Aquatica do #2? I know from my experience that when you block the flash sensor, you get bad exposures. Nikon put out a "special alert" about doing this with the Coolpix5000 because people were covering the sensor with their fingers.

You really can't go wrong with Ultralight arms. You can get a single arm set with a quick release mount (BA-IK) for about $150 which IMO is money well spent.

When you purchase your sync cord, make sure to buy one from/for Ikelite. The one that came with my strobe was for Nikonos to Sea and Sea.

HTH

James Wiseman

I mount the slave sensor in a ULCS triple clamp right on the top of the handle. I tighten that clamp down more than the one between arm segments. Most small adjustments only require moving the second segment. If I have to do a large strobe adjustment, then I do have to reposition the slave sensor. I'll take picture of the setup tonight and post it.

Mike

Thanks for the advice James.

I'm quite sure that the Aquatica housing does not leave the sensor exposed. If I am mistaken, then I would like to be corrected!

But, is it possible to have TTL flash operation with the YS-90DX and the setup I described above? I am quite confused on this whole TTL issue, probably due mainly to my "newbie" status!

I have the Aquatica A995 housing. Though at first I was very disappointed that there is no TTL, I have found this, in practice, to be a moot point. Most (if not all?) of the digital cameras today (except for the BIG guns) don’t offer true TTL. Exposure UW with TTL with most of these cameras is ballpark and not spot on. Most require some exposure compensation any ways. You will need a strobe (like the YS-90DX) that has multi manual settings for best control of exposure. I use a SB-105 (pilfered from my Nik V) and this works great. The controls on the housing are very easy to use, so making quick exposure adjustment UW is a snap. Like all UW photo equipment, it takes a little practice to get used to, but once you do, this combo works very well. The 45 deg. angle of the view screen, at first, took a little getting used to. Though Ike has alluded to it, it is no harder to see than through the Ike housing. In fact I found it easier to use than my friends Ike 990 housing. Since you look slightly down at the camera, it does not block your view. With the Ike housing, especially since it is much bigger than the Aquatica, I find it bothersome to have to place it in front of my face. If you loose your subject in the screen, you can’t simply look up; you have to move the housing down or to the side to re-find your subject. Since I have only been able to compare it to Ike’s 990 housing I can’t comment on how well his 995 controls work. On the Aquatica, all controls are matched in function to the cameras (buttons on the housing, where there are buttons on the camera). The only control I preferred on the Ike housing is the shutter release. It is a lever instead of a button and gives better feel and control. I’m not knocking Ike’s products, I’m just trying to put out info that might be of use.

Rooster,

Thanks for the great advice. To be honest, TTL was what was principally swaying me towards the Ikelite, but I really like the idea of having a more compact housing (that can also go deeper - who knows, maybe tech diving in the future!!). Apart from that, the Aquatica is a bit cheaper, so I might be persuaded to go for the Aquatica. Decisions, decisions!!!!

Any suggestions on where to purchase from. From what I have seen so far, B&H have the best prices around, and shipping to my part of the world is no problem.

But B&H do not carry Ultralight arms. Can anyone tell me where I can get these from online?

Rooster, which sync cord/arm setup do you use on the Aquatica?

Thanks all, great forum!!!

John

I get my Ultralight components from Helix (http://www.helixphoto.com). They also specialize in Aquatica stuff and sometimes can make you good deals on the Aquatica/TLC arms. From looking at their sire, it appears that a flip tray for the housing may be offered sometime soon. Call them to place an order. Don't know of anyplace that sells them off a website. The B&H price for the Aquatica housing is deifinintely attractive!

Mike

Hey, guyz!

..sorry to add something completly different . But I'd like to give some additional infos on the "moot point": TTL measuring with non-SLR digital cameras. I think it is not that important, if you do an artifical measuring in front of the houssing instead of behind the lense, as long as the engineers figured out how to compensate the different measuring. So I like to call it "TTL", even if it is not really through the lens. But it remains the common name for automatic exposure adjustment of the strobe in digital photgraphy.

OK, but what can I add? Only some experience with the Nikon Coolpix 990 in a non-transparent housing from UK-Germany. I think the results might be similar to an Aquatica solid housing, because both manufacturers obviously try to give enough light exposure to the sensor, so that you can do TTL. But what is more important is the proper support of a Nikonos socket, when dealing with different strobes. For example my strobe (Subtronic alpha pro) from a German manufacturer, is just slightly different with the socket's connector. Even though they use the Nikonos TTL protokoll but do not make use of an additional pin. I do not know how this is with the Ike or Sea&Sea strobes. But I recommend to seek precise advice from the housing manufacturer when you decide on a certain strobe, unless you do not want to connect it via fibreoptics. Which (in my opinion) is wasted effort, when you have the widespread Nikonos sockets and measuring opportunities of the camera. Also I have to admit that I was not able to do proper TTL from the beginning on. The strobe is really strong and I had to put the exposure compensation to -1.3 within the Nikon camera, before I got the right results with TTL shooting.

This does only work when I do wide angle. In Macro-mode I switch of the TTL at the strobe and shot with manual intensity. Usually 0.32 or 0.64 do very fine here, depending how close I put the strobe towards the object.

So,... TTL really does not solve everything underwater, but you should also not abandon that feature when deciding on the components of your rig.

.oOo. Andi .oOo.

Thanks Mike and Andi.

Sorry for my ignorance, but whats a flip tray?

John

Flip tray allows you to rotate the housing 90º to vertical w/o rotating the strobes. Now that I think about it, though, wouldn't that make the 45º LCD really hard to see?

Mike

If you decide to go with the Aquatica housing, this would be a good choice I purchased the housing from b&h photo, last month they have very good pricing and you can also get a good package deal with Technical lighting control arms, these are very good arms, I purchased their 4 X 8 X 8 arm set.

Hmm...I have to respectfully disagree. TTL "flash metering" on the Coolpix DOES work and it works well. If it didn't, I can assure you - Nikon's engineers wouldn't have put it there.

Anyone (especially a beginner) who says they would pick manual exposure control over TTL has been convinced to make an unnecessary compromise. Again, this is strictly in my opinion.

Why don't you buy a setup where you can get good exposures right away, using TTL - if you want to go to manual flash later, then you can still do that. But to start out at a distinct disadvantage just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

I would weigh the perceived ergonomics of the two housings against the other features that you are interested in and then decide if it's really worthwhile to give up on TTL.

fwiw, almost all of the shots on my page are shot in TTL:

www.reefpix.org

HTH

James

I don't think anyone said TTL on the CPs didn't work. What "I" tried to say is that TTL is not a magic thing that will give great exposure in all conditions. Most on this board will agree that some exposure compensation or adjustment is needed to get accurate exposure even when using TTL. Even your own tests show the wide exposure accuracy (or inaccuracy) of TTL, depending on the initial settings of the camera. I stand by my statement that not having TTL on the Aquatica A995 is not that big a deal. I bought this camera, and then the housing for my wife. She is camera illiterate, and she was able to take very nice pictures with this set up, right away, with out TTL. Here are some of the first pics I took with this housing. All with out TTL.

[Edited on 5-27-2002 by rooster]

Hi Rooster.

I hear you. People have been debating this very point for years and years. Probably since 1982 when the Nikonos V came out...maybe even earlier. I agree with you 100% that you can get good pictures without TTL. The shots you posted are excellent!

I'm an ocean engineer by trade so I'm sometimes interested in things that others wouldn't be. What I don't understand, as an engineer, is why Aquatic designed a housing without a window for the flash sensor. Has Blake ever explained this? It seems like a pretty important thing to leave off - so there must be a reason why. Aquatica has been making EXCELLENT housings for years, but this is their first digital housing. Perhaps they don't know that "TTL" on a digital isn't really ttl???? An extra port is needed for the sensor....

In any case, I see TTL as a "feature." Some people use certain features and some don't. That is a personal choice. However, with the A995 housing, this feature is not supported.

Cheers

James Wiseman