Underwater and surf pics with Nikon D40x

Hi!

I'm completely new to all of this fancy camera lingo. You see, I'm trying to buy something for my husband for Christmas so he can take pictures while surfing and when we go snorkeling. Since we don't go snorkeling all that often, something to take good surf shots is my first goal. I've been looking online but it's really hard to tell what might work and what is total crap, especially when I'm not sure what a lot of it means! I'd like to spend less than $500. Does anyone have any suggestions? All suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Oh and he has a normal lens, a zoom lens that goes to 300x, and a fish eye lens... not sure if that all makes a difference!

ok, first off, there is a significant different between a surf housing and a dive housing, so make sure you're looking at surf specific housings. dive housings are designed to be sealed with pressure, meaning they're weakest on the surface.

check the surf photography forum near the bottom of the forums list and there's a pinned thread on surf housing manufacturers. not sure what you'll find for $500 though..... your only bet in that range is an EWA Marine plastic bag housing. There are good and bad things said about them, people do use them for surfing and i have once. Other people say they do flood easily. They run about $400 or so.

The lens does make a difference as housings have different ports for different lenses. Do you konw how close he would get to shoot surfing? if he wants to get right in the action, within a couple feet of the surfer, get a port for the fisheye lens. Also housings are sold separately from the port just for this reason, and surf housings alone usually start at around $1000. good luck.

Cheers,

Chris

Hi

I have a nikon n90 film housing i have been using as a housing for my nikon d40x camera for the last couple of years. It has a flat port for the 18-55mm standard lens and a 60mm lens. I preset the camera as you can only use the shutter release but i would imagine in surf photography you don't have alot of time to make alot of adjustments. I will send my setup sheet for diving but in surf photo you are much closer to surface so you would add more speed to the shot as my setup gets lots of depth of field. I would like $130 for the housing and $130 for the port plus shipping. I would send a paypal invoice to you. If you wanted to use with you wide angle lens which for surf would be the best combo, a brand new sea and sea port is about $500. I think a 10mm or 12 mm would be the best lens for surf photos as the closer you get the better. The sample shot of the manta which was about 14 feet was shot at 30 feet deep in komodo which has very green water so not alot of light penetration. The turtles shot also at komodo were in about 15 feet of of water. These were shot with my d40x camera and the housing and port and the camera set to 18mm. I was about 10 feet away from the turtles and mantas to get these shots.