Nikon D300s, Choice of objective for UW-photo

Hi wetpixel-users,

I was recommended to join this forum by a friend so here we go.

I've been diving quite some around the globe but my photos have always been taken with a borrowed panasonic TZ-7 pocket camera. Having done some research on the subject I've considered upgrading, which would then be underwater-housing for my Nikon D300s, but that's quite costly...

I've fallen for ikelite-products since they seem to supply good gear for a reasonable price and some friends have recommended it.

My question to this forum is then:

From what I know - doing "serious" underwater photography requires minimum two objectives (but two is also adequate..) if you want to be able to shoot both macro and 'landscape'/bigger fish- images.

My goal is to shoot larger objects like Schools of fish and Larger animals (Whaleshark, Dolphins, Seals, Barracudas, Sharks, and the like, so simply skip the macro-objective and make do with the wideangle objective.

Is a 10-24 mm a good choice? Should it be the f2.8 or f3.5 version or does it matter little?

How good close-up pictures can you make with a 10-24 mm? Perhaps even links to examples

and finally: 1 or 2 flash'es?

Sincerely,

Majere

I use a Nikon D90 in an Ikelite housing, with the 10-24mm lens.

The Ikelite housing is OK. It's a bit bulky, and the controls are not perfectly placed, but, for the money, it is OK for me. The viewfinder is pretty rubbish though, makes it hard to see the whole image.

The 10-24mm lens is great. It is very wide, but it is not a fisheye. A lot of people also recommend the Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye zoom, but I have not used this yet.

I like the ability to zoom a little with the 10-24, sometimes helpful for big stuff that doesn't want to come too close. But, I almost always use it at the 10mm end.

I have not used any aperture smaller than F8 with it underwater yet, so the aperture available has been fine, F/2.8 would be nice for focusing, but I have had no problems yet.

As for strobes, if you are shooting really big stuff (whalesharks) you won't be able to light them with strobes, and a lot of shots might just be natural light.

To get even lighting on other stuff you require 2 strobes, but, it is a good idea to get used to using just one strobe first, as you can be very creative with just one strobe. I now always have 2 mounted, but I turn one off quite a lot. After all, if you don't know how to use 1 strobe correctly, how could use 2?

Hope that helps

Sean

Your subjects suggest a full fisheye, and the consensus (with which I happen to disagree, but that's another story...) is that the Tokina 10-17mm is the lens of choice for a cropped sensor. You will need a good dome, but have to decide between a full-size dome, which will work well for schooling fish and "over/under" split-level images, and a "micro-dome" which will allow you to shoot wide-angle macro images, is much easier to travel with, but may have slightly soft focus at the edges of the image. The D300s has good performance at higher-ISO, so the difference between f2.8 and f3.5 is much less important than it was on older cameras (ie the D200)where gathering every photon was vital.

D200, zoom:12mm, Anthis "micro"-dome

Tim

Hi wetpixel-users,

 

I was recommended to join this forum by a friend so here we go.

I've been diving quite some around the globe but my photos have always been taken with a borrowed panasonic TZ-7 pocket camera. Having done some research on the subject I've considered upgrading, which would then be underwater-housing for my Nikon D300s, but that's quite costly...

 

I've fallen for ikelite-products since they seem to supply good gear for a reasonable price and some friends have recommended it.

 

My question to this forum is then:

From what I know - doing "serious" underwater photography requires minimum two objectives (but two is also adequate..) if you want to be able to shoot both macro and 'landscape'/bigger fish- images.

My goal is to shoot larger objects like Schools of fish and Larger animals (Whaleshark, Dolphins, Seals, Barracudas, Sharks, and the like, so simply skip the macro-objective and make do with the wideangle objective.

 

Is a 10-24 mm a good choice? Should it be the f2.8 or f3.5 version or does it matter little?

How good close-up pictures can you make with a 10-24 mm? Perhaps even links to examples

and finally: 1 or 2 flashes?

 

Sincerely,

Majere

I recently started shooting a D300 with an Ikelite Housing. A DS-160 and DS-50 strobe. Spent a week in Bonaire 21 dives in 5 1/2 days. With that limited experience here's my suggestion:

Nikon VR 105 macro lens. It brings the small stuff really close without having to be really close.

The only wide angle lens I have is the Nikon 10-24. It's really nice to be a feet away from a subject and being able to fill the frame.

I probably going to purchase a 10.5.

I have some pics posted on www.flickr.com from Bonaire under my last name Flaris

Good Luck

Welcome to this forum. It has certainly helped my photography so its likely to help yours as well.

You will be hard pressed to use one strobe for wide angle work and get reasonable lighting so planning on 2 strobes would seem more reasonable.

I would suggest you spend time viewing the entries in Photo Gallery Showcase. Search for the various subjects of your interest in that forum using the SEARCH function in the upper right of the page. It should provide many more questions and answers for you. Some subjects allow close approach and a Tokina 10-17 works great. Some subjects do not get close enough so perhaps the 10-24 would work better. There is enough variation in subject, location, visibility, etc. that perhaps one answer does not fit all your needs but perhaps you can find enough answers to hone in on what fits most of your needs for starting out.

I love traveling with and using the smaller dome described by tdpriest above with the Tokina 10-17. I do not have a larger dome so I can only use the 10-17 for wide angle work. This limits some of my options but fits what where I am right now.

JimSwims has a nice entry using this setup for night close up work.

JImSwim entry

You asked for some links to photo's. I do not have photo's of most of the subjects of your interest but I do have a few examples of the 10-17 with small dome, some with a 1.4x extender, allowing more magnification with very close focusing ability, all with 2 strobes.

Cozumel with 10-17 and 1.4x in small dome

Cenote cavern diving with 10-17 and small dome

Also, I would suggest some searches in the Trip Report section of this site. There are many larger subject trip photos from reports with location and technique information. You are likely to find more information on these searches than will arrive in this thread. Your questions and goals are just larger than one thread so searching on your own will provide more questions than you have now.. and more answers as well.

Hope that is some help.

Dave

Very nice forum!

Thx for the useful comments . It helped me a lot on deciding.

10-24mm and I'll skip macro'ing for now as I'd hate to come upon a nice big whaleshark or something similar and only have my macro-objective with me. In due time I'll probably purchase one.

/Majere

You may be disapppointed: the 12-24mm was very difficult to use underwater, because it was poorly matched to the available dome ports, even those supposedly designed specifically for it!

The same problem may occur at the 10mm end of the new lens. You need specific advice from someone who has tested this lens in a dome port:

http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/nikon-10-24mm-lens-review

That article has some nice images, but doesn't look at the edges of the image, where the older lens is very disappointing.

I am worried that you want to photograph whatever comes along on the dive: that's the way to snapshots and not great images, which are created by forethought. It's also important to get close, and the 24mm end of the new lens is an encouragement to leave too much water between the camera and the wildlife...

Tim