Help for a Newbie with a Nikon CP 5000?

ok... here is the deal.

I recently purchased a Nikon CP5000, w/ the intention of getting a UW housing. I have extensive above water photography experience.

I have used rented Nikonos rigs, but nothing w/ strobes/ttl's, different lenses, etc.

I want to have a very verstile setup, but hopefully compact. i don't want a 7 foot octopus looking rig, they get unwieldly...

Can someone point me in the right direction on the basics of UW photography? maybe an online tutorial?

What is the best Housing for the CP5000, for the money? and if money was no object?

What accessories should i consider getting? battery packs? strobes? lens? etc...

I know this is a lot of questions, and appreciate any and all help.

[Edited on 6-13-2002 by section8]

For the money I would say hands down get the Ikelite housing. Though a little bigger than the other housings will be (if they ever get manufactured) it is still very compact for an UW housing. It does 2 vital things for an UW housing. One, it has buttons for all the controls. Very important when you are taking a computer UW. And 2 it has an optional wide angel dome for the 19mm lens. This is a great lens and perfect for UW use. I would not go down without it.

If money is no object I would look at the Subal housing. I've owned 2 Subal SLR housings and they are works of art.

What he said...

Not to mention that TTL works great w/ the Ikelite housing because it has a big clear front.

Make sure to get the 19mm lens, it's killer.

This page might help you a bit:

www.reefpix.org/iketest/

HTH

James

do u know if renting a housing/strobe in San Francisco or Maui is an option? i'd like to try before i buy.

I'd give a call to Backscatter, in Monterrey. They have a web site under that name.

Martysnyderman.com is a great site for learning uw photography. It is geared towards rangefinder film camera systems, but the fundamentals are the same with digital. I found the course very useful, and I shoot an underwater SLR.

Re: choice of housing

You picked a great camera to house, and you've got lots of options. If I were housing a CP5000, I'd give serious thought to the Tetra 5000 from Light and motion. I'm not crazy about slave type systems from Ike that don't hardwire the strobe to the housing. Should make for easier maintenance due to fewer orings and electrical connections, but I've found slaves very unreliable. Ikelite does allow you to hardwire this camera for TTL control, but so will the Tetra 5000. I think the advantages of the tetra will be 1)bulletproof aluminum housing, double oring seals, small size with full access to controls, and the ROC strobe lighting system - I have this system on my Titan housing and it is great. Basically it gives you fully manual 12 levels of control when hooked to any strobe. I don't know why noone thought of this sooner! No other mfr offers this level of strobe control in a housing.

The only potential downside I see to this housing may be the port, but you'll need to talk to Light and Motion to see whether they will support the 19mm lens. Also, the housing has not released yet, and they suspect late summer.

This housing/digicam system will be awesome. I must admit that when it announced to be in the works I hedged on puchasing my more expensive Titan housing.

Speaking of expense, this may be one of the more expensive CP5000 housings on the market. Aluminum is not cheap, nor are the r&d teams of housing mfrs.

The original tetra for the oly xoxo series cameras, expensive though it was, has been the workhorse of digital photography for the last few years. The housings have held up exceptionally well, and I've yet to spot one on ebay for under $900. They held their value because of their rugged materials. The same will be the case for the 5000.

Fortunately for you, the CP5000 will have more quailty custom housings available than any digicam I've seen. Look for durability and a reputation for customer support, full access to the camera, and TTL in addition to flexible manual control. Ikelite, Aquatica, and Light and Motion are the mfrs I'd look into most diligently.

Hi Kasey,

Maybe you missed the fact that you can hardwire a strobe to the Ikelite housing?

In fact, I hard-wire TWO of them to my housing. Here's a pic:

I can fire both of my strobes TTL controlled by the camera.

I'm certainly interested in the LMI housing. I talked to their reps at Seaspace this past weekend and apparently, their housing is almost ready for release. No dome port for the 19mm lens though.

Cheers

James Wiseman

I appreciate the davephdv testimonial but must take issue with his "Though a little bigger than the other housings" comment on our new Coolpix 5000 housing. I doubt if ANYONE will create a smaller useable housing. We do provide a dual handle assembly which increases size, but is really necessary for addition of strobes and arm systems............

ike

James - I realize that you can hardwire strobes with your housing, in fact I mentioned that above. I was just trying to convey that I don't consider the slave system a big advantage for the Ike system. Fortunately the CP 5000 handles TTL information very well, and it will probably work hardwired through any housing.

Kasey

Doh! Yeah, I see that you wrote that now Kasey. My bad.

Note to Ike: Perhaps you should sell your handle as an "optional item" then you could bill the housing as "only 5 inches wide and 4 inches tall!!!"

Seriously, the Subal housing will actually be BIGGER than the Ike housing and I think the Aquatica and LMI housings will be about the same size.

Cheers

James

Anyone Know an online store that sells spair O rings for the CP5000?

????

I don't think the camera has o-rings.

Cheers

James Wiseman

hmmm, good point the O rings for the Ike cp 5000 housing.

Cheers back at ya!

Not online, but it took my dealer less than a week to get a set of spare O rings for the housing and dome port from Ikelite